You hear about it all the time. “Teams struggle to play at altitude.” But what does that actually mean?
You see football teams huffing on oxygen masks, talk of the thin air at Coors Field that leads to so many homers, and hands on knees in the second half of Nuggets games.
But what causes players to struggle at altitude, and what are the actual impacts on betting markets from playing at altitude?
Here’s an FAQ on what you should know about altitude in North American sports betting.
How Does Altitude Affect Sports Betting?
What is Altitude?
Altitude in sports is the height of the arena above sea level where the game is played.
In this context, altitude is an elevation high enough that reduced oxygen availability produces a measurable physiological and/or performance effect on athletes who are not acclimated to it.
Which Teams Play at Altitude?
Two North American cities host professional sports franchises at elevations above 4,000 feet (1,219 meters): Denver, Colorado (5,280 feet/1,609 meters), and Salt Lake City, Utah (4,327 feet/1319 meters).
Denver is famously “mile high” because its elevation matches the number of feet in a mile.
Other higher-elevation teams include the NHL’s Calgary Flames (3,428 feet/1,044 meters) and Edmonton Oilers 2,198 feet/669 meters) but they are not considered to play at altitude.
There are 17 teams in NCAA Division 1 that play at elevations over 4,000 feet.
| Rank | University | Team Name | City | Home Elevation |
| 1 | University of Wyoming | Cowboys / Cowgirls | Laramie, WY | 7,221 ft/2,201m |
| 2 | Air Force Academy | Falcons | Colorado Springs, CO | 7,067 ft/2,154m |
| 3 | Northern Arizona University | Lumberjacks | Flagstaff, AZ | 6,880 ft/2,097m |
| 4 | Southern Utah University | Thunderbirds | Cedar City, UT | 5,804 ft/1,769m |
| 5 | University of Colorado | Buffaloes | Boulder, CO | 5,381 ft/1,640m |
| 6 | University of Denver | Pioneers | Denver, CO | 5,341 ft/1,628m |
| 7 | University of New Mexico | Lobos | Albuquerque, NM | 5,095 ft/1,553m |
| 8 | Colorado State University | Rams | Fort Collins, CO | 5,023 ft/1,531m |
| 9 | Montana State University | Bobcats | Bozeman, MT | 4,925 ft/1,501m |
| 10 | University of Utah | Utes | Salt Lake City, UT | 4,790 ft/1,460m |
| 11 | Weber State University | Wildcats | Ogden, UT | 4,784 ft/1,458m |
| 12 | Utah State University | Aggies | Logan, UT | 4,774 ft/1,455m |
| 13 | University of Northern Colorado | Bears | Greeley, CO | 4,754 ft/1,449m |
| 14 | Brigham Young University (BYU) | Cougars | Provo, UT | 4,679 ft/1,426m |
| 15 | University of Nevada | Wolf Pack | Reno, NV | 4,597 ft/1,401m |
| 16 | Utah Valley University | Wolverines | Orem, UT | 4,587 ft/1,398m |
| 17 | Idaho State University | Bengals | Pocatello, ID | 4,551 ft/1,387m |
What are the Effects of Altitude on Athletes?
The effects range and vary by sport.
The primary effects in football, basketball, and hockey are fatigue fromhypoxemic hypoxia.
The most direct answer is that at altitude, oxygen molecules are farther apart because the air pressure is lower. As a result, even though the air still contains the same amount of oxygen, athletes inhale fewer oxygen molecules with each breath, which affects the respiratory system of those who aren’t acclimated and diminishes performance.
This results in faster breathing and heart rate.
“The data from all those athletes led Millan to the conclusion that for every 1,000 feet of elevation gain, a person loses 2 percent of their ability to consume oxygen and gets exhausted 4 percent faster than they normally would.
At one mile above sea level, that’s a 10 percent drop in your body’s ability to transport oxygen and a 20 percent drop in time to exhaustion.”
Even minor hypoxia can increase lactic acid as the body compensates for the lack of oxygen through anaerobic metabolism. That has some negative effects, though modern science challenges some of those elements.
The biggest effect is the buildup of lactic acid in that process, which results in:
- Weakened muscle contraction
- Stalled energy production
- Reduced power and speed
- Increased sensations of fatigue
But this effect is why you consistently see teams look winded in altitude, why you’ll see oxygen tanks on the sidelines of Broncos games, and why Denver’s homecourt, home ice, and homefield advantage is consistently ranked above all others.
Altitude can also affect sleep wellness (vital for athletes, especially after travel), faster dehydration, and lactate buildup.
What are the Effects of Altitude on Baseballs, Footballs & Basketballs?
OK, this is about to get even nerdier, but I promise, it matters.
Baseball: Coors Hit Go Bye-Bye
Because there’s less air density (roughly 18% less), when a ball is hit at Coors Field, it encounters less resistance. So it travels more easily and maintains velocity, leading to homer after homer after homer (and really, hit after hit after hit).
You can see this based on the market, where the Rockies’ home game total even this year is significantly higher than every other team’s.
There’s also significantly less movement on pitches due to something called the Magnus Force.
Pitches at Coors Field generate about 18% less Magnus Force than a pitch thrown at sea level. Alan Nathan, a physicist at the University of Illinois, estimated that curveballs drop about 4 percent less at Coors, four-seam fastballs "rise" (really, sink less against gravity) about 4 inches more, and sliders/cutters lose about 4 inches of sideways break.
