How To Win Football Betting Games
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Betting on the NFL isn’t necessarily easy, but making smarter bets is always possible for those motivated to learn a bit of new strategy.
Try these nine thoughtful tips when wagering at online football betting sites and watch your bankroll grow.
1. Bet With Your Head, Not Your Heart
It may sound obvious, but avoiding emotion when wagering remains a challenge for many bettors. We all have our personal biases. Whether it’s a favorite team or one we despise, putting aside these preferences isn’t easy.
Bet £10 Get £20 in Free Bets T&Cs apply. £10 min cash bet at 1.5 min odds, settled within 14 days of sign-up. Win part of E/W bets. 2 non-withdrawable £10 tokens: accept in 7 days, valid for 7 days from acceptance (ex. E/Ws & Multiples), stakes not returned. Click for Rules & Exclusions. Football Betting We adore the ‘beautiful game’ just as much as you do. Thanks to global coverage of the major football leagues such as the English Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga and the leading continental club competitions like the UEFA Champions League, you can bet on pretty much any professional football.
But here’s the thing: becoming more objective towards NFL betting online is literally the easiest way to make smarter bets. It doesn’t require a detailed strategy on mathematical analysis, it just requires common sense.
Cheering on your favorite team (at least) 16 times per year is a lot of fun, but losing money in the process is not. To become a smarter bettor, be aware of your biases and try to avoid decisions based solely on favoritism.
2. Pay Attention to Where the Game Is Played
Home-field advantage matters, and it matters more at certain stadiums. For example, the New England Patriots, went 42-6 straight-up (32-14-2 ATS) at home from 2014-2018. The Seahawks also perform exceptionally well in Seattle: they are 92-31 at home since 2003.
But they’re not the only two teams with such an advantage. Do your research by comparing each team’s home vs. away record when handicapping for home team advantage.
West Coast teams traveling to the Eastern Time Zone tend to have less difficulty overcoming the time change, but East Coast teams are at an inherent disadvantage when forced to play on the Pacific Coast, three hours later than they’re used to.
There are also teams who don’t travel well. From 2014-2018 (a five-season span), the San Francisco 49ers were a terrible 9-31 on the road, third-worst in the league. They weren’t much better against the spread, going 16-22-2 (fourth-worst in the NFL). The Texans also struggled to cover the spread on the road in 2016, posting a 2-6 record ATS.
Knowing where and when the teams played the previous week is also an important factor to consider. Some teams suffer from real disadvantages. West Coast teams traveling to the Eastern Time Zone tend to have less difficulty overcoming the time change, but East Coast teams are at an inherent disadvantage when forced to play on the Pacific Coast, three hours later than they’re used to.
Lastly, certain dome (indoor) teams can struggle to perform outdoors. For example, Drew Brees’ passer rating drops from 102.5 in a dome to 90.3 when playing outdoors. And this is all extremely useful information for bettors.
3. Know the Individual Matchups
Football is often referred to as the ultimate team sport, but there are certain one-on-one matchups that can dramatically affect the outcome of a game.
For example, a weak offensive tackle should not be expected to perform well against the premier edge-rushers in the league. Pay attention to major skill discrepancies between players who will be going head-to-head.
Coaches are perhaps the most significant head-to-head matchups that bettors should consider. Every coach uses recurring strategies that fare very well against some opponents and flop against others. Coaches get to know each other’s approaches to the game, and some are better at responding to these strategic considerations.
A great example of this is Tom Coughlin and Bill Belichick. The Patriots have been dominant since Belichick has been steering the ship, but he was 2-5 when coaching against Coughlin following the 2018 season.
4. Know More than Just the Trends
When it comes to betting on NFL games, following the trends isn’t a bad idea — patterns sometimes provide valuable information. For example, from 2010 to 2018, the Bears went 12-5 ATS when coming off a bye week, while the 49ers, on the other hand, were just 5-11 ATS in that same time frame.
The sharpest bettors always look at the context behind the numbers when evaluating statistical trends.
