The National Football League, American Football, or gridiron to those outside the United States is the native game of America and arguably the country’s most popular sport.
The first official game of American Football was played on November 6th, 1869 between two college teams Rutgers and Princeton.
These days, most popular cities in the country have a team, and the sports reach extends to a worldwide market, including Australia, where all the major bookmakers offer betting on both the regular season and Super Bowl.
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American Football is growing in popularity worldwide, and the online sports betting market is growing to match. This is heavily encouraged by the fact the Superbowl is one of the biggest punting events every year in the USA. There are so many teams, and the regular season is so long new bettors may be overwhelmed at the options available for wagering.
This article aims to break down some of the barriers of becoming successful at wagering on American football by explaining the popular bet types, why value is important when betting on the sport and what the best bookies sites are to on the NFL at.
Why bet on American football?
Sportsfans who already enjoy the sport can understand the fun and enjoyment of placing wagers on games you enjoy. This can greatly enhance the excitement of your favorite games, or earn you more than just bragging rights with your buddies.
American football has a wide array of teams to choose from, ranging from fans with their hard core favorites to the serious sports bettors who follow the odds all season long. Either way, wagering on American Football has a lot to offer sports bettors. While there are office pools and friendly wagers between friends worldwide, online sports books have a lot to offer even the casual bettor.
How to bet on American football
Serious punters may already have a strategy for their wagers. Planning starts at the beginning of the season for the most serious sportsbettors. Following their favorite team’s training strategy, player injuries, even the weather, these bettors can make a good income on these wagers.
But for the new bettors, how do they know what to wager on? With weekly games it can be overwhelming to know what picks to follow. Many sportsbooks offer teasers, as well as overnight lines, prop bets, and future bets. One of the first things bettors must do is shop for the best value in wagers.
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Parlays:
Parlays are considered a low risk wager because the cost is very low for a very high expected win value. The problem is that these wagers are difficult to win. These wagers are typically placed on at least 2 teams, and every team must win for the wager to pay out. However with minimum wagers typically around $1, it is a very low risk for the potential to win a very large payout. There are different variations on this wager, and the rules change from book to book, so bettors should always read the fine print.
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Teasers:
Teaser bets are simply Parlay bets, with the point spreads modified. Bettors need to be wary of these, and shop around. Different sports books will have different rules on ties and no action games. This also means that bettors need to be wary of unscrupulous sportsbooks. Typically these will offer the highest payouts- and can be very tempting. But there’s little risk in it for sportsbooks who have no intention of paying out winnings. These bets are made on 2 or more teams, and both choices must win to pay out.
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Straight Bets:
Some of the common straight bets include betting by the point spread. These are very popular ways to bet as many sportsbooks offer this type of wager with reduced juice. The potential win amount is not as great as other wagers, however.
Moneyline wagers are simply betting on your favorite team to win. This is a very simple form of wagering, and is based on the odds of the team winning or losing. If the underdog wins, the payout is greater, regardless of the points in the game.
Total wagers are bets placed on the total points earned by both teams- regardless of who wins. Wagers are made against the point total posted- whether the total points will be over or under that amount.
Why Value is Important
When it comes to shopping around for wagers, many will talk about looking for the best value. But why is this line shopping so important? Can it really impact your bottom line?
In short, yes. Though bettors not only need to worry about the price, but also the point spread. Bettors not only need to be able to do the math to see if their the wager is not only likely to win, but be a profitable wager. Not every wager, even if it wins, is enough to bring profit that it earns more than your spent money back. The reduced juice lines are a great way to find good value lines, but aren’t a foolproof method.
Wagering on American Football
Whether you’re a serious punter, or just a casual sports bettor, betting on the American Football including the NFL has a lot to offer. Winning or losing, the wagers make watching your favorite game that much more exciting. And who doesn’t like to fatten their pockets when they win? Bragging rights aside, no matter if you enjoy the serious side of sports betting or you just want to have some fun with the prop bets Football sportsbetting has something to offer every sports fan.
