An estimated 45.2 million Americans said that they intended to wager on NFL this season which equates to around 17.5% of the total adult population in the United States. Those figures should give you an idea of the extent of the popularity of betting on the NFL along with the fact that over $12 billion worth of wagers are placed on the sport each year.
However, not everyone is familiar with betting online and the various options that are available when doing so. You can bet on NFL with Whichbookie.co.uk and several bookies accepting US players and over the past few years, online sportsbooks have added several more betting markets which means that customers have a lot more choice when it comes to what to bet on.
This guide will explain the basics of betting on the NFL online and will hopefully give you a better understanding of the process and the options that you have.
Moneyline Betting
Betting on the moneyline is perhaps the easiest to understand NFL betting market as you are simply backing one team to win the game.
For example, if the moneyline on the New England Patriots was -150, this would mean that you would have to bet $150 in order to win $100.
Point Spread Betting
Point spread betting is the most popular wager on football but requires a little more thought than when betting on the moneyline. You are still betting on one of the two teams but your selected team must win by a certain number of points which is the ‘spread’.
The underdog in the game will have a positive ( + ) spread value and the favourite will have a negative ( – ) spread value.
For example, a typical points spread market may look like this:
New England Patriots
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
This means that Tampa Bay are the favourites for the game and if you bet on them, they would have to win the game by 4.5 points or more which is 5 or more points.
To put things simpler, if you subtract 5 points from Tampas score at the end of the game and they still have more points than the Patriots, your bet would win. Similarly, if you bet on the Patriots and they had more points than Tampa after adding 5 points to their score at the end of the game, your bet on the Patriots would win.
Over/Under Points
Another popular bet on NFL games is betting on Over/Under points. With this market, you are not betting on a team to win and the game winner doesn’t have an impact on whether or not your bet comes in. Instead, you are betting on the total number of points scored in the game to be either Over or Under a certain amount.
For example, if you bet on the total points to be Over 59.5, your wager would win if 60 or more points were scored in the game and lose if 59 or less were scored. The half point is included in these bets to eliminate the possibility of a draw so that your bet either wins or loses.