Noticing that a team just scored 49 points the previous week doesn’t necessarily mean that their offense is firing on all cylinders. Go back and look at how all the points were scored. Maybe a defensive back fell down to allow a long touchdown pass. Perhaps the defense scored a couple of those touchdowns. Maybe they were just playing the Browns.
The sharpest bettors always look at the context behind the numbers.
5. Check the Injury Reports
As we mentioned, football is the ultimate team game, and small changes can throw off the entire unit. Make sure you know which players have missed practice during the week, what their status is for the upcoming game, and what role they play on the team.
Team injury reports can be a little vague, so it’s always a good idea to check the Twitter accounts of beat-writers for each team. Often, they will provide a little more detail.
6. Take Caution with Divisional Matchups
Teams that play each other twice per season get to know each other very well, and even bad teams tend to dig a little deeper when they are battling a division rival.
Looking to 2016, the Jacksonville Jaguars, Chicago Bears, and San Francisco 49ers were three of the bottom-four teams in the NFL, but they all posted a 4-2 record ATS within their respective divisions.
Even though one team may appear superior on paper, divisional matchups are often much closer than anticipated. This makes the great choices to bet on the NFL point spread, but they can be risky choices on the moneyline.
7. Don’t Fall in Love with Value
Betting the underdog on the moneyline can certainly pay off, but you need to consider why long odds are so long in the first place. Make sure you have very specific reasons and logic behind taking a +800 underdog on the moneyline, because you can be sure the sportsbook used reason and logic to set that moneyline in the first place.
We strongly recommend limiting parlays and teasers to 2-5 events when betting on the NFL.
You also need to be careful when constructing parlays and teasers. Don’t load them up with too many events. NFL teams are generally closely-matched compared to other sports, and it’s far too difficult to correctly predict the outcome of more than a handful of games. We strongly recommend limiting parlays and teasers to 2-5 events.
8. Monitor the Lines Throughout the Week
Monitoring the betting lines throughout the week is a big part of maximizing your chances. Some online books may provide more favorable NFL odds, and as the week progresses, you may find the odds change.
It’s important to keep in mind the influence of public perception here. Popular teams like the Dallas Cowboys, Green Bay Packers, and New England Patriots will always have loyal supporters betting with their hearts. They’re often referred to as public teams, and it’s very likely they’ll be more heavily favored than the statistics suggest they should be.
If you’re planning on betting against the public, wait around and let emotional bettors drive the odds in your favor. Conversely, if you’re planning to bet on a public team, jumping on an early line is likely the best decision.
9. Diversify Your NFL Bets
Football Games Betting Line
There is success to be had betting on the moneyline, the spread, and game totals. But to maximize your success, it’s crucial to know all the alternative bets you can make.
Many sportsbooks will allow you to bet on alternate spreads or buy and sell points. Instead of settling for a -3.5 spread that makes you a little uncomfortable, you can opt for a -2.5 spread with a more modest payout.
Enjoy the Action this NFL Season
The strategies above are great to keep in mind while wagering this football season, but they’re only a start. In the end, finding success is all about putting in the time and effort to research your pick and manage your bankroll effectively.
If you’re looking to for more football action than the NFL can provide, open up your Saturdays and take a look at our intro to betting on college football for more helpful tips and tricks.
Football Betting Strategy - How to Win Football Bets EveryTime
You're tired of putting money on football matches, only to lose out when it comes to the crunch. You want answers, and you want them fast - you want a Football betting strategy that works!. Stick with us, and we'll show you how to win football bets.
Get to Know Football
I know, it's a pretty obvious point to make, but would you go into a computer shop and say to the person behind the counter, 'I don't know much about computers, but give me the best one you have'?
Nope, you'd find out what you could about computers from websites, magazines and word-of-mouth before going shopping, because the last thing anyone wants is to get fleeced. You've got to know your market, whether you're looking at buying a new PC or betting on football.
