There’s a vast amount of people betting on Football, but few understand the correct way to go about it to be profitable. With our long experience in the football sports betting field, we like to share the lessons we’ve picked up along our journey.
Our guide will teach you how to bet on football and explains all different sorts of football bets with real examples, whereas our focus is to make things as simple for you as possible to follow. See this as the ultimate football betting for dummies guide.
Where to bet on football
How betting on football works?
Betting on football has a lot of different ways of happening. We are going to dive into a bunch of different ways that you can bet on games. Hopefully, you are able to find one of these that you like and comprehend the best in order to use it. Without further ado, let’s jump right into it!
Moneylines
Moneylines are the most basic thing to understand in a betting market. The moneyline is picking a winner with no strings attached. You see and hear this all the time just talking with your buddies on which team is going to win the game so let’s dive into an example.
| Team | Odds |
| Dallas Cowboys | +110 |
| New York Giants | -100 |
Say the Dallas Cowboys are heading into MetLife Stadium to take on their arch-rival New York Giants and these are the moneyline odds. This is saying that the Giants are considered to be the better team as the favorites are indicated with a minus sign while the Cowboys are considered the underdog and that is indicated with a plus sign. Your goal is to select which team is going to win. It does not matter if it is a blowout or an overtime game, just as long as that team walks away with the win. The odds are simple to understand as well. If you were to bet that the Cowboys were going to win, you would win $110 for a $100 wager. If you believed the Giants would win, it would take $100 to win an additional $100.
In short, bet on which team will win the game outright.
Spreads
The spread is what you typically hear in betting circles as their picks. In laymans terms, this is predicting who will win the game but with a little twist. The spread is attempting to make games as even as possible so there will be a point associated with the team. Let’s look at an example.
| Team | Odds |
| Dallas Cowboys +3.5 | +110 |
| New York Giants -3.5 | -100 |
This is the same example as the moneyline but with the 3.5 point spread. This indicates that the Giants are favored by 3.5 points. If you were to wager on the Giants, then they would need to win by four or more points. If you decide to wager on the Cowboys to cover, they cannot lose by more than four points. If the Cowboys lose by three points and you wagered Dallas +3.5, you would still win the wager despite the Cowboys losing the game.
In short, this is making the playing field as even as possible.
Over/Under Totals
This one is straight forward as this is predicting how many points are scored between the two teams. It does not matter which team scores the points or how they are scored, just as long as they end up being scored.
| Team | Odds | Over/Under |
| Dallas Cowboys +3.5 | +110 | Over 55 |
| New York Giants -3.5 | -100 | Under 55 |
In this example, this is how the odds are going to look as the next section from the odds will be the total. You have two choices as if the two teams are going to score more than 55 points or less than 55 combined points. If they were to end up with exactly 55 points, the wager would be voided and you would be awarded whatever amount you originally bet on it.
Parlays
Parlays can involve either multiple games or a single game. This is simple to understand as you can wager as many different moneyline, spreads, over/unders, props, futures, or teasers you would like on one ticket for an odds boost. However, if any of the wagers on the ticket end up losing, the entire ticket is a loser. You need every bet on that wager to be a winner in order to win.
Let’s say you bet the Giants moneyline, Dallas +3.5, and over 55 points as a parlay. These odds will be boosted as somewhere around +450 or in that area and in order for the bet to win, all three of those things would need to happen.
Futures
Futures are easy to understand as you are predicting something down the line. Say football season is right around the corner and you want to bet that Tom Brady will win the MVP award. The sportsbooks will give you favorable odds as there are no distinction between any player and their stats and a lot of variance can happen.
Let’s use the most popular future: which team will win the Super Bowl. Say you believe the Kansas City Chiefs will win the Super Bowl this season and they are listed at +550 to win. You can lock that in right now and no matter what happens, that bet will retain the +550 odds to win and will cash out if the Chiefs win the Super Bowl. If they lose, the ticket will be a loser. You can do this with stats, wins, and basically anything that has the ability to be one or another thing to happen.
Prop Bets
Prop bets are very common in football as you are predicting whether a player will go over or under a certain statistic. The oddsmakers will create the number and you will have to choose which side of the bet the player will fall upon. They typically will add .5 yards at the end to avoid any pushes.
| Over 287.5 | -115 |
| Under 287.5 | -104 |
One example is Tom Brady passing for 287.5 yards in a game against the New Orleans Saints. Both sides will be showing the odds as under will be at -104 and the over is -115. If you believe Brady ends up with anything below 287 passing yards, go with the under while the over is the better play if you expect a big passing game. This can be anything from passing attempts to tackles for loss.
