Online Nfl Betting
Welcome to NFL-Online-Betting.com your home for the best NFL online betting sites and bonuses for players from the USA and Canada. Here you will find free NFL betting picks and predictions along with reviews of our top sportsbooks for football wagering in 2020-2021 with NFL betting lines explained. NFL Wagering Odds Explained. Monitoring public betting data is a vital tool used by sharp bettors to find value within the sports betting marketplace. Spread A point spread allows bettors to wager on the margin of victory in an NFL game.
Football is the most popular bet sport in the U.S. with $93 billion wagered per season. American Gaming Association (AGA) estimated that the Super Bowl (yes, just one game) drew an astonishing $4.2 billion of bets (even up to $8 billion according to some estimates).
Book | Features | Website | Review | Bet now |
---|---|---|---|---|
| Betway | Read Review | Bet now | |
| Spin Palace | Read Review | Bet now | |
| 888sport | Read Review | Bet now |
Both football and the NFL are a part of American life and culture. They’re going nowhere. (And, who knows, soon one franchise may go to the U.K.)
What you’ll find on this page are the best U.S.-friendly betting sites that accept live wagers on football games – in other words, a combination of the best live betting odds, most betting options, and reliable service.
We’ll also explain the basics of football betting, and, towards the end of this page, we’ve written a few words about the most popular events and shocking upsets in the history of the league.
Where to Bet?
Winning bettors need to keep two things in mind when selecting NFL betting sites:
- Always shop betting lines at multiple sites, and;
- Only bet at reputable online sportsbooks with long-term positive track records.
That’s right: in order to profit from live betting on the NFL, you need accounts at several online bookmakers. There’s no betting site that’s going to give you the best odds 100% of the time. Even a slightly improved betting line can be the difference between making a profit and breaking even.
You can’t just join any sportsbook though, no matter how good its betting lines seem to be. Well, technically you can, but if you hope to get your withdrawal processed successfully, there’s only a handful of sites worth spending your time on.
Bet Nfl Football Online
We’ve spent countless hours rating each website that’s proven to be accurate and reliable so that you don’t have to. These ratings are updated constantly so that if any new sites or trends develop, our readers are the first to know about them.
How You Can Bet
Before we dive into the more obscure bets, let’s take a look at the three most popular forms of betting on football:
The Spread
No, it’s not your favorite flavor of jam on your toast each morning, but it can be equally as enjoyable. The “Spread” is the most popular form of NFL betting and refers to a handicapped score that you think one team is going to beat.
In a spread bet, you choose one team to beat their projected “line”. For example, if San Francisco’s line is -3.5, that means that San Francisco would have to win by four points if you chose them. It means they start the game (at least for your purposes) in a three and half point hole.
You can also pick the underdog which is popular way to bet. If San Francisco was playing Philadelphia and they were the underdog, Philadelphia’s line may read as +3.5. That means they would have to lose by less than four points in order for you to win your bet.
If San Franciso wins 24-21, you still win your bet!
The Moneyline
The Moneyline is popular as well because it takes the guesswork out of predicting how much a team may win or lose by. All you need to do as a bettor is choose who you think is going to win the game, and apply the odds to your wager. Moneyline odds are always represented as a reflection of a $100 bet.
For example, if we use the same example and San Francisco is a favorite, their line may read as -180. This means you would have to bet $180 to win $100. If you chose Philadelphia, the line may read as +150. This means that if you bet $100 dollars you win $150. The odds are always better for the worse team, which makes gambling on an underdog so exciting!
The Over/Under
This may be the easiest of all to understand, and takes the stress out of choosing just one team to follow. The name of this bet says it all: Simply choose whether or not the total score of the game will be over or under the set line. For example, if the line for that same San Francisco/Philadelphia game is set at 41.5 it means that both teams are expected to combine for close to that sum. You as the better simply choose whether it will go over or under that line and reap the rewards.
