What Protection Spacing means
Protection Spacing is the amount of breathing room between one game's expected critical protection window and the next game's start. The goal is not to eliminate overlap. In many cases, a small amount of overlap is ideal because PLA can finish monitoring one game's highest-value late moments while beginning to initialize the next event.
Optimal next-game start gap = expected game duration − protection window.
For example, the current NFL planning profile is 190 minutes with a 15-minute protection window. That makes 175 minutes after kickoff the center of the ideal next-game start window.
Optimal Protection Spacing table
These values are planning estimates used before reliable live game state is available. They are not promises about how long a game will last.
| Sport | Expected duration | Protection window | Optimal next-game start gap | Example |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NFL | 190 min | 15 min | 175 min | 1:00 PM → about 3:55 PM |
| NCAAF | 200 min | 20 min | 180 min | 12:00 PM → about 3:00 PM |
| NBA | 135 min | 12 min | 123 min | 7:00 PM → about 9:03 PM |
| WNBA | 125 min | 12 min | 113 min | 7:00 PM → about 8:53 PM |
| NCAAB | 125 min | 12 min | 113 min | 6:00 PM → about 7:53 PM |
| MLB | 160 min | 20 min | 140 min | 4:10 PM → about 6:30 PM |
| NHL | 145 min | 12 min | 133 min | 7:00 PM → about 9:13 PM |
| Soccer | 110 min | 10 min | 100 min | 3:00 PM → about 4:40 PM |
| Tennis | 120 min planning baseline | 15 min | 105 min | 1:00 PM → about 2:45 PM |
How PLA rates the spacing
The ticket-level score also considers how many protection windows are expected to overlap at once. More simultaneous critical windows reduce the overall Protectability score because PLA may have several legs requiring attention at the same time.
Mixed-sport example
Sports do not need to match. PLA evaluates the transition from one event to the next using the current game's timing profile.
The sequence is therefore judged NFL → NBA first, then NBA → NHL. PLA does not apply the NFL duration to the basketball game and does not require a football game to be followed by another football game.
What changes once games are live
Scheduled duration is only the starting estimate. Once trustworthy live period, clock, inning, possession, score, or other game-state data is available, actual game context becomes more important than the planning estimate.
Live game state outranks predicted duration. If an NFL game is clearly moving faster or slower than the 190-minute baseline, PLA can shift its expected protection window rather than pretending the pregame estimate is still exact.
Protection Spacing is a timing and monitoring layer only. It does not modify Break Even, Loss Reduction, Guaranteed Profit, Target Profit, stake sizing, or any hedge qualification rule.
Use spacing as a planning signal, not a restriction.
Well-spaced games can create cleaner monitoring windows. Crowded tickets remain allowed and monitored; PLA simply tells the bettor when several important moments are likely to happen together.