Teasers & Pleasers
Teasers & pleasers are essentially just parlays but have only point spread bets or total bets. Be prepared because this is the most confusing of all wagers and will be best with an example.
● Cowboys -3.5
● Dolphins +4.5
● Steelers -8.5
A teaser allows you to bet where you get points in your favor and allow you to have better breathing room and the new odds in a six point teaser would be Cowboys +2.5, Dolphins, +10.5, Steelers -2.5. These odds are not going to be as great as you are getting extra points and need all to still hit.
Pleasers are in reverse so you are getting extreme value but are giving up the points. If you have the same three teams with the spreads the same and you have a six point pleaser, the spreads would be: Cowboys -9.5, Dolphins -2.5, Steelers -14.5. The odds are juiced up as you are giving up points for more value and again need all of them to hit here in order to win.
Tips for getting started with football betting
– Tip 1: Do your research as the more data you use, the more likely you are to make a correct decision. Use websites like Covers.com to help you understand team trends. – Tip 2: Don’t go in expecting to be a millionaire. Winning is difficult and be prepared to lose as things don’t always go according to plan.
– Tip 3: Don’t be afraid to hedge bets. Hedging is betting one way and if the odds shift to the other side, betting on them to hedge your losses no matter what happens
Avoid these beginner mistakes
– Mistake 1: Don’t go in blind. Going with your gut makes it a lot easier to lose wagers the oddsmakers know what they are doing
– Mistake 2: Don’t overload on one bet. Be responsible and assign a certain value to a bet so if the Patriots are going to cover in your eyes, bet 10 percent of your bankroll and not all the money in your account
– Mistake 3: Ignoring injuries. Make sure to understand what players are and are not available as that will drastically change the outlook of a game. If Aaron Rodgers misses the game, the Packers have a drastically lower chance of winning that game.
Is there any differentiation between betting on NFL & NCAA?
There are some big differences between betting on NFL and betting on NCAA Football and we have the pages for you to see it for yourself. NFL is typically easier to understand as the rosters typically do not have that same turnover. However, NCAA usually is easier to bet on moneylines as teams have drastically different levels of talent to play with and programs make their own schedules.
College football can provide some major differences in terms of effecting bets as college football is more determined on coaching staffs. Teams with elite head coaches like Nick Saban or Lincoln Riley are going to fare better as coaching is a key cog in collegiate football compared to NFL. Another big difference is the ability of an upset happening. In college football, you will see heavy moneyline favorites with teams playing lesser schedules, but in the NFL it is balanced to a degree and makes it a lot tougher than to just select a single team and ride them like you have the ability to do at the collegiate level.
FAQ
Betting football is legal in the United States if you are wagering in a state that has deemed sports betting legal. There are some restrictions, such as states not allowing some wagers on teams that play in that state. Make sure to check the local restrictions (if any) in that state before diving into the wagering aspect.
Betting on football can be profitable depending on how you do it. Betting on spreads is extremely difficult and professional bettors typically hit on 55 percent of their point spread bets. If you manage a bankroll and know when to stay out of the wager, this can be profitable. However, if you attempt to chase your losses and not stay disciplined, you can easily lose a lot of money in a short amount of time. Go in with a game plan, a limit of how much money you are willing to lose, and research because going with your gut is going to leave you broke over the long haul.
Handicap betting is betting against the point spread. We touched on this earlier in the article as the bookmaker takes out any advantage and attempts to make the teams as even as possible and a team would need to win by a certain amount of points in order to cover.
Stopping a gambling addiction could be difficult to do as sometimes a person cannot resist and feel like they know what will happen. Some betting websites allow you to freeze your account so you will not be able to wager. Understand that sometimes things go wrong and not having any skin in the game can be better than losing it. Contact the sportsbook’s customer service if you have any other questions on how to deactivate your account if you want to go that route as well.
There are thousands of sites to use to bet on football, however, one that I personally love is DraftKings due to their promotions that will give you odds boosts and their live in-game betting that makes it easier to place wagers at any point. There are many sites so make sure to look around and figure out what is important to you: speed, odds, customer service, promotions, bonuses, etc.