While these three bets may be the most popular, there are countless ways to enjoy football action from a financial point of view. Further examples are broken down briefly for you below:
Futures
As the name suggests, this refers to any bet where the outcome is happening in the future. These can include how many games a team will win, what player will win the MVP, or which team will emerge victorious in the Super Bowl. (For more, read our article on future bets.)
Teasers
A Teaser refers to two or more bets that are wagered on together, where you can adjust the lines to your favor by sacrificing your money earned. It’s a popular form of gambling amongst experts, and allows for more control over your destiny with a lower payout.
Pleasers
Similar to the Teaser bet, but gives the sport book you’ve chosen the better odds. This allows for a higher payout for yourself but at increased odds. It is not a very popular form of gambling but can be effective given the right circumstances
Parlays
A Parlay is an incredibly entertaining form of betting. All the bettor needs to do is choose several games (at least two) and link them together under one bet. That means all games the bettor chooses must be correct, but that the payout is exponentially higher with each game added on.
Propositions (Props)
There can be dozens and dozens of prop bets in a single game. It simply refers to one thing happening within a game. Examples can include the number of fumbles, interceptions or sacks and can range to the absurd like length of the national anthem or the color of gatorade poured on the winning coach. Props are incredibly popular for special events like the Super Bowl (which is we have a separate page dedicated on the subject).
Live Bets
NFL live betting is a popular and exciting form of betting. You bet on the action as it unfolds in front of you. This means that the odds change by the minute and you can always win your money back if your pre-match wagers seem to go down the drain.
An example of a live bet can be applied to our San Francisco and Philadelphia example we were using earlier. If you bet on San Franciso to win by four points and they start the game down 14 early thanks to some lucky Philadelphia touchdowns, the “line” will change in San Francisco’s favor. Where they were once expected to win by four, they may be expected to lose by seven! You can now bet on that line and hope San Francisco makes a comeback. This allows for the bettor to constantly be in on the action, regardless of how they may have started.
Live wagering combines the most popular sport to bet on with the thrill and excitement of live-action betting and allows for everyone stay in on the action regardless of how they may have been doing previously.
Here are some tips to make sure you stay ahead of the game:
Tips for Live Football Betting
It may seem obvious, but do your research. Too many uninformed bettors simply wager based on their gut, or their favorite team. This can blind them to facts and analysis that are directly related to the outcome of every single game. Take the time to understand the following factors before deciding where to place your hard earned income.
Nfl Betting
Trends
There are a multitude of trends that affect every game. Has one team won their last six games in a row? Does one team always beat the other? How well does this team do in January? How well does this team do against the spread? These are just some of the questions you can ask yourself, and the information is readily available at any trustworthy gambling website.
Weather
While several NFL teams play indoors, many don’t. This is where weather becomes a factor. How good is this team in the rain? What happens to this field goal kicker in severe wind? How accurate are both quarterbacks in the snow? Determining the factor of weather can pay huge dividends for you in the future and should aways be looked at before each game.
Rest
Football is a bruising, physical game that often results in devastating injury, but also simple wear and tear. Some teams are more rested than the other when they square off each week, and that’s an important factor to consider. If one team hasn’t played in ten days and the other played as recently as six days ago who would you choose if they were evenly matched?
Injuries
It may seem obvious, but staying up to date on each team’s injured players is was important as knowing who the players are themselves. As the football season progresses, injuries pile up and differ from week to week. A player that is healthy on Wednesday may be injured by the time you go to make your bet on Sunday so always stay informed.
Here’s Our Live Betting Tips Page.
Fading the Public
Have you ever heard someone use the phrase “the public” when referencing sports betting?
It’s a part a system that’s been outdated for around a decade now and no longer works. This old system suggested that all you need to do to beat NFL betting is to find out who the biggest fish you know has wagered on and then place your bets on the opposite.
