NFL Week 1 officiating trends: Finding edges in Buccaneers-Vikings, 49ers-Steelers, Raiders-Broncos
SportsLine expert Larry Hartstein dives into the betting trends to know involving this week's referee assignments
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NFL bettors love to complain about officiating, even claiming some games are fixed. Truth is, refs are human and make mistakes. But they also have tendencies: Points of emphasis worth factoring into your handicapping. This season, Joe Gibbs (not the Hall of Fame coach, the NFL referee expert who tweets @NFLrefstats) is collaborating with SportsLine to provide weekly officiating angles. NFL referee assignments come out every Tuesday. That's when officiating gurus like Gibbs start analyzing who benefits.
Before you make any Week 1 NFL picks or NFL parlays, you need to see what Gibbs and SportsLine senior analyst Larry Hartstein have to say about trends involved with this week's officiating crews.
A former lead writer for Covers and The Linemakers, Hartstein combines a vast network of Vegas sources with an analytical approach he honed working for Pro Football Focus. Larry tied for 52nd place (out of 1,598 entries) in the 2022 Westgate Las Vegas SuperContest, going 53-34-3 ATS. Those selections formed the basis of his SportsLine NFL best bets, which finished 36-26-1 last season.
Now, Hartstein has enlisted the help of Gibbs to find three key games where the officiating is crucial to figuring out how to play each game.
We can tell you one edge Harstein and Gibbs have identified involves the Buccaneers-Vikings game, which will be officiated by Scott Novak. Home teams had an extreme trend against the spread last when Novak is officiating, that is indicative of his career as an NFL referee over a sample of 63 games.
Hartstein has also shared two other trends involving the 49ers-Steelers and Raiders-Broncos games. You need to see this key officiating data before locking in your picks!
So which side of Buccaneers-Vikings has the edge? And what other officiating edges can be found on the Week 1 slate? ... Join SportsLine right now to see Larry Hartstein's Week 1 NFL officiating trends, all from the expert who went 53-34-3 in the SuperContest last year!
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