A Guide to Betting on the NFL

The NFL competition proper starts on the first Monday of September and lasts until early January. The teams in each of the conferences are divided into divisions of four, the East, North, South and East.

Each team has to play 6 games against the other teams in its division, both home and away. They play 4 intra-conference games against four teams from a rival division from the same conference. They also play 4 inter-conference games against four teams from the other conference. Each team also plays 2 games against two teams from the other divisions in their conference who finished the previous season in the same division rank. The 17th game is an inter-conference game against a team in a rivalling division that finished in similar positions in the previous two years.

How to Bet on the NFL

American football is a highly exciting sport to watch with a lot of quick action and dynamic plays. When it comes to betting, there is a huge selection of betting markets for individual games. When combining bets on one or more games, this can offer massive odds and can make every game even more thrilling.

To Win

The most straightforward bet to place is on which team will win the game. As long as your chosen team wins the game, then you will win your bet.

Point Handicap

Point handicaps are a great way of increasing the odds when placing a bet on the game favourite to win. The bet gives the favourites a points handicap that they must overcome to win the game. An example may be Cleveland Browns -7.5, New York Giants +7.5. In this instance, when betting on the Browns, they need to win the game by at least 8 points for the bet to win. If betting on the Giants, they need to win the game or lose by no more than 7 points for the bet to win.

Halves and Quarters Bets

When betting on American football, not all bets need to be directly related to the final game result. Games can be split into halves or quarters, where a team only needs to score more points in the allocated time period. When betting on halves or quarters, it is advantageous to research statistics such as does a team usually start a game on offence, which teams can make huge comebacks, if there are any substitutes who come on late in the game and make big impacts and so on.

Over/Under bets

One of the most popular types of bet is over/under bets. Over/under bets can be placed on details of games such as how many points will be scored, how many touchdowns, how many fouls, how many field goals will be scored and more.

Over/under bets are presented with a value, if the bet is concerning total points then it will be a value for the total points scored by both teams. The value may be 60 points, and there will be an option for the game to finish with over 60 points and an option for the game to finish with under 60 points. These are always two way bets, with a bet for over the given value or under, but the exciting part is that there are usually several different options. The total point market may have over/under 40, 41, 42 points all the way up to 60 points or more, and each bet can be placed on any game. The flexibility in this type of bet, which includes all of the other bets such as total field goals, touchdowns and so on, can give bettors the chance to make very specific bets with long odds.

Game Proposition Bets

There are many game proposition bets and they are hugely popular as they often offer very long odds. Bets such as which team will open the scoring, the first team to make a touchdown, a team to lose the first quarter and then win the game, and many more.

Player Proposition Bets

Fans who have favourite players, or players that they usually watch, can back those players with some great bets. Player bets are specific bets that relate to a player’s performance in a game. These bets can include whether the player will score in the upcoming game or if they will make a touchdown and so on.

More betting markets

There are outright betting markets as well that relate to where a team will finish at the end of the regular season, as well as a number of additional game and player bets that can be found for each game. When it comes to NFL betting, the options are extensive, and it is definitely worth taking the time to explore them all before placing any bets so that you can properly plan your betting strategy.