Online Football Betting and the NFL
Football is a big thing in the United States. Loads of professionals see their careers launched as early as high school and colleges have moved past the friendly rivalry into the realm of substantial sums of money changing hands. Football betting today pivots around the NFL, college football, and just a hint of daily fantasy sports in which the NFL has a plump stake.
Unlike other parts of the world, such as the United Kingdom (UK), Americans are considerably more accustomed to wagering online and in fact, prefer this mode of betting. The patchy legislation is a bit of an issue in the country when it comes to sports betting, but DFS offers some respite from the legal bickering, at least in the majority of states.
Maxing Out the Football Betting Odds: Value Betting
Value betting options are a well-seasoned old dog’s favorite! Opportunities, where a bookmaker has miscalculated the probable outcome of a game, can be identified as a value betting situation. If you see that the odds favor one team heavily over the other, but the aforementioned team is, in fact, unlikely to win, then you can benefit by wagering heavily on the underdog. If you have crunched your own numbers right, you will end up on top of a pile of a small fortune. Elaborating on the implied probability of a game is not an easy undertaking, but one that you may learn how to do over time.
NFL Bet Types – Which to Pick?
You’ll also have to familiarize yourself with several types of bets if you are to make it big in the world of football betting. Some of those bets can be dwelt upon with all seriousness one exercises towards a stock market investment, which adds an unprecedented layer of fun to the endeavour. Sifting through the available football betting portals, you’ll come across all sorts of interestingly-sounding wagers. You have your spreads, over/under (or totals), but also proposition wagers. To top it all off, you a final brush is added with the parlays¸which up the ante. A number of sportsbooks offer great odds on the NFL presently, including Bovada, Ladbrokes and bet365.
Spreads – Spreads are rather easy to pinpoint. Let’s say The Pittsburgh Steelers (-4.5) are facing off New England Patriots (+4.5). In layman’s terms, the (-) denotes the favorite, i.e. the Pittsburgh Steelers who need to win the match with an advantage of at least 4.5 points.
If the result ends up Steelers 20 – 14 Patriots, then the spread has been covered, and the bet is successful. On the other hand, if the Steelers have scored 17 points against 14 for the Patriots, the Patriots win, because they have managed to retain the difference of 4.5 points in the score. A simpler way to look at this if you detract the -4.5 from the score of the favorite, or 20-4.5. ending up with 15.5.
With spreads, however, you will always notice that a (-110) follows the point spread. This indicates how much money you need to stake if you expect a $100 return. The additional $10 you see there is called the vig, short for vigorous, or juice. And that is simply a metric that bookmakers use to indicate how much they charge you as a sort of a fee for services rendered.
Proposition wagers – Proposition wagers is the type of betting whereby you try to guess the outcome of a sporting event in more specific terms. Instead of guessing the score outright, you may have to wager on specific outcomes related to players’ performance and other in-game goals. Bookmakers will come up with wagers that have to do with rushing yards, passing yards, and receiving yards, as well as want to know what your thoughts on a particular’s players performance are.
Over/under (or totals) – Total betting is definitely one the main type of wagers you will want to make. Simply put, you will want to wager on what the chances of the game’s score ending in a certain way are. But there is quite a bit of leeway for error here, as you call the outcome of the game over or under a specific score. Let’s flesh this out in detail, shall we?
You have a bet that the exchange of goals between the two teams will be over 70. If the Patriots and Redskins face off and end up 42-30, then the wager has been fulfilled as 72>70. Conversely, if you wager that the score would be under 70, and the same teams have played to the tune of 36-28, for example, your wager will be very much successful.
You will have to watch out for the -/+ 100 metrics first. If you have (-), it means that you need to wager the amount to gain $100, if you have (+), you still need to wager that amount, but for a profit that is slightly better than $100. Consider the following example:
Over 70 (-110): At this point you wager $110 to win $100, and your total payout will be stake + profit = 110 + 100 = $210.
Over 70 (+110): At this point, you wager $100 to win $110. It’s quite common with bookies who are trying to gain a purchase in a new market to proffer (+) totals, as it whips up excitement among community members to participate.
Parlays – Reminiscent of criminal patois, parlays are in fact the ultimate form of number crunching. They allow you to combine multiple bets, including spreads, totals, or even money lines. While taking on such games is significantly more risky for your bankroll, the potential returns are absolutely overwhelming. Two-team parlays may easily result in returns upwards of $200, and if you decide to up the antes with three-team parlays, then you might as well end up North of $600.
Plays offer significant leg-up on your potential profits, but they also necessitate a more intimate knowledge and understanding of the game. In preparation for the upcoming NFL 2018/2019 season, you have enough time to study the potential combinations and try to determine your favorites, and more importantly still – the likely top performers.
The Upcoming NFL 2018/2019 Season
Primed to launch in September, the NFL 2018/2019 doesn’t surprise with its favorites. We have the New England Patriots, Pittsburg Steelers and Philadelphia Eagles taking the top three spots across bookmakers. Bookmaker’s odds hover around the save top picks, including the Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings along with the New Orleans Saint.
Of course, coming with an average of the odds would be rather difficult, as they will ultimately vary across bookmakers. However, you may employ a betting strategy whereby you reduce the bookies advantage by comparing odds at multiple bookmakers and they select the best.
If you are keen on placing futures, you may shop around bookies again and place an early wager. We would generally recommend sticking with the top teams and perhaps focus on identifying a value betting situation. R.J. White from SportsLine has been particular about some of the underdogs, too, including a team that has seemingly lost its last three games and is given at odds of 40/1.
Legality, A Patchy Ordeal
When talking about the legality of football betting, we need to stop and briefly address the situation in the United States. The country overwhelmingly puts the crack on the idea of online sports betting. However, you’ll need to further investigate what things look like in your own state. Loopholes are exploited readily and the constantly changing rules make it a tad hard to stay up to scratch.
No definitive trend has emerged as a result, as both pro- and anti-sports betting camps are making a decisive push, colliding in the middle and leaving the situation rather unchanged. Things are rather more lax with DFS. Now that the 1992 PASPA has been repealed, however, chances are that operators such as Bovada, can move into the country and start accepting wagers across the US.
Is Football Betting Mobile?
Bookmakers have been competing to craft their own powerful apps, which come in at least two iterations – iOS and Android. William Hill, bet365 and Ladbrokes have been particularly careful to cater to the mobile preferences of their customers. Meanwhile, Bovada has kept its website mobile-friendly and responsive without necessitating any extra pieces of software being installed. Whatever the state of affairs at one of our top bookmakers, though, you will always be able to securely and easily place a wager via a portable device.
The Line of Scrimmage
Betting on America’s favorite pastime is gaining traction across the United States. With mostly DFS odds on the line, you have a great chance to add a little extra in the way of excitement when it comes to your viewer’s experience. The promise of a substantial return on your investment will be quick to push you into action. From the first whistle blow to the very final last touchdown, football is overwhelmingly fun to watch and immensely amusing to wager on!
