NFL Prop Betting A proposition bet is a kind of side bet that asks you to wager on something besides the final outcome of a game. In the NFL, they typically come in the form of player or team prop bets, such. Don’t bet on every game. There is pretty much a 0% chance that you’ll be able to maintain a good win rate if you bet the spreads on every single football game. Being selective is absolutely vital if you want to win consistently. The more games you bet. There are several ways to bet on NFL games. When betting on the National Football League, you can wager on bet types likes the point spread, totals (also known as OVER/UNDERs), and the moneyline.

• What To Bet On A Football Game Score
• What To Bet On A Football Game Online

What To Bet On A Football Game Score

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Betting on the NFL isn’t necessarily easy, but making smarter bets is always possible for those motivated to learn a bit of new strategy.

What To Bet On A Football Game Online

Try these nine thoughtful tips when wagering at online football betting sites and watch your bankroll grow.

1. Bet With Your Head, Not Your Heart

It may sound obvious, but avoiding emotion when wagering remains a challenge for many bettors. We all have our personal biases. Whether it’s a favorite team or one we despise, putting aside these preferences isn’t easy.

But here’s the thing: becoming more objective towards NFL betting online is literally the easiest way to make smarter bets. It doesn’t require a detailed strategy on mathematical analysis, it just requires common sense.

Cheering on your favorite team (at least) 16 times per year is a lot of fun, but losing money in the process is not. To become a smarter bettor, be aware of your biases and try to avoid decisions based solely on favoritism.

2. Pay Attention to Where the Game Is Played

Home-field advantage matters, and it matters more at certain stadiums. For example, the New England Patriots, went 42-6 straight-up (32-14-2 ATS) at home from 2014-2018. The Seahawks also perform exceptionally well in Seattle: they are 92-31 at home since 2003.

But they’re not the only two teams with such an advantage. Do your research by comparing each team’s home vs. away record when handicapping for home team advantage.

West Coast teams traveling to the Eastern Time Zone tend to have less difficulty overcoming the time change, but East Coast teams are at an inherent disadvantage when forced to play on the Pacific Coast, three hours later than they’re used to.

There are also teams who don’t travel well. From 2014-2018 (a five-season span), the San Francisco 49ers were a terrible 9-31 on the road, third-worst in the league. They weren’t much better against the spread, going 16-22-2 (fourth-worst in the NFL). The Texans also struggled to cover the spread on the road in 2016, posting a 2-6 record ATS.

Knowing where and when the teams played the previous week is also an important factor to consider. Some teams suffer from real disadvantages. West Coast teams traveling to the Eastern Time Zone tend to have less difficulty overcoming the time change, but East Coast teams are at an inherent disadvantage when forced to play on the Pacific Coast, three hours later than they’re used to.

Lastly, certain dome (indoor) teams can struggle to perform outdoors. For example, Drew Brees’ passer rating drops from 102.5 in a dome to 90.3 when playing outdoors. And this is all extremely useful information for bettors.

3. Know the Individual Matchups

Football is often referred to as the ultimate team sport, but there are certain one-on-one matchups that can dramatically affect the outcome of a game.

For example, a weak offensive tackle should not be expected to perform well against the premier edge-rushers in the league. Pay attention to major skill discrepancies between players who will be going head-to-head.

Coaches are perhaps the most significant head-to-head matchups that bettors should consider. Every coach uses recurring strategies that fare very well against some opponents and flop against others. Coaches get to know each other’s approaches to the game, and some are better at responding to these strategic considerations.

A great example of this is Tom Coughlin and Bill Belichick. The Patriots have been dominant since Belichick has been steering the ship, but he was 2-5 when coaching against Coughlin following the 2018 season.

4. Know More than Just the Trends

When it comes to betting on NFL games, following the trends isn’t a bad idea — patterns sometimes provide valuable information. For example, from 2010 to 2018, the Bears went 12-5 ATS when coming off a bye week, while the 49ers, on the other hand, were just 5-11 ATS in that same time frame.

The sharpest bettors always look at the context behind the numbers when evaluating statistical trends.

