Bet on the champion’s rival
March 14, 2018
Analysis of decades of data from college basketball and the major sports leagues (MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL) reveal that a team is more likely to have better playoff success if its archrival did better in the playoffs in the previous year — and especially if it won the championship. This was the case even when controlling for how the team and its rival performed in other years and, in the case of college basketball, the team’s seed going into the NCAA tournament.
Read the whole story (subscription may be required): The Boston Globe
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