This year’s NFL season is off to an exciting start! The Seattle Seahawks are reigning champions and seemingly unstoppable at home, while the Green Bay Packers are looking to recapture the glory of years gone by. As football fans, we can’t help but get our hopes up for next season! The excitement is almost unbearable at times. With the help of one of our experts, let’s dive into the intricacies of sports betting to figure out the betting lines for this year’s NFL season!
The Basics Of NFL Football
If you’re unfamiliar, the American football is a very popular sport in the United States. Like many other professional sports, the rules of football are different from those of amateur football. For starters, the professional game is typically a lot more physical. It’s not uncommon for NFL players to catch balls with their hands and go over 300 yards per game. For some reason, the NFL has always been popular in the U.S., and a lot of money is wagered on its games. But fear not! You will learn enough about this wonderful sport to be able to place a wager on upcoming NFL games after reading this article.
The Difference Between The Over/Under And The Point-Spread
If you’ve ever placed a bet on a sporting event, you may have noticed that the underdog often wins and the favorites often lose. This is true in the world of sports betting as well. When a team you support is the underdog in an NFL game, you’ll often see bookmakers offer odds favoring that team to win. Bookmakers do this because they want to encourage people to come back and place bets on their games. This is because if a bookmaker does not make money off an NFL game, they may not get any other sporting events! Luckily for you, we’re here to tell you about how to win in the NFL. So let’s get into it.
The Over/Under
One of the most popular bets in the NFL is the over/under. When you place an over/under bet, you are wagering that the total amount of points scored by both teams will be less than or equal to a specific number. For example, you may bet $100 that the total amount of points scored by the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers will be between 7 and 17. An over/under bet is pretty straightforward; if the total amount of points scored is less than or equal to your chosen number, you win, and if it is more than your chosen number, you lose. It’s that simple!
Some people consider betting on the over/under to be easier than betting on the point-spread. The over/under is simply an average of the two teams’ point totals. For example, if you bet $100 on the over/under score for the Dallas Cowboys and Denver Broncos, you are essentially betting $50 on each team to score at least 22 points and $100 that their combined score will be less than or equal to 22 points. When you compare that to betting on the point-spread, which is the difference between the two teams’ point totals, you will quickly notice that the over/under bet is much more favorable to the bettor!
The Point-Spread
The point-spread is the other popular option among NFL bettors. When you bet on the point-spread, you are wagering that one team will score more points than the other. This is a significantly more complex wager to understand, but it’s also far more exciting once you do! Let’s take the Chicago Bears as an example. They are a decent team, but they face the daunting task of attempting to take down the defending champions, the Seattle Seahawks. You may have heard of the saying, “any given Saturday,” and while that may be true, this week’s game will be exceptionally important for both teams!
The Seahawks will be looking to defend their title, and the Bears, desperate for a win, will be sending their first-string offense to play against the Hawks’ defense. This isn’t necessarily an easy task, especially since the Hawks are a top-notch defense, but the Bears have an elite offensive unit as well.
One of the reasons why the point-spread is such a popular option is because it’s more complex than the over/under. You have to determine whom you believe will score more points and then subtract the other team’s point total. For example, if you think the Bears’ offense will outscore the Seahawks’ defense by 3 points, you would need to put $100 on the point spread for the Bears to win. In order to win, the Bears would have to beat the Seahawks by at least 2 points. If they don’t cover, you lose your $100. This is not as bad as it sounds because at least you have the chance to bet on the Super Bowl winner before the season starts. You cannot do that with the over/under.
The Basics Of NFL Smart-Picks
When we say NFL smart-pick, what exactly do we mean? Simply put, a smart-pick is the wagering of public information on sports. For example, if you are in the middle of a football season and you see that a couple of your favorite teams are playing each other, you may use public information, primarily box scores, to determine the winner. For instance, you may look at the Denver Broncos’ box scores and see that they beat the Kansas City Chiefs last week 17-10. Since you already know the outcome of that game, you may use that information to place a smart-pick wager on the Broncos to win the game. In general, smart-picking is a great way to make money off football games because it allows you to lay odds favoring your team while also knowing the outcome of the game. In other words, you are getting double the fun (and hopefully, some profit)!
How Do Bookmakers Deal With Teams That They Hate?
Some teams, mainly the San Francisco 49ers, New York Giants, and Dallas Cowboys, among many others, are considered to be ‘dreaded’ by bookmakers. When these teams go up against each other, it’s not uncommon for bookmakers to offer huge odds against the underdogs. This is particularly the case when the favorite teams are playing at home, as people tend to stay away from betting on games between these clubs. When these teams play on the road, it’s not uncommon for them to have close to equal betting odds.
The Psychology Of NFL Favorites And Underdogs
The line moves constantly in the NFL, and this is mainly due to the fact that there are so many bets laid on each game. This means that the ‘public’ is constantly analyzing the lines and trying to work out the trends. Many people, myself included, feel that there are certain teams in the NFL that people always seem to love to bet on, and there are other teams that people always seem to hate to bet on. Here are some of the main reasons the public seems to favor teams in the NFL:
- The team’s name is popular
- The team plays in a city where other teams also attract big crowds
- The team is led by a dynamic head coach
- The team is composed of strong, masculine players
- The team is a mixture of veterans and up-and-coming stars
As for the teams that people seem to hate, it’s mostly due to the fact that they are usually the underdog and, as mentioned before, they tend to lose as bettors mostly stay away from betting on these games. Some teams in the NFL seem to inspire hatred, mainly because people believe that they are ‘scared’ of losing, even when they are heavily favored. Here are some of the main reasons why people seem to dislike certain teams in the NFL:
- The team is composed of a bunch of under-average athletes that nobody really cares about (including the fans)
- The team’s owner is an idiot
- The fans of the team are mostly women and children
- The team is coached by a woman
- The team is a gimmick that was only created to make money (like the Harlem Globetrotters or the Washington Redskins)
- The team has a really bad name
Believe it or not, there are some pretty interesting stats regarding fans’ and players’ jersey sales in the NFL. Here is a short list: