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Football is on top of the list of America’s most favorite sports. Since the 1970’s America started to fall in love more with football than baseball and the trend has continued until now. As American Football continues to endear itself to the sporting public, betting on the NFL has also grown in market and NFL bets are some of the most popular bets on sports betting sites.
NFL betting can be both fun and lucrative, especially if you put some work in you wagers. In this article, we’ll discuss the basics of NFL betting and help you with your football bets.
Let’s take a look at the type of bets that you can make in an NFL game:
Moneyline Bets
A Moneyline Bet is one which let’s a bettor pick the winner of a particular NFL game. Like most sports bets, this is the easiest to make because all you have to do is choose between two teams and pick your winner. Under this bet, the teams come at different prices. In a moneyline bet, there is a favorite and underdog. The favorite is perceived to be the better team hence they usually come at a premium or “at a minus” in order to even the playing field. The underdog is the team that is perceived to be the weaker one, hence, they come at a bonus or “plus money”
For example, a sample moneyline would read: Patriots -160, Eagles + 140. In this example, the Patriots are the favorites while the Eagles are the underdogs. This means that if you want to bet on the Patriots, you will have to fork out $160 to win $100. On the other hand, if you bet on the Eagles, your $100 will win $140 if Philadelphia wins the game.
Spread Betting
The Point Spread or Spread Bet is similar as the moneyline bet because you are asked to pick the winner of a particular NFL game. However, under the spread bet, the favorite and underdog are put on equal footing by setting a number of points as the spread. This means that a favorite is deducted a certain number of points and the underdog added the same number of points to even the playing field. The prices for the teams may or may not be the same.
An example here would be: Patriots +3 (-115) and Eagles -3 (-105). This means that the Patriots need to win by more than three points during the actual game for your bet on them to win too. If for instance, the Pats beat the Eagles by four points, yous $115 bet wins $100. On the other hand, the the Patriots win by less than three points or would end up losing the game, a $105 bet on the Eagles would win $100.
Totals Betting
A Totals Bet means that you are betting on the total combined score of the two teams playing a particular game. Under this bet, the betting site comes up with a point total for a certain game and the bettor must bet on whether the total score of the teams after the end of the game would be over or under the designated total.
For example, if the total set is something like this: Over 20 -110, Under 20 -110, the teams must score at least a combined 21 points for a $110 bet on the Over to win $100. On the other hand, the teams must score 19 or fewer points for a $110 bet on the Under to win $100.
What Is A Push?
A Push happens when spread and total bets don’t yield a winner or loser. For the examples above, if the Patriots win by three points, then the adjusted scores would be even. The same with the sample total bet. If the teams combine to score 20 during the game, there is neither a winner nor a loser. In this case, bets are returned.
The Push is possible if the spread or total is a whole number. But in many instances, the spread and totals have a .5 at the end to prevent a push. Regardless, it’s always wise to place your bets at trusted betting sites like Bovada, Betonline and Sportsbetting so that if a push happens, you’re guaranteed of getting your money back ASAP. You’re going to need it to make your next bet, right?
Other Bets
The moneyline, spread and totals are the football bets that can be made for a particular NFL game. However, there are also bets that can be made for future football events. These can either be outright bets on who wins the Super Bowl, who wins the NFC or AFC, who wins the MVP and the likes. Then there are also countless prop bets that pop out in the weeks leading to the Super Bowl. These bets range from the amount of time the national anthem is sung, who wins the coin toss, what song of the artist is sung first during the halftime show, which player scores the first touchdown and so on.
The outright bets for the season can be found at the futures section of the betting sites and these are already available before the season begins. On the other hand, the Super Bowl prop bets usually come out a week or two before the Super Bowl game.
Factors To Consider
While favorites may be the better team in football, we see teams pull off upsets every now and then. So while it’s safe to bet on favorites, here are a few factors to consider:
Current Form-Like in any sport, a team can go into a winning or losing streak.So before picking a team, check the team’s last 10 games and see whether it has been winning or losing.
Injuries-Injuries to key players or players in key positions can affect the outcome of a game. It is a disadvantage to the player’s team while it may become an advantage to the opposing team. Check the injury list and know if the players on the list could affect the outcome of the game.
Betting trends– The trends tell you how a team has been winning as of late, and by how many points they have been winning or losing at home or on the road. They also tell how the scores of a team’s previous games have gone. This is a good tool in making spread and total bets.
Matchup history- There are some teams which play better against a particular opponent or play better at a particular venue-whether at home or on the road. These are also factors to consider, especially if the trends are strong.
