How To Make Winning NFL Picks

10 Smart Tips When Betting on the NFL

NFL football, which offers sports bettors hundreds of opportunities each season, is the most popular sport bet in America. Between spread and over/under bets, you have the chance to make about 32 wagers per week. That’s a lot of opportunity. Of course, you can’t wager on every game. That would be disastrous. What you want to do is find spreads and totals that you can exploit to your advantage.

Before betting on the NFL, you must know every part of the game. Remember that unlike college football, it does not matter how much a team wins by, as in pro football a win by one point has the same effect as win by 30. If you’re used to betting on college football, you may be thrown off by the fact that the spreads in the NFL tend to be fairly small. A two-touchdown spread is huge while a three- to six-point spread tends to be the norm in the pros.

Along with knowing and understanding how the game works, how it’s different from college football and the strengths and weakness of each team (there are 32 of them), there are 10 basic smart tips that sports bettors can utilize for success.

First, be sure to completely analyze each game, developing power rankings and creating accurate matchups. Do not bet on mere hunches. No one can win consistently by doing so. The NFL is a league that overall has parity and that makes betting difficult and extremely challenging to say the least.

Look to the underdog. Don’t discount them with the point spread in play. The smart money often goes on the team that’s not favored. Dogs win quite a bit in fact over 50% of the time. Look to them in the right spots.

Take advantage of the early point spreads, as these tend to be soft. You can find some great NFL deals late Sunday and early Monday. But before betting, do your homework. Don’t bet NFL games blindly. Remember that odds tighten up as the week goes on and a spread can change as much as a point or two and that movement can make a major difference. Spreads are altered for three reasons. And that leads to our fourth tip.

The first reason for the change is that as time goes on it becomes clearer to bookies exactly how big or small the spread should be. This altering of the spread gives the bookmaker an advantage. These are often not good bets. Also, point spreads may be artificially changed to push more bets towards the team that is being under-bet. Don’t follow the money on this one. Stay away from it. It a bookkeeping move not a performance one. The third reason a spread may move has to do with a change that may affect the outcome of a game, such as an injury, bad weather or a trade. Do pay attention to this and where the smart money is going on it. This may be a bet to make.

Matchups are essential to a NFL bettor’s success. A gambler must do their homework and that includes studying matchups and creating power rankings. This is key in understanding the potential outcome of a game and how accurate the point spread may or may not be. In creating your point spread information stats and inside info is key. Keep up on current events including illnesses, injuries and suspensions. Become an avid consumer of information on sports blogs, news sites and team websites.

After a few weeks, a smart bettor will start to notice two types of consistency. There will be clubs that rarely beat the spread and others that are able to do so almost willingly. Find two or three clubs that offer this consistency and either wager on them or against them. As an example, you could end up wagering against a team that rarely beats the spread and on one that does so almost all the time.

A top team that was hammered last week will tend to hammer back the next. Pay attention when a much weaker opponent beats a first-place team. Chances are last week’s loser will win bring their best effort the next.

Undefeated seasons are rare even in the NFL where a club plays 16 games. So when that team is headed into week 5 or 6 and they are still undefeated start looking for the time that they will stumble and fall. Try to discern what upcoming opponent may take them down. There’s a good chance it may be against a weaker team that has very few wins that they are overlooking.

Great defenses can win games or at least keep them close, causing a team to be beaten by the spread. Don’t discount topnotch defenses even when they are facing excellent offenses. The inverse is also important to consider—if a team puts a poor defense on the field, not matter how good their offense, they may very well have tough time beating the spread.

This last tip concerns your using a premium handicapper and following their sage advice. A smart NFL handicapper can be huge in increasing your chances of making cash or between your winning a little money and cleaning your bookie out. Look for a NFL handicapper with a solid track record and years of experience. You’ll want to follow someone that actually bets the same games they give out since anyone that doesn’t do so is likely not winning over the long run.

NFL sports bettors can use these 10 tips in this article to increase their chances of winning and their profits. Utilize these tips each and every week in a NFL season filled with amazing opportunities to make money.