How To Bet On Football: Understanding NFL & CFB Sports Betting

The most bet on sport in North America is football. When you combine NFL with college football, the betting handle is through the roof. But perhaps you’ve not placed a bet on this great sport simply because you don’t know the various betting options, what the odds mean and generally just how to bet on football. This is a thorough guide through all the options that you can wager on and how to do so with confidence. 

What Is a Moneyline Bet In Football? Who Will Win Sunday Night Football?

The moneyline bet is essential to understanding sports betting as a whole regardless of what sport or what type of betting market you want to play. Fortunately, it’s also the easiest bet to understand and most people in life have done a moneyline bet with their family or friends etc. Basically, a moneyline bet is picking who’s going to win a game or event. If you expect the Rams to beat the 49ers, betting them on moneyline would be putting money where your mouth is.

The complexity in understanding the moneyline bet comes with understanding odds because not all teams are built the same and are at the same calibre. Yes, the moneyline bet is simply choosing which team will win, however, the odds are not 1:1, dollar in / dollar out, rather they are weighted on the strength of teams. For example, if the Rams are hosting the Panthers, they are expected to win so the sportsbook might set their odds at -250 which would have an implied win probability of 71.43% but the payout is just $0.40 for every dollar wagered. Finding the value in mismatched games is where the spread comes into the conversation.

Spread Betting in Football: Will the Cowboys Cover?

A point spread bet is where the sportsbook sets a number of points that the favorite has to win by more than or the underdog to not lose by as much.

On you sports betting app for a given game you would see something like Dallas Cowboys -4.5 (-110) vs New York Giants +4.5 (-110). In this scenario the Cowboys are the favorite as identified with the negative (-) symbol before the number (4.5) and the -110 indicates the odds for that spread. Conversely, the Giants would be the underdog as shown by the positive (+) symbol.

How do you actually win your point spread bet though? With the above scenario as the Cowboys are favored by 4.5 points, if you were to play this bet you’re hoping for them to win by five or more points. Think of the -4.5 as subtracting 4.5 points from the Cowboys’ final score if they still have more points than the Giants then your bet wins. As you can see on the underdog side of things, if backed the G-Men you’re hoping they don’t lose by 5 or more points, add 4.5 points to their final score, do they end up beating Dallas then you win.

From a value and odds perspective, you are more likely to place a bet on the spread rather than the moneyline when there’s a fairly significant discrepancy between teams. If Dallas is favored by 4.5 points, on the moneyline it is likely to had odds around -250 or $0.40 profit for every $1 wagered. But if you were to play the spread at -110 odds your payout would be a profit of $0.91 per $1 bet – an increase of $0.51 per dollar, though, the bet is harder as the Cowboys have to win now by at least 5 points.

If you feel the line isn’t set correctly you can also adjust the spread playing an alternate line. If you think the Cowboys are going to run up the score on the Giants you might adjust the spread from -4.5 to -6.5 for example, this provides you better odds, often going from -110 up to +150 or even better but obviously, now, Dallas would have to win by more points.

Totals Betting In Football: Barn-Burner Or Defensive Duel?

Totals betting or OVER/UNDER betting is when the sportsbook sets a line on how many points are expected in the game and you place a bet on whether the final score will be OVER or UNDER that set line.

If you have a marquee Sunday Night Football game between the Bills and Ravens where the spread is basically a pick’em and you truly don’t know who will come out on top, placing a bet on the total might be your better approach. You don’t have to worry about the winner/loser, rather, you’re simply rooting for TD’s or punts – the former is more fun. 

Like spread betting, you can also adjust the total by taking an alternate total if you believe that the OVER is going to be much higher than the set line or the UNDER if you think the total is too high.

Parlay Betting In Football: SGP’s Or Anytime TD Parlay?

Perhaps one of the most mainstream terms in sports betting nowadays is the parlay and same-game parlay. For these bets, you’re taking multiple betting markets and combining them into one singular bet. As a result, the payouts are much higher, though the implied win probability decreases significantly because if any of your parlay selections lose, the entire parlay loses.

To build parlay, there are many different approaches that you can take and there is no real right or wrong method (unless you’re losing everytime maybe switch up your method). Some week in the NFL you may choose 3 divisional underdogs to cover and parlay them together for +250 odds rather than playing each individually with -110 odds and then you also have 3 units on the table compared perhaps the 1 unit or half unit on the singular parlay. 

The same-game parlay is when you are choosing each of the legs of your parlay from one specific game. This is a fun approach for the primetime, Thursday Night, Sunday Night, Monday Night Football games where you’re locked in compared to the 1:00 PM ET slate where you might be watching a few games. A common approach when building an SGP is building around a narrative such as thinking the Lions are going to cover and the game goes OVER, you might add in legs such as Amon-Ra St. Brown to score a touchdown and Jahmyr Gibbs to go over his rushing total.

Example Same Game Parlay

• Lions -3.5

• OVER 51.5

• Amon-Ra TD

• Gibbs OVER Rushing Yards

Approximate Odds: +650

Another popular parlay sports bettors play is an anytime or first touchdown scorer parlay. The intrigue here is that some players offer +200 or longer odds to score so combining 3-4 of such TD scorer props, the payout can be +1500 or even greater offering a big payout, but obviously with fairly big risk.

Futures Betting In Football: Who Will Win the Super Bowl?

A futures bet is when you place a wager on an outcome that will be settled at the end of the regular season or playoffs. Obviously the most popular futures bet is who will win the Super Bowl or for college football, who will win the national championship. But you could also bet on who the MVP will be or Heisman Trophy winner, defensive player of the year, comeback player of the year etc.

Common NFL Futures

• 🏆 Super Bowl Winner

• 🏆 MVP

• 🏆 Offensive Player of the Year

• 🏆 Defensive Player of the Year

• 🏆 Comeback Player of the Year

• 🏆 Team Win Totals

Ahead of the season, it’s quite common to see sports betting apps offer season-long totals for individual players like with Puka Nacua have over 1,000 receiving yards or will Matthew Stafford throw for over 5,000 passing yards. When the schedule is announced in mid-May, win totals becomes a hot topic where the sportsbooks will set lines on how many wins a team will have and you can bet OVER or UNDER that total.

A drawback of placing futures bets is that your wager is locked into a bet for months before the payout, though cashouts can sometimes be available or if your bet hits early you may get your payout. 

Prop Betting In Football: Will CeeDee Lamb Score a Touchdown?

Given the vast number of players on the field offensively and defensively, the prop betting options for football is extensive, creating different ways for you to enjoy your betting experience. You can bet whether a player will score a touchdown, get a sack, an interception, rush for over a set number of yards, how many catches will a WR have etc.

Player Prop Examples

• Passing Yards

• Rushing Yards

• Receiving Yards

• Touchdowns

• Interceptions

• Sacks

There are also team or game props available too, which can be fun to play with your significant other if they’re not into sports as much, get them invested with a little challenge. Some of these game props can include, will the game finish with an odd or even number of points, which quarter will have the most points, will both teams score in the third quarter? A team prop could be the team total where the sportsbook sets a line on how many points a team will score in the game.

Team/Game Prop Examples

• Team Totals

• Odd/Even Score

• Highest Scoring Quarter

• Both Teams To Score In Quarter