The Impact that Travel Across Multiple Time Zones has on Win Rate in the NBA and the Relationship to Point Spreads in Sports Betting

Abstract

This study analyzes the impact that traveling across multiple time zones has on the Win Rate of teams in the NBA. In order to properly examine this, the paper researches prior research done on circadian rhythms, sleep, muscle recovery, and the impact of jet lag from travel. When win rate data was testing against games played crossing 1, 2, and 3 time zones for each team, the data showed that teams performed the worst when traveling 2 time zones with a win rate of just over 41%. The surprising piece of data that arose was that teams performed the best when traveling 3 time zones away at over 53% which is an incredible difference from the 41% when traveling across another time zone. The impact of time zones on point spreads was much more linear as the study shows each individual team’s ability to cover spreads and when they traveled 2 or 3 time zones there was a dramatic increase in variation between teams and the odds makers had much more trouble with maintaining teams around the 50% cover rate.