Noticing that a team just scored 49 points the previous week doesn’t necessarily mean that their offense is firing on all cylinders. Go back and look at how all the points were scored. Maybe a defensive back fell down to allow a long touchdown pass. Perhaps the defense scored a couple of those touchdowns. Maybe they were just playing the Browns.

The sharpest bettors always look at the context behind the numbers.

5. Check the Injury Reports

As we mentioned, football is the ultimate team game, and small changes can throw off the entire unit. Make sure you know which players have missed practice during the week, what their status is for the upcoming game, and what role they play on the team.

Team injury reports can be a little vague, so it’s always a good idea to check the Twitter accounts of beat-writers for each team. Often, they will provide a little more detail.

6. Take Caution with Divisional Matchups

Teams that play each other twice per season get to know each other very well, and even bad teams tend to dig a little deeper when they are battling a division rival.

Looking to 2016, the Jacksonville Jaguars, Chicago Bears, and San Francisco 49ers were three of the bottom-four teams in the NFL, but they all posted a 4-2 record ATS within their respective divisions.

Even though one team may appear superior on paper, divisional matchups are often much closer than anticipated. This makes the great choices to bet on the NFL point spread, but they can be risky choices on the moneyline.

7. Don’t Fall in Love with Value

Betting the underdog on the moneyline can certainly pay off, but you need to consider why long odds are so long in the first place. Make sure you have very specific reasons and logic behind taking a +800 underdog on the moneyline, because you can be sure the sportsbook used reason and logic to set that moneyline in the first place.

We strongly recommend limiting parlays and teasers to 2-5 events when betting on the NFL.

You also need to be careful when constructing parlays and teasers. Don’t load them up with too many events. NFL teams are generally closely-matched compared to other sports, and it’s far too difficult to correctly predict the outcome of more than a handful of games. We strongly recommend limiting parlays and teasers to 2-5 events.

8. Monitor the Lines Throughout the Week

Monitoring the betting lines throughout the week is a big part of maximizing your chances. Some online books may provide more favorable NFL odds, and as the week progresses, you may find the odds change.

It’s important to keep in mind the influence of public perception here. Popular teams like the Dallas Cowboys, Green Bay Packers, and New England Patriots will always have loyal supporters betting with their hearts. They’re often referred to as public teams, and it’s very likely they’ll be more heavily favored than the statistics suggest they should be.

If you’re planning on betting against the public, wait around and let emotional bettors drive the odds in your favor. Conversely, if you’re planning to bet on a public team, jumping on an early line is likely the best decision.

9. Diversify Your NFL Bets

There is success to be had betting on the moneyline, the spread, and game totals. But to maximize your success, it’s crucial to know all the alternative bets you can make.

Many sportsbooks will allow you to bet on alternate spreads or buy and sell points. Instead of settling for a -3.5 spread that makes you a little uncomfortable, you can opt for a -2.5 spread with a more modest payout.

Enjoy the Action this NFL Season

The strategies above are great to keep in mind while wagering this football season, but they’re only a start. In the end, finding success is all about putting in the time and effort to research your pick and manage your bankroll effectively.

If you’re looking to for more football action than the NFL can provide, open up your Saturdays and take a look at our intro to betting on college football for more helpful tips and tricks.

Betting on football is one of the most popular gambling options around, with the allure of the world’s most widely watched sport and the extra excitement a bet provides making a winning combination. If you’ve never had a bet on football – or even anything at all – then this is the perfect place to start as we’ve got all the information you need to make a foray into this exciting and potentially very profitable world.

How To Place A Bet Online

The first thing you’ll need to do is join an online bookmaker. We’ve got a fantastic selection of top bookies here, all of whom offer new customers free bets to make the deal even sweeter. Once you’ve signed up – by completing a few basic details online – you’ll need to make a deposit and this is just like buying something online, with the huge and well-respected bookmakers we work with being as trustworthy, reputable and secure as any online retailer. More information about depositing and withdrawing is available in our banking feature.

Navigating to your chosen match is easy and can usually be done by country and league, by date or even by searching for one or both of the teams involved. There are loads of different options – detailed below – for betting on football but once you’ve decided what to bet on you’ll need to decide on your stake. This is how much you’re risking and this amount, multiplied by the odds, is what you’ll win if your football knowledge or predictive skills turn out to be good enough!