The reason this worked in the 80’s and 90’s and the first few years of the millennium decade is because betting shops were small. These sites had $250 to $1000 betting limits and mostly serviced recreational players. Back then bookmakers could anticipate which teams fans had a biased towards and then shade the line in such a way wagers on these teams were so far –EV that wagers on their opponent were +EV.
Now let me go ahead and explain why this no longer works.
While these sites don’t take American bettors, at Pinnacle Sports punters are free to wager up to $30,000 per bet, and can keep betting as many times as they’d like with no maximum, so long as each time they make a bet, the odds move. If the odds don’t move they have to wait 4 hours before wagering $30,000 again. Meanwhile Betfair is a massive peer to peer betting exchange with millions and millions of dollars in liquidity. Here bettors can wager as much as they’d like.
Meanwhile at US friendly betting sites 5Dimes allows $10,000 per NFL side, BetOnline $25,000 per NFL side, and Bookmaker.eu $40,000 per NFL side.
All of these mentioned sites have no choice in the matter – they absolutely have to do their best to set accurate lines. When they fail to do that, they get max. bet to death and all the +EV wagers they are giving out don’t come remotely close to offsetting the $25.00 and $100 bets made by casual sports fans.
Now if you’re thinking “okay, but at recreational sites with smaller limits the lines are still shaded to take fan bias in account,” think again.
There’s something like 200,000 “full time” professional poker players (as in people who make their living at it) all of which understand expected value in gambling. Next add small-time but talented stock traders, financial advisors, investors and businessmen to the list that understand market theory. This is only a portion of the market sharp enough to know, if the Jets are +6.5 at Pinnacle, Betfair, 5Dimes AND Bookmaker and +8 at Bodog or Intertops, obviously +8 is the +EV bet.
You now have several hundred sharp punters having spotted the shaded line and even if this site has a $1,000 max bet, they’re going to pay the price. What’s vital to understand is betting is near an efficient market, sportsbooks don’t and can’t afford to set lines that are off to cater to fan bias; this worked in 2001, but has no place in any serious sports betting discussion in 2011.
To conclude with some actual tips that do work especially well in today’s market, I encourage you to read our articles on teaser betting, prop betting and future betting. Each of these articles contains gems that will get off on the right track to thinking like a winning sports bettor.
Popular Events
The Super Bowl
Like all great sports, the NFL has its moment to crown a champion each year, and that moment is the Super Bowl. There is rarely a more watched event in all of television, let alone sports, and billions of dollars are gambled on the one game each year. The props bets we discussed earlier number in the hundreds and go right down to what song the halftime performer will sing. There simply isn’t a more entertaining spectacle in all of sports.
The Pro Bowl
The NFL’s Pro Bowl is still considered a bit of a joke considering the players don’t really hit each other, and often the very best players aren’t even there. Never the less, theres a lot of action to bet on every year when the all-stars converge to play some pick-up football, and its fun to get in on the action.
Playoffs
Because the NFL only plays one game a week, the playoffs are the same. There are no three game, five game or seven game series, just one showdown winner-takes-all affair that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up. The Playoffs last four weeks, culminating in the Super Bowl and offer some of the best gambling opportunities in all of sports.
A Gambler’s Paradise
Every gambler chases the ultimate underdog win, a game that lets you place money on the unthinkable happening, only to see it come true. Below are a few of the biggest upsets in NFL History to give you the encouragement you need to take a few risks in the upcoming season.
Super Bowl XXXVI
Tom Brady wasn’t always the historically great quarterback he is today. In his second year in the league he showed flashes of brilliance but didn’t dominate the way Kurt Warner and his St. Louis Rams did. That didn’t matter to Brady. He led his Patriots to a 20-17 win against one of the most heavily favored Super Bowl teams in history to start growing his legend.
