NFL Betting: How To Read NFL Odds And Spreads
Successful NFL betting doesn’t always mean backing up your favorite football teams and hoping they win. It depends on how well you understand the odds, the betting lines, markets, and how you implement the appropriate strategies.
NFL betting can be rewarding if you do it the right way. One of the ways to achieve this is by learning to read odds and manipulate them to your advantage. Besides these, you must also familiarize yourself with other betting terms like point spread, Moneyline, and the over/under option.
This information will help you get started and understand how the bookmakers think and how their actions can help you win. This article will explain how to read NFL odds accurately as a punter. You will also learn how point spreads, Moneyline wagers, and other betting strategies work in NFL betting and how to use them to your advantage.
What Are NFL Odds?
Betting odds are mathematical representations of the predicted outcome of a game or sports event. It entails everything from the return, the winning stake, the profit, and the favorable wager. It’s the bookmaker’s attempt to even out the balance between opposing teams. It also aims to instigate people to stake on both sides without disrupting the balance they have created.
Besides these, it’s also the bookmakers’ way of protecting their profits. For instance, if it’s general knowledge that Team A plays better than Team B, bookies can tilt the odds in favor of Team B to get punters to back the latter.
How Does Point Spread Work?
The spread or the line is a betting strategy deployed by sportsbooks to handicap the favorite NFL team. In doing this, the bookmakers weigh the balance between two opposing teams. One team is termed as favorites and the other as underdogs. It’s specified using the negative signs for the favorite and the positive for the underdogs. It explains how many points a team will lose or win by.
The sportsbook determines the point spread to show the punters the team with the higher odds and the one with lower points. For example, suppose the spread for Team A and B is 5.5 points – it means Team A should win 5.5 points and above against Team B for the punter to win the event. On the other hand, a punter who backs Team B can win the bet if the team wins in the game or loses by 5.5 points and below.
What Is a Moneyline Bet?
The Moneyline is a simple NFL wager. It’s strictly based on who wins the game, regardless of the spread margin or winning points. With a Moneyline bet, you only need to wager on the game’s outcome without considering any external factors.Â
To read this wager correctly, you should understand how the signs work. The negative signs are used to indicate the favorite teams (the ones expected to win), which is often followed by how much you should wager on it, and the positive sign indicates the underdogs (the weaker teams).
For example, suppose Team A is favored with -200, while Team B is the underdogs and valued at +100, with a payout of $100, it means you have to bet $200 on Team A to win $300, while you only need to wager $100 on Team B to win $200.
The underdogs might seem like the more profitable wager — maybe they are, but it’s also the bookmakers’ attempt to even out the balance between teams as most people might not want to stake on the losing team.
What Is The Over/Under Total?
The over/under, also known as the Total, is the sum of the points the two teams may score. It can be a decimal or whole number, and the opposing team should either play above or below that point for a bettor to win.
The point is usually between 36 and 47, which may differ depending on your sportsbook. However, if the teams play the exact slated point number, it’s known as a push, and it nullifies your bet. In this case, all money is returned to the punters.
For example, if Team A and B play a game with a slated over/under-margin of 42, and the match ends with Team A spotting a 25 point while Team B has 20 totaling 45, then betting on the Overs guarantees a win. However, if the match ends with 25-15, which totals 40, only a bet on the Unders market can guarantee a win.
Final Notes
Betting on the NFL gets simplified when you have the basic knowledge to read and understand how the odds work. Studying the two teams, their forms, and other accompanying factors like weather and injuries is also crucial for a successful bet.