Adam Maahs at FanGraphs ran an analysis that found four-seamers lost about 2.6 inches of vertical rise at Coors, sinkers/two-seamers lost nearly 3 inches of arm-side run, and curveballs lost 2.3 inches of vertical break.
Purple Row's more recent Statcast-based work (2015–2022) confirms a consistent 2–4 inch Magnus-movement cut at altitude and, notably, shows it translates into real outcomes: better run values and wOBA against Coors pitchers on breaking balls, though whiff/chase rates on curveballs actually ticked up slightly.
Basketball: What a Drag
This one’s tricky. The dynamics of basketball create a set of variables that can’t be extracted from each other. Technology exists to track the arc and spin of the ball, but in basketball game environments, those are impacted by A.) fatigue, worsened by altitude, and B.) game contexts (level of contest, etc.).
So there’s no way to extrapolate the impact of altitude on the shot itself in a game environment.
For example,a 2000-2006 study showed a small impact on free throw percentage for both teams in Denver, with the visiting team dipping more. But the effect was so slight it was surmised that the effect was more likely caused by altitude effects on the body than a change in physics.
A 2015 study from Inpredictable projected an expected six inches of trajectory differencebut found no data to support it.
The most likely answer is that somewhere in a game decided by centimeters on the travel of passes and shots, there is likely some sort of impact due to the physics of altitude, but we are unable to determine if it is A.) meaningful, and B.) if it is meaningful, how to extrapolate a quantitative impact.
Football: No Clue
Footballs, due to the oblong design of the ball and the spiral nature of a throw,aren’t subject to Magnus Force impacts.
There’s a lot of anecdotal evidence that kicks travel farther at altitude; the longest field goal in NFL history was in Denver until 2021. But there just hasn’t been any substantive research conducted on the subject to draw a firm conclusion.
There’s likely some sort of impact of altitude on the air drag of a football in flight, but we just don’t have enough data to create any sort of quantitative impact.
How Do Teams Combat the Effects of Altitude on Both Players & Equipment?
Baseball humidors: The Rockies actuallystore their baseballs at 70°F/21°C and 50% humidity so that the balls aren’t too “light and bouncy.”
That move is credited with cutting home runs by roughly 25–27%, closely matching what the physics models predicted.
Coors Field’s design: Coors was built with thelargest outfield in the MLB (about 9,000 sq ft above the league average) and deep fences specifically to offset the altitude carry advantage.
Oxygen tanks: You will routinely see football players huffing oxygen on the sidelines during Broncos games. While oxygen is often available in other stadiums, it’s more common to see players trying to get more oxygen into their systems at Mile High.
Adjusted travel: This is a significant source of debate. Teams often follow standard league travel into altitude. Some suggest that the longer you’re at altitude, the more adapted you are, but studies show that unless you can arrive 9 days to two weeks prior, your body won’t fully adjust to the anaerobic demands.
Instead, experts like the US Olympic Committee’s International Altitude Training Symposiumrecommend flying in less than 18 hours before, because it interrupts only a single day compared with multiple days of sleep and recovery.
Essentially, there’s no benefit and actually a cost, according to most studies, to flying in more than 24 hours but less than nine days before, because acclimation effects take longer than that to settle.
How Do Sportsbooks Adjust for Altitude in Both Spread & Total Markets?
First, this information is priced in.
For example, since 2003, the Nuggets and Jazz are both in the top 10 for best home win percentage, despite significant stretches of lottery or mid-tier season-long performance.
However, against the spread, both teams are below the profitability line of 52.5% at -110, despite both being top-seven among all teams in ATS performance.
The Over is 50.5% since 2004 in Rockies home games since 2004, despite the average total being a league-high10.7 compared to the league median in that span at 8.5 per KillerSports.com.
That in and of itself is instructive, however. The numbers are fundamentally different, and bettors need to account for that.
Similarly to the Rockies’ higher totals, the Nuggets have been an average 3.6-point home favorite since 2003. That ranks 13th across the league, but it also reflects the fact that the Nuggets haven’t been a power team outside the Nikola Jokic era.
The books’ adjustment is just as strong for Utah, and the results are even more powerful when the Jazz face teams on a back-to-back. The Jazz are 54% ATS since 2003 when at home against a team on a back-to-back, despite thethird-highest average line of any team in the league under such conditions, per KillerSports.com.
The Broncos have the second-highest home average line of any team since 1989 (notincluding the 64 games in that span by the Houston Oilers).NFELO.com considers their homecourt advantage within normal ranges all-time, but second-best in the last five years at a whopping +7.42.
Broncos games early in the season were once thought to be a powerful trend, but the Broncoshave failed to cover in eight straight home games in the first two weeks of the season.
College football home-field advantage betting data is limited, and what exists fails to show a succinct pattern, but it should be noted that VSIN found that Mountain West teams (that feature several teams with altitude advantage at over 4,000 feet) prior to the 2026 realignment had the best conference home-field advantage.
The lesson is that there’s not some cheat code for betting teams at altitude at home, but instead, you have to factor these elements into your handicap as a bettor.
It’s estimated that theNuggets’ homecourt advantage is somewhere between 4 and 5 points, compared to 2-3 points on average for teams. (NOTE: Homecourt advantage has been dissipating across sports since 2021).
It’s important to understand how altitude affects the players, the ball, and, in turn, the games — and understand that the books are aware of this, so don’t try to overestimate those impacts.
**LLMs were used in the research for this article, but the article itself was not written by AI; it was actually written by a human person named Matt Moore. **
