American Football Handicap Betting
As well as the outrights, at BetVictor we also bring you a wide selection of American Football betting markets and odds for each of the matches in the NFL and NCAA, including bets to win, team to score first, the score at each quarter, and total number of touchdowns scored. You’ll also find odds on spread betting. Bet on the best odds in American Football betting. Enjoy bigger wins with SBOBET Asian Handicap, 1X2 and Over Under betting.
- American Football Handicap Betting Picks
- Soccer Handicap Betting
- American Football Handicap Betting Lines
- Betting Expert Football
- College Football Betting Lines
Every sport in the world is full of unique vernacular and terminology that can make it off putting to beginners. If you’ve ever sat down to watch a tennis match and looked on in awe as the score went from ‘love’ to 15, to 30, to 40 and then ‘deuce’ you’ll know exactly what we’re talking about.
Despite tennis’ many foibles it is still a lot easier to understand for beginners than American Football, even if you do struggle with the strange scoring system.
Getting into Football can feel less like picking up a new start and more like learning a new language which is even before you think about betting on it.
If you’re a brand-new fan of NFL and would like to place a bet on a game but don’t know the best way to do it you’re in the right place. Read on for our complete beginner’s guide to betting on American Football.
Where can I bet?
In most American states, you can bet on sports in person but it’s not the same when it comes to online betting. Unfortunately, not every state in the US allows online betting, although there has been a recent shift, with the legalisation of betting websites in the USA across 12 states with more than 80 sportsbooks accepting wagers.
Once you’ve done that, you’ll want to look up the best sports betting sites in your region, which you can do by Googling a sports betting aggregator site. These websites usually list the best sports betting websites in your area based on customer reviews, so you can be fairly sure that a highly rated provider is a good choice.
What can I bet on?
American Football Handicap Betting Picks
Most sports betting websites here in the US allow their customers to bet on a wide variety of outcomes or incidents in a Football game. However, the three most popular types of bets are:
- Match Betting
- Point Spread
- Total Points
The first is relatively simple, you will bet on the outcome of the game by selecting who you think will win. The confusing part though is that you can’t bet on a draw, an outcome which is possible in almost every Football game.
When American bookmaker’s price a Football game they take a draw out of the equation and factor that into their match betting odds, which we’ll cover in detail later on.
Soccer Handicap Betting
The second type of bet is what is sometimes referred to as handicap betting. Imagine for example your high school team were taking on the Green Bay Packers, there would almost be no point in betting, right? Everyone would know that the Packers would stroll to victory.
To make these kinds of one-sided affairs a little bit more interesting, bookmakers provide a handicap to the underdog. In the example given your high-school team might be given a handicap of 50.5 points, meaning if you back them and they lost 50-0 you’d still win your bet.
The handicaps are always given as .5 as well to avoid a situation where a draw on the handicap could happen.
Finally, the last bet is the simplest of all, simply being a bet on how many points in total will be scored in the game from both sides combined. This betting again comes in the form of .5’s to ensure a winner.
Whilst total points may be the simplest of bets to understand, they are notoriously tricky to predict. So, if you’re betting on total points, make sure you’ve done your research before putting up your money.
Understanding Odds
Depending on how familiar you are with betting or where you’re from, Football odds may be tricky to get your head around. Outside of the US and in some other sports bookmakers like to use fractional odds.
For example, a favourite might be placed at 2/1 to win which would mean for every $2 you placed you would return $1 in winnings. Football odds don’t tend to be represented in this way, instead they are represented with negative and positives
The negative number is how much you would need to bet to win $100 and the positive number is how much you would win if you bet $100. A standard type of bet on an NFL game would be -110, meaning you’d have to bet $110 to win $100.
Very rarely you will find a bookmaker who doesn’t operate in fractional odds or American odds but in decimal odds. These are perhaps the easiest to understand though, with a bet that would triple your winnings being represented as 3.0 etc.
Other Things to Look Out For
Now that you understand how odds work and what the most popular types of bets are in NFL it’s time to cover a couple of extra bets and bits of terminology that could catch you out.
What’s a Futures Bet?
Most bookmakers offer odds on what are known as ‘futures’, which are essentially outright bets on future events. Examples could be betting on the Green Bay Packers to win the regular season and lose in the playoffs, or it could be betting outright that Patrick Mahomes will win the MVP.
What is Parlay?
Here in America we have a penchant for using complicated words to describe something relatively simple and a parlay bet is no different. Essentially this is an accumulator bet, in which you bet on multiple outcomes.
For example, you could bet on the outcome of every NFL game over the weekend and you would only win if all of your predictions came in. These bets can be hugely rewarding but are notoriously difficult to win as one twist of fate can send the entire bet tumbling to the ground.
Now you know all you need to know about betting on American Football, do your research on the form guides and make yourself some money with an outright, parlay or futures.
NFL betting is becoming increasingly popular outside of the United States. With even more regular season games planned on UK soil and talk of a London franchise, the popularity of NFL betting will only continue to rise over the next few years. Read on for a comprehensive guide to NFL betting.
