A Guide to Betting on the Super Bowl

The NFL is split into two historical conferences, the National Football League, or NFL, and the American Football Federation, or AFC. These two conferences used to be two separate leagues that were played independently. In 1970, the two organisations merged to become the modern NFL, although the teams have stayed in their historical league, which now have become the two conferences.

Teams from either league have several inter-conference games during a season, but otherwise they do not play each other. Once the regular season is finished, the top four teams in the conference standings can continue to the playoffs. The teams that finished 5th to 7th place play in the wildcard qualification rounds.

The playoffs are split between NFL and AFC, with the teams facing the other teams in their conference. The semi-final games are known as the NFL and AFC Championships. Once the two teams win the NFL and AFC Championships, they face each other in the Super Bowl, which is the inter-conference final that determines the NFL Champions.

The finals have been hosted by many venues over the years, and attract a number of celebrities and huge names in the entertainment industry. Each event has extensive pregame ceremonies and half time shows that attract huge names such as Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, the Who, Prince, Bruce Springsteen and many more.

How to Bet on the Super Bowl

NFL fans wait each year in the hope that this year their team can win the legendary championship, and they can start making bets ahead of time as well. In addition to this, there are a lot of bets that can be placed on the game to make it even more thrilling to watch.

Outrights

Before the season starts, bettors can bet on which team will win the next Super Bowl. These bets are known as outrights, and odds for each team will be given in advance, calculated from their performance from the previous season and their history in the event. These bets can be placed before or any time during the season, though the betting odds may be higher before the season starts, so they are always worth checking.

Point Handicap

Once the game is days away, all the other betting markets will be available. A popular choice of bet is the point handicap. It is called this as it gives the favourite time a handicap in terms of points that they must overcome. For example, if the Los Angeles Rams were playing the Cincinnati Bengals and the Rams were favourites to win, they may be given a 2.5 point handicap. This would be shown as Rams -2.5, Bengals +2.5.

If you were then to bet on the Rams, then you would need them to win by at least 3 points to win the bet. If you bet on the Bengals, you would need them to win the game or lose by no more than 2 points to win the bet. The advantage of this market is that it results in shorter odds on the underdog and longer odds on the favourite.

Halves and Quarters Bets

Games can be broken down into halves or quarters. Betting on a team to win a half or specific quarter means that they will need to win more points during that allocated period of time. It is an interesting bet because it can be used in many different scenarios. For example a team that is behind by many points going into the last quarter may win more points in that quarter than the winning team. The first quarter or half are also a pivotal point in the game, and it can be profitable to research which teams start games stronger, or prefer to gain an early lead.

Over/Under bets

Over/under bets are not directly related to the end result of the game. For neutrals, or fans who do not want to try betting directly on a winner, there are many over/under betting options that can bring long odds. Over/under bets are two way bets, where a value is given, such as the total number of points. You can then bet on whether the game will produce more or less than that number of points.

There are many other bets that use this methodology such as the total number of points scored by both teams, how many touchdowns will be scored, how many points will be scored in the first half and so on.

Game and Player Proposition Bets

These bets can be the most thrilling, as they are very specific and can have huge odds. Game proposition bets can include which team will score first, a team to lose the first quarter and then win the match, which team will score in all the possible ways first (touchdown, field goal, safety and try) and more. Player proposition bets are specific to one player and can include bets such as will the player score a field goal, will the player make a touchdown and more.

There are many more bets available on the Super Bowl and it is worth making sure that you are aware of them all so that you can build the best possible betting strategy.