NFL bookies
The growing popularity of the Super Bowl worldwide means there is more Interest in betting on the NFL than ever; every big online sports betting site has markets up for both the regular season of the NFL and the playoffs.
Betting sites like William Hill (which pushes into some North American places), Bet365, Bodog (Canada only), Bodog88 (Asia) and Bet365 (accepts bettors from more than 200 countries) have extensive betting options on games, including in-play betting.
Towards the top of this page you will see a bookies table titled “Best NFL bookies”. This table is geo targeted to your location and only shows the sites that you eligible to sign up at.
Keep in mind not every site that accepts people from your jurisdiction will have the ability to display your balance in your home countries currency. An example being 5Dimes which only displays customers funds in USD. You can view the currencies catered for at each individual bookie in their review, also accessible from the table above.
Fun NFL facts
- The NFL TV rights deal is the largest in the world. Fox, CBS and NBC paid an enormous $30 billion USD back in 2011 – the deal runs for nine years.
- The largest point spread in NFL history came when the Denver Broncos were favoured by 26.5 over the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 2 of 2013. The Jags covered, falling 35-19
- The Arizona Cardinals had the longest postseason victory drought in NFL history, failing to win in the playoffs between 1947 to 1998
- It took the New Orelans Saints 32 years to win their first ever playoff game
- The Chicago Bears have the most retired numbers of any NFL team with 13 – there are five teams in the NFL with no numbers retired at all
- Due to differing circumstances, there have been games of NFL played on every day of the week
- Back when the Seattle Seahawks entered the NFL, they held a ‘name the team’ competition. They received 20,365 entries and 1,742 different names
- Steve Young (ex-San Fransisco 49er) is the only left handed quarterback in the pro-football hall of fame
- The Superbowl commercials garner as much attention as the game does, and as advertising companies they would want to get it right after the NBC set a record in 2016 for the cost of a 30 second slot ($4.5 million USD)
NFL betting types
When it comes to betting on the National Football League, it can be a minefield going through the multitude of markets on offer. Fortunately we have gone through all the markets for punters and highlighted exactly what they are and how to bet on them.
- NFL title betting:
The NFL championship betting market is as easy as picking the team you think will be the Superbowl champions of that year. - Head-to-head betting:
The head-to-head bet is as simple as selecting the team you believe will win the match. - Spread/Line bet:
Similar to a head-to-head bet, a spread (or line bet) is the process of selecting a team to win, or lose by a certain margin.For instance, if the New England Patriots are playing the Detroit Lions and the Pats’ line is -4.5, to have a winning bet New England has to win by five points or more.
Conversely, the Lions would have a line of +4.5, which means the Detroit can win, or lose by four or less points, and you will get a resulted bet in your favour.
- First touchdown scorer:
The first touchdown scorer bet is the process of choosing the player you think will score the opening TD of the match. A first touchdown scorer bet can be placed as the overall first scorer of the match, or for a specific team in the contest. - NFL MVP:
A futures bet, the NFL MVP betting is placing money on the player you think will be awarded the National Football League’s Most Valuable Player award in that season. - Superbowl MVP betting: Unlike the NFL MVP betting market, the Superbowl MVP market is only between the two teams competing for the Lombardi trophy. The player deemed to have the most influence on the outcome of the Superbowl is typically awarded the MVP.
Best places to invest on the NFL
When it comes to punting on the American Football, it would be prudent not to look past Sportsbet.com.au.
Sportsbet has futures markets before the incumbent season is completed, comprehensive markets on all the regular season games and specials throughout the year.
Bet365.com.au may be a bookmaker based in the United Kingdom but that does not mean they have neglected America’s national sport.
Bet365 has the markets on the regular season games before anyone else and give punters unprecedented in-game betting markets that most bookies would only dream about
They may be an English bookmaking giant, but that does not mean WilliamHill.com.au have neglected America’s favourite sport.
Futures markets, comprehensive game markets and terrific in-play betting which allows punters to track the games play-by-play, William Hill have raised the bar high for punters looking to truly bet with confidence.
