Sportsbook Insiders: How the Market is Treating Home-Field Advantage in Chargers vs. Rams

For the third time since both the Chargers and Rams moved to Los Angeles, the two teams will face each other in a regular-season game on Sunday. The Rams beat the Chargers 35-23 in 2018, and then the Chargers got their revenge in 2023, winning 31-10.

Whenever these two teams face each other, just like when the Jets face the Giants every handful of years, it begs an interesting question: which team has home-field advantage? Do we simply treat the game as if it's played at a neutral site, or are there other factors we should consider when trying to handicap it?

To try to solve that problem, I decided to reach out to several market makers across some of the top sportsbooks in the country to get their opinions.

Ty Gour, a sports trader at Fanatics Sportsbook, explained how the Chargers' poor start to the season is going to lead to a strong home-field advantage for the Rams.

"If both teams were good, I think we would rate this as a neutral game, or a very slight leaning [towards this] Rams team at perhaps a one-point advantage, for example, but with how poor the Chargers have been and the Rams, this is the middle of their Super Bowl window, we have to assume that it's going to be a stronger Rams turnout than Chargers turnout. So, with that, we will be leaning more towards a Rams home game, but not as strong [as a typical] home-field advantage."

Other traders see this matchup a bit differently. Johnny Avello, Director of Race and Sports Operations for DraftKings Sportsbook, says they're treating this as a neutral-site game, with Los Angeles benefiting from both coming off a BYE and not having to travel.

"No home-field advantage for the Rams this weekend. The other L.A. team is coming off a BYE, gets to sleep in their own bed. With that said, the Chargers don't have many fans in general though at this point. Rams are a stronger home-field [team] against other opponents.......[they're] a two-point home-field advantage against others, but not in this spot."

Both traders make good points when evaluating home-field advantage in this game. The Chargers don't have to travel, but we can safely assume that, between having a better record and their season-ticket holders getting access to the game that the Rams will have the better crowd in attendance. With that being said, how much is that worth compared to a lack of travel? That's for us bettors to decide when we place our bets.

The Rams are currently set as 6.5-point favorites. You can find my best bet for this game in the Week 8 edition of the Road to 272 Bets.

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