Just add your stake to the betting slip – often located in the top left or right of the screen – and check that all the details are correct before clicking “Place bet”, “Confirm”, or whatever the relevant option is. Make sure you receive a message saying the bet is placed, often with a confirmation number, as some bookies may have more than once check screen prior to the bet being confirmed.

Some bookies will offer a text or email results service but if not keep an eye out for the result of your match and, if you’ve won, log back into your online betting account and withdraw your winnings! Withdrawals are usually made under “My Account” and are processed quickly and efficiently, the winnings being returned by the method you used to make your deposit.

Main Football Betting Markets

There are a host of markets available on football matches and outright tournament and event betting and more detailed information on these can be found in our football betting markets feature. Many of the top football bookies offer well over 100 different bets as standard on Premier League games so there’s no shortage of choice. Here we take a look at some of the most popular football bets.

• Match Odds – The most popular football bet out there: a simple wager on which side will win (of if the game will be a draw).
• Both Teams To Score(BTTS) – A relatively new bet on whether both teams will score with Betfred offering Goals Galore (a special BTTS accumulator style coupon) whilst other football betting sites allow you to bet AGAINST both teams scoring too.
• Under/Over 2.5 Goals – A popular bet where “unders” means there will be two goals or fewer whilst “overs” means three or more. The number of goals can be changed for different bets but 2.5 is the most popular.
• Correct Score – As with most of these football bets, the name says it all: what will the final score be?
• First Goalscorer – Another popular bet is which player will open the scoring with favourites usually around the 4/1 to 7/1 mark. Note that own goals do not count and that you can also back the last goalscorer or anytime goalscorer too.

Football Betting Rules

Betting on football is largely simple and straightforward and whilst there are the occasional thing that can catch you out, in general there is nothing to check or be aware of. Random events such as postponements or abandonments can occur and rules often vary from bookie to bookie but these happen so infrequently they are not something to worry about.

There are however one or two little rules that are well worth being aware of and the most important is that most bets are valid for 90 minutes (plus injury time) but not extra time and/or penalties. Unless specifically stated this applies to all bets at all bookies, so, for example, if an FA Cup game goes into extra time at 0-0 and your first goalscorer selection scores in extra time, it will be a loser because it was a 90 minute market.

Another thing to be aware of is that own goals, as mentioned above, do not count for goalscorer markets, so a game that ends 1-0 with an own goal will be a winning bet for “no goalscorer” in the first/last/anytime scorer markets. Own goals do, of course, count for most other bets, including match odds and correct score.

Tips and Strategy

Betting on football is a hugely exciting, fun and sometimes profitable hobby that adds an extra dimension to the planet’s most popular sport. If there was a foolproof way to guarantee winning I’d be writing this from the Bahamas, or at least watching an employee write it whilst I drank rum cocktails in the Bahamas.

As such, most people are best advised to consider betting on football to be fun, rather than as a way to make money. Only betting what you can afford to lose, therefore, is an excellent tip, whilst never chasing your losses – betting more and more to try and claw back previous failed bets – is ALWAYS a bad idea. Betting whilst drunk(!) or just because you are bored are equally poor strategies, whilst allowing your heart to rule your head is another good way to get poor in double quick time.

All this said, there are some small yet basic steps you can make to increase your chances of winning.

• Pick a Great Bookmaker – All the bookies we work with are safe, fair and can be trusted with your funds. No point in winning if you won’t get paid!
• Take Advantage of Free bets and Offers – Free bets swing the odds in your favour and if you only ever took advantage of free bet offers then, theoretically, whatever you bet on you would end up a winner.
• Get The Best Odds – Would you buy jeans in one shop for £50 when they were available next door for £45? If not, why would you place a bet at lower odds than you could get? Having a number of different online betting accounts means you can shop around for the best odds and the biggest payouts.
• Research – Nothing beats research when it comes to making a profit from betting. Check the form, the stats, the injuries and everything else and you might just get an edge on the bookies.