This means making sure you have all the knowledge at your disposal that could be useful. With these, you can understand how to win football bets every time. From where can you get this knowledge? Allow me to explain.
Statistics
It's a point we often make on Bookiesmash, but the best bets are not made on hunches or hope. They're made on a clear understanding of what football teams, and footballers, do best. This means looking at the statistics on offer from various websites.
Bookiesmash is a good place to start. We analyze the games, looking at past form, player fitness, and how teams are set up. We also provide you with regular content that puts all that together and explains to you how to win football bets better than Yahoo Answers ever could. Simply put we give you the best possible information out there in order for you to develop your own personal Football Betting Strategy that works for you.
Check out our Football Betting Strategy 101 section for updates on the latest changes in football betting strategy, and we'll make sure you get the best possible return for your football bets.
Go Deeper
It's notable that a lot of recent success stories in football have been teams that have taken a statistical approach to the game. Footballers are not machines, but you can track their every move out on the pitch now, and there are sites that can tell even the newest bettor important tips on how to win at football betting.
The best on the web, in our opinion, is whoscored.com - a goldmine of statistics on the best goalscorers, defenders, and so on. You can use the data on whoscored to show, for example, the teams in any major league which score or concede the most goals before or after half time; with this information, you could place a bet on the Half-Time/Full-Time result.
There is a world of information on whoscored, and it's very easy to get lost in it - so take your time, get to know the stats, and don't be afraid to ask questions, either of your old friend Google or that mate we all have who knows everything about the game. A bit of extra knowledge, and you will know how to always win football bets.
Get to Know Different Kinds of Bets
How about the different kinds of bet you can make on a football match? There are many, some of them with great value to the smart bettor, others proving a bit of a distraction from the top prizes. Be careful what you put your money on, and you won't go wrong.
Bets on exact scores are the ones that people seem to flock to - but they shouldn't. Why? Well, for starters, they're not going to win you the big money the high odds promise, unless you're very fortunate. Let's suppose you bet on Team X to beat Team Y 2-0. What happens if team Y scores in the final minute to make it 2-1? You've lost a lot of money, that's what.
Protect yourself from this nightmare scenario, by betting on odds that might be shorter, but are for more likely occurrences. These might be the overall result (win, lose or draw), or the previously-mentioned Half-Time/Full-Time result, a useful bet if you know a team that has a few slow-starters in its ranks.
Rather than betting on the first goalscorer, as the TV commercials always implore you to do, think if that is the most sensible thing to do. Sure, your chosen player might be good. In fact, he might be the best goalscorer in the land. But how likely is he to score before anyone else, and will it really make a difference to the team's result whether he scores first or second?
Better to bet on your player scoring anytime. The odds aren't as long or as attractive as with first goalscorer, but you're more likely to win the bet, and so to get a return. This is another example of, with a bit of astute application of knowledge, how to always win football bets.
Accumulators
The accumulator, or acca, is the bet that can go so right, or so wrong, because of its increased level of risk.
What you do is put together a series of bets, usually on the same thing, across multiple matches. You might bet on the winner of, say, five different matches, with the aim of getting a bigger return when those matches are all over. Here and in Football Betting 101, we'll show you how to win football accumulator bets.
The benefit and the problem with accas is that, although when you add the matches together, they make for very attractive odds, if you invest in a five-fold (five-match) acca on match result, and four teams win but one team loses, you've lost your acca.
To avoid this situation, study team form carefully, look at sides in all major leagues which are on winning runs or which are facing sides that they are likely to beat, and place your bets accordingly. Look out for bookmakers offering promotions such as acca insurance - this is a way of getting your money back, usually as a later free bet, if one part of your acca lets you down.
How To Win Football Betting Games Free
The Bookie
How To Win Betting Football
In the middle of all this stands the bookmaker or bookie. This is the company that sets the odds that you will bet on. Choose your bookie wisely. On Bookiesmash we've got the best bookies reviewed and rated - check out all the different sites available to you, check out the statistics behind the football, and you will understand how to win football bets every time.
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