NFL half markets
Half markets split an NFL game in two and price each part separately — a moneyline, a handicap and a total for the first half and the second.
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Season form tables
NFL half markets — first half, second half, and why they differ
The first-half market settles at half-time on the points scored in the first two quarters. The second-half market covers everything after the break — and, importantly, includes overtime at every major book, which is how we grade it here. Getting that wrong misprices any game that goes past regulation.
Halves are far more evenly matched than quarters. Across our sample the two halves split the game’s points almost exactly down the middle, which makes the naive "full total divided by two" benchmark a much better approximation for halves than the equivalent is for quarters. The edge in half markets comes from team tendencies rather than structural scoring bias.
First-half markets are also the most liquid of the period markets, which is why they are the ones we pull live odds for. When the weekly fetch has run, the current first-half line, total and moneyline appear beside each team’s half-by-half form.
Frequently asked questions
Does the NFL second-half market include overtime?
Yes. At every major bookmaker the second-half market settles on all points scored after half-time, overtime included. Our second-half figures are graded the same way.
Is the first half or second half higher scoring in the NFL?
They are close to even across a full season, unlike quarters, which are strongly skewed towards the second and fourth. Differences between halves tend to be team-specific rather than league-wide.
Where do the first-half odds come from?
The Odds API, pulled weekly alongside the player props. Only first-half markets are fetched by default — quarters would cost roughly four times as many credits for a thinner market.
Do betting trends actually beat their own baseline?
| Code | Predictions graded | Trend hit rate | Matched baseline | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NRL | 8,251 | 55.3% | 57.5% | -2.1 |
| AFL | 18,291 | 53.6% | 56.6% | -2.9 |
| NFL | 17,168 | 56.5% | 59.6% | -3 |
The answer measured here is no. Across all four codes, situational trends hit at or below the rate the same teams were already achieving over the same matches, so the apparent edge is the baseline, not a finding. The comparison is against each team's own rate — never 50%, never the league average — because a trend that fires mostly on good teams will look predictive against any other yardstick.