The NFL has consistently built on its International Series over the past few years and this season, the UK will host a minimum of three overseas games. Whilst games in UK only make up a fraction of the regular season fixtures, football fans can still watch the NFL all year round, so with more and more fans watching, this is the perfect time to learn about NFL betting.
NFL betting: Available markets
There are three basic bet types in NFL betting; Money Line, Handicap and Totals - the same as basketball betting.
Money Line
The Money Line (1X2 without the draw) is also commonly used amongst novice bettors because it is simple and straightforward - it is essentially betting on who will win the game.
Handicap
Opposing NFL teams vary in strength so in order to counter the perceived bias in abilities, bookmakers offer a points handicap to level the playing field - this is often referred to as “the spread”.
Experienced bettors will most likely think about things like how the weather can impact the result or whether a team is playing at home or on the road.
The handicap market is popular with more advanced bettors as it balances each team’s chances and offers more value - it is used as the standard reference point for referring to relative chances in a game.
By using a hypothetical example, we can explain how betting on a handicap works. Both teams are offered associated odds on either a plus or minus points score, so for example the Indianapolis Colts might be offered at -6 1.909 against the New York Giants at +6 2.020.
A bet on Indianapolis would win if the Colts win by six or more points, and similarly a bet on the Giants would have paid if they win the game, or lose by less than six points.
If the result was 29-17 to the Colts, those bettors who bet on the Colts to win -6 1.909 would have a winning bet as the point difference is 12. Six more than the handicap offered.
Totals
Totals NFL betting focuses on how many combined points will be scored by both teams during the game. Bookmakers offer an option to bet on whether or not the total points will be either over or under the totals mark. This is why this form of betting is often referred to as the Over/Under.
In both the handicap and totals markets, when a team exceeds the required points for a successful bet it is called ‘covering the bet’.
Alternative NFL betting markets
In addition to the more common betting markets, NFL bettors can also bet on time specific markets within a game (first quarter, first and second half), adjusted handicap markets (alternative handicap) and individual team totals. These markets are merely variations of the basic bet types mentioned above and work in the same way.
Outright NFL betting is also an option for bettors. These bets will usually run over a longer period of time and often span across an entire season. Examples of outright markets in NFL betting include season win totals for individual teams, Division winners, winner of the Super Bowl and the Super Bowl MVP (most valuable player).
Because the Super Bowl is such a big occasion in terms of NFL betting, there are often special markets posted for the event - these include scorer of the first touchdown and winner of the Super Bowl coin toss.
Developing an NFL betting strategy
Once you have mastered the basics of NFL betting, you may want to explore some more advanced strategies like a spread betting strategy. Bettors looking to bet on the NFL handicap must take into consideration a number of factors about the game, instead of just the chances of team X beating team Y.
American Football Handicap Betting Lines
By understanding what the key numbers are, you can avoid betting on a bad handicap and can even work out which team the bookmaker wants you to bet on.
The spread in NFL betting refers to how many points X is better than Y and an experienced bettor will most likely think about things like how the weather can impact the result - as this could effect the number of points scored - or whether a team is playing at home or on the road (away).
Betting Expert Football
Professional NFL bettors spend time building power ranking systems to evaluate teams’ relative strengths and calculate who will have the advantage in any given game. This is then measured against the handicaps and odds offered by bookmakers – looking for discrepancies that represent value.
Collating reliable information is an integral part of any successful betting strategy. However, for those bettors new to NFL betting, there are some accessible handicapping systems that can produce accurate results in the short term.
Yardage differential
At the most basic level, the NFL is about the battle between offensive and defensive units. So one simple way to evaluate the strength of an NFL team is to look at the average offensive yards gained per play and the average defensive yards allowed per play.
As you would expect, teams that gain more yards than they allow tend to win. While this isn’t exclusively accurate, this measure can be used as a tool to predict future performances using a yards per play betting strategy.
Home-field advantage
NFL operates in a unique ‘closed’ league system, where relegation and promotion do not occur. From a statistical point of view, the data from successive seasons for such factors as home-field advantage (HFA) is robust.
To work out HFA for each franchise competing in the NFL you should subtract the total points scored by visiting teams from the home teams and divide by the total number of games played.
You will notice after working out the HFA for the past 20 years, each Franchise HFA is close to a 3-point mark, which has become standard for handicapping purposes - find out which NFL teams have the biggest home field advantage.
Key NFL betting numbers
In terms of the handicap in NFL betting, there are a few key numbers that bettors should be aware of. By understanding what the key numbers are, you can avoid betting on a bad handicap and can even work out which team the bookmaker wants you to bet on.
College Football Betting Lines
Similarly to the Run Line in baseball betting, most games in the NFL are decided by specific margins. The is the most common margin of victory in the NFL as most games are decided late on by a field goal (three points), while seven is the second most common winning margin, as this is how many points a team is awarded for a touchdown plus an extra point for a successful conversion.
It is estimated that around 30% of NFL games are decided by three or seven points. This means that -2.5, +3.5, -6.5 and +7.5 are perhaps the most important numbers when it comes to betting on the handicap in the NFL. Sharp bettors will often wait for the handicap figure to fall around this mark before placing the bet they want to make.