Nfl Betting Odds Explained

Understanding NFL football betting odds & weekly point spread is important. If you plan on NFL football picks, this document will be of essence. It's imperative to use live NFL odds for every spread, total and money line for the games in a given week. If the number is positive, then you bet $100 to win that amount. NFL spread betting is probably the most common and popular way to bet on football as it adds some excitement and better odds from just picking an outright winner. There are three common NFL betting lines: the side, total and moneyline. Side: The side refers to the point spread. While the odds can fluctuate, most sides are -110, meaning you have to bet $110.

1. Nfl Betting Odds Explained Week
2. Nfl Betting Odds Explained 2019
3. Nfl Betting Odds Explained For Dummies
4. Nfl Betting Lines Explained
5. Understanding The Spread In Football

We look at the bet types and odds available to you as a bettor when making your bet on football. With so many options it can be confusing for the first time bettor, but with a small amount of effort you can soon ensure you are backing teams that will at least have the best chance of delivering you a win.

Type of bets when betting on football and NFL Odds

We see many bet types and strategies applied when betting on football, we wanted to give you more detail on what we see as the best value bets for you to make as an amateur bettor.

Our Best NFL betting sites are below, read their review and see their offers

Spread betting

With NFL games being so high scoring NFL betting is dictated by the point spread. As an explanation of spread betting; the spread also known as ‘line’ and it can be seen as a type of side bet that equalizes the chance of winning. The spread/line that is set by the sportsbook and offered to bettors for any given game will be designated with either the – or + symbol which shows the favorite, or if the team is expected to be the underdog.

Moneyline

Nfl Betting Odds Explained Week

With team differences being so small, and the winning or losing margin being so close within the NFL games Moneyline (ML) bets can be placed on either the favorite or the underdog, with the bet intention to win. This bet suits those who think that either a team is about to break out from several previous losses, or that they are happy accepting the odds even for a favorite to win.

Quarter /1st Half Lines

As with ML (Money line bets) most bets made by bettors on football games are on the final outcome of the game, we have seen many new hybrid bet types offered particularly with in-play betting (betting live on NFL games during the game) but bets such as 1st quarter and 1st half lines have been offered for some time and are well taken up by bettors. So what is the Quarter spread bet? The quarter spread bet is used to select who will be winning at the end of the 1st quarter, with the 1st Half Line spread bet covering the first two quarters, and being decided when the 2 quarters are over.

Half time Lines

Nfl Betting Odds Explained 2019

Other bets that exist and are offered by the best NFL sportsbooks are in-game bets that are placed placed DURING halftime, and its exactly what you would expect, a bet made to determine the outcome of the second half, basically betting on determining the outcome of the game.

Betting on Totals or Over-Under

Nfl Betting Odds Explained For Dummies

When betting on totals or over/under you bet whether the points scored in the game (the total points scored) will be over or under a number, this number is set by the sportsbook offering the bets, this betting and the totals / under/over values are affected by the bettors making other bets, and are so determined by the betting website based on this data.

Parlays and Teaser betting

Parlays are wagers placed in combination with other bets such as spread bets, moneyline bets and totals, and are there to help you increase your win. Parlay bets only become winning bets when all your individual other bets become wins. Teaser bets are based on points that help you push the win value higher when you win. As an example if the proposed bet line happens to be offered at -14 and you have a 6 point teaser points value, your new line is -8.

Futures betting on NFL

Futures bets are placed on an event that will occur in the future, with almost no limit to the types of bets that you can make or will be offered by the top NFL sportsbooks, most initial future bet in size of volume is superbowl winner. There will be odds on games, goals scored, most touchdowns, yards run, the list of bets offered by the best websites ensures that some really interesting bets can be had, normally with excellent or at the least very interesting odds.

With all the bets on offer, in-play- futures and more, having a great strategy and ensuring you are betting with a trusted betting website is important, check all the best NFL sportsbook reviews here

Easily the most popular type of betting for NFL football is “spread” betting or more commonly known as betting against the spread. Bettors who are new to NFL betting or betting in general may be a little confused with NFL spread betting, but it is pretty easy to understand once it is explained to you. We will explain what betting against the spread means below.

What is Betting Against The Spread?

For each NFL game the oddsmakers set a number of points in which the favored team is favored by. Bettors can then either choose for the favored team to win by more than the number of points set, or bet on the underdogs to lose by less than the number of points they are underdogs by or win the game straight up. For example, the spread could be set on the favored team at 6.5 points. This would mean in order for a bet on the favored team on the spread to win they would need to win by more than 6.5 points (7 or more) in order to win the bet. It also means that a bet on the underdog team would win if the underdogs lost by less than 6.5 points (6 or less) or won the game outright.

Example of NFL Spread Bet

Below is an example of what NFL spread betting would look like:

Matchup

• TeamsSpread
• Dallas Cowboys -2.5
• New York Giants +2-5

The negative (-) sign indicates that the Cowboys are the favorites, while the positive (+) sign indicates that the New York Giants are the underdogs. With the spread set at 2.5 points, a bet on the Cowboys would mean that they would have to win by more than 2.5 points (3 or more) in order for you to win that bet. A bet on New York would mean that the Giants would have to either lose by 2.5 or less points (2 or less) or win the game outright in order for your bet to win.

Here is another example with a screenshot taken from 5Dimes.eu during Week 3 of the 2013 NFL season:

Here you can see that the Rams are +3.5, while the Cowboys are -3.5. So for this example the Cowboys are 3.5 point favorites, while the Rams are underdogs of 3.5 points. If you were to bet on St Louis you would need them to lose by 3 or fewer points or just win the game outright. If you were to bet on Dallas you would need the Cowboys to win by 4 or more points.

If the Cowboys were to win by 3 points, lets say 30-27, any bets on the Rams +3.5 would win. Even though the Rams didn’t win the game they covered the spread of 3.5 points.

Now if the Cowboys were to win by 4 points, lets say 31-27, the Cowboys have covered the spread and anyone who wagered on Dallas would win their bets.

Other NFL Spread Betting Information

You may often notice that the spread is sometimes set at an even number such as 3, 6 , 10, etc. In this case if the favored team won by the exact amount set for the spread the bet would be pushed, and all bets would be returned. For example, if the Patriots were 3 point favorites and they won by a FG (3 points) than this would results in a push, meaning no matter which side you bet on you would get your money returned to you.

Nfl Betting Lines Explained

The most common NFL spreads are usually set between about 2.5-10.5 points, but you will also almost always have games each week with spreads lower than 2.5 and higher than 10.5. In the event that the oddsmakers feel the game doesn’t need a spread, it would be set at 0 or what some call a pick’em (both teams are given even odds to win for this type of bet).

The odds given on the spread are usually -110 unless otherwise noted. It is not uncommon to see one side of the spread being -105, with the other side being -115. If you don’t see any odds listed for each side of NFL spreads you are supposed to assume the odds are -110 on each. Not sure how to read NFL betting odds? Check out our Sports Betting Odds guide.

Understanding The Spread In Football

Now that you know the basics of NFL spread betting you’ll want to check out our Sports Betting Strategy guide which has some great NFL strategy articles written by a professional bettor.