Gambling In Football
In 2009, stories emerged of former Chelsea striker Eidur Gudjohnsen’s £6 million gambling debt. The Icelandic footballer became addicted whilst recovering from a serious knee injury at Barcelona, having spent two summers visiting Las Vegas. Photo: Metaweb (FB) / CC-BY 2.
- Half of the Premier League’s 20 clubs have a gambling sponsor on their shirt and the proportion rises to 17 out of 24 among clubs in the Championship, which is itself sponsored by Sky Bet.
- A round robin is a way for bettors to make multiple parlay bets on a group of teams at once without having to creative a separate ticket for each of combination. A football specific round robin.
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.
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.
Gambling In Football Game
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.
For as long as man has walked the earth, the bet has existed. Two individuals with different perceptions of an expected outcome place some sort of valuable material in the balance. The one who predicts the outcome wins the valuables. NFL Football Gambling is the ultimate “I told you so”, since now you have something to show for it if you win.
NFL gambling is very easy understand. Two professional football teams square off on the gridiron. Who will win? This is the crux of NFL Football gambling. You risk money on the outcome you expect against the NFL Gambling Odds in order to cash in big, or at least to prove your buddy wrong.
The form of NFL football gambling takes many shapes. You can bet a beer, lunch, a car wash, dinner, you name it. Most forms of gambling on the NFL fall into the cold hard cash category. From one buck to thousands of dollars, millions of dollars trade hands every Sunday afternoon against the NFL Gambling Line. The popularity of NFL gambling is astounding, which is a testament to the human desire to take a risk in hopes of a reward in some form.
Online NFL Football Gambling
While NFL gambling is simply a repercussion of human nature, the rapid growth of Online NFL gambling is a testament to the power of the internet. No more calling your buddies, or worse yet – some unsavory book maker, in order to lay down a bet. You don’t have to be in Atlantic City or Las Vegas in order to experience the rush of NFL gambling anymore. Simply log on and run a search for “NFL gambling online ” and there you have it – hundreds of sites where you can place bets. If you are looking for a reliable place we recommend Bookmaker's Online NFL Football Gambling. They are the top place for Online NFL Gambling this season.
How To Bet Football Odds
Many sites that feature NFL gambling also provide pages and pages of analysis and information: rosters, injury reports, schedules, tendencies, and nfl gambling picks. While you may have all this at your fingertips, you are still the one that has to pull the trigger and pick a side – no different than a lunch bet with a co-worker. If you are looking for those winning predictions we invite you to check out our Maddux Sports NFL gambling picks page.