NFL Betting is the most popular form of sports wagering in the United States. NFL gambling is in part popular because most of the games happen on one day. This gives the gambler an action filled day by being able to place and collect on all the bets within a span of 12 hours. NFL is also popular for gambling because of the fact of the two tiers of gambling on a Sunday. What I mean by the two tiers is that there are a chunk of early afternoon games followed by late afternoon games. This allows the gambler to either make back some of the money that was lost earlier in the day or it allows the gambler to become more aggressive in the late afternoon games if the day started very profitable for them. The inclusion of the Monday Night Football game also allows the gambler to try to break the bank or recoup losses from the previous day.
NFL betting has many different variations on which the gambler can make money. There are three types of bets that can be made on a single NFL Game. There is the money-line bet, the over/under bet, and the most popular spread bet.
The money-line bet is simply picking which team will win the game. It does not matter if the team you pick wins by 1 point or 20 points you will be paid the same amount no matter what. I will give an example of a money line bet. If you bet on a heavy favorite to win a game usually the payout reflects that. For instance, taking the 2008 regular season in mind, if you would have bet on the New York Giants to beat the Detroit Lions you would have been guaranteed a win this year. However the payout would have been around -350. What that number means is that for every $350 you bet on the Giants, you would only get a $100 back, conversely if you would have bet on the Lions, you would have been paid $300 for every $100 you bet. As you can see, the amount paid off on a money line bet is not as lucrative if you bet on the favorites. While it may be an easier bet, you will be risking a lot more money in order to make any significant money.
But why don’t you get $350 back on the underdog you ask? The bookmaker needs to make money for taking your bet so that $50 difference is essentially his cut. When the game is over, he takes all the money he collects on the losing side and uses it to pay the players that bet the winning side. Because he only has to pay $300 when the underdog wins, he is collecting $50 for his role of booking the bet. That’s his commission or “vig.”
The Over/Under bet is a very simple sports bet which most of the time pays the same no matter which side you take. In simplistic terms that Over/Under is what is says it is, the bookmaker will give a combined point total for a NFL game and you, the bettor, decide whether the two teams would go over or under that number. This is a very simple bet for any gambler to make and it also can be very exciting. If you have no allegiance to either team and have taken the over, you would be rooting for both teams to just keep scoring in order to cover your bet. Another perk with betting over unders is that although the game could be a blowout and the spread winner could be virtually determined already, the over/under wager could still be in play since it has no bearing on whether who wins or loses.
The most popular type of NFL is the point spread or spread bet. What the spread bet means is that you bet on either team, winner or loser, and hope they cover the amount of points assigned to them. Allow me to explain the spread further. Let’s take the Giants and Lions example again. If the Giants were -14 that would make the Lions +14, so that means that before the game starts the Giants are trailing by 14 points. So in order to win the bet the Giants would have to win by 15 or more or conversely the Lions would have to lose by 13 or less or win. Anything at 14 point marker would be a push and no one would win. The good thing about these bets is that they pay off much more generously than the previously mentioned money line bet. The usual odds for spread bets is usually -110, which means for every $110 you bet, you would make a $100 back.
As seen, NFL betting allows the gambler to have an action packed Sunday with many different bets that can be made in order for you to make money throughout the day. It’s a sports bettor’s version of gambling heaven.