Super Bowl XLII
Brady is in this upset as well, but on the wrong side of the football. After leading his team to an 18-0 record leading up the Super Bowl the game was all but sealed until Eli Manning and David Tyree connected for one of the greatest catches in history to help the Giants upset the Patriots 17-14
Super Bowl III
This game dates way back, but if you have the time you need to go watch it. Joe Namath made a pledge that his New York Jets would win against the heavily favored Baltimore Colts. Everyone thought Namath was crazy until he led his team to a 16-7 victory.
It goes to show you that anything is possible in sports, and as long as you do your research, stick to trustworthy advice and play within your limits you can open up a world of unlimited potential. Welcome to gambling on the NFL.
Read More About Football
- Where to Bet:
How to read Super Bowl 55 Odds
The Kansas City Chiefs wil meet the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Super Bowl 55 from Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida on Feb. 7, 2021.
The Chiefs opened as -3.5 betting favorites while the Buccaneers are 3.5 underdogs.
After early wagers came in, most operators are holding Kansas City -3 (-120).
If you were to wager on Kansas City -3, you would have to lay 5/6 odds (Bet $120 to win $100) instead of your normal 10/11 juice (Bet $110 to win $100).
The return on Tampa Bay would be even-money (1/1) and a $100 wager would return $100.
The total or over-under on Super Bowl 55 is hovering between 56 and 57 points.
How to read NFL Las Vegas Odds
The point-spread was developed to provide a balance for both teams involved in a contest to entice bettors to potentially back the weaker team and receive points. The two squads in a game are listed with a title, either a favorite or an underdog. The favorite is usually the perceived better team in the game, as backing them means giving up several points.
The favorite is always listed with a minus (-) sign before the point-spread while the underdog is labeled with a plus (+) label.
Ex. Favorite -10, Underdog +10
On the VegasInsider.com odds page, there is another number associated with the favorite and its listed as -10. This number is simply defined as “vig” or what many in the sports betting industry call vigorish. Another common term is called “juice” and it’s technically the price the bettor has to pay on a straight wager.
Ex. Bet $110 to win $100 (10% juice)
Ex. Bet $100 to win $90.91 (10% juice)
It's not uncommon to see other values posted other than -10. Examples seen on the NFL Vegas Odds pages could include -08, -12, -15 and -20. The -10 price is the most common value in the industry while many books offer reduced 'juice odds' and that would fall into the -08 category.
The lower-juice sportsbooks are normally found outside of the state Nevada. If you are in a state where sports betting is legal, please check out our online sportsbook directory to find the best and most secure places to make NFL bets.
Another number that’s posted on the NFL Las Vegas is the total or ‘over/under’ for the specific matchup. If the favorite is designated as the home team, then the total will be listed above and vice versa if the visitors are favorites.
All of the above numbers are listed next to the teams, and before each matchup is a Rotation number. The NFL Las Vegas Odds are listed in order of rotation and those numbers are generated and produced by the sportsbooks. Above each matchup and rotation is the Time of the game, which is subject to change. All game times are Eastern Standard Time.
NFL Open Line
One of the best features on the NFL Vegas Odds is the Open Line. This numbers consists of the first betting line received from one of our Las Vegas or Global Sportsbooks. The opening line varies depending on the sportsbook but it provides a clear-cut rating that the oddsmakers use. If you’re betting on the NFL or any other sport, it’s a great idea to view the open line first.
VI Consensus NFL Line
The VegasInsider.com Consensus NFL Line is just as important as the Open Line and also a key resource on odds platform. The Consensus column could be called a “Median Line” since it shows the most consistent number provided by the sportsbooks on VegasInsider.com. The consensus line will be the same as the open line but once the wagers start coming in, this number is often different than the openers.
How do I bet on the Super Bowl?
We know that you can bet on the Super Bowl and all of NFL Futures or bet on the NFL Draft at any time of the year, but what’s the process? The future wager or the “Odds to Win” bet on the Super Bowl is correctly selecting a team to win an event that takes place at a later time. A bettor will have his wagered money tied up until there is an outcome and bettors will receive fixed odds when they place the wager. In the case of the Super Bowl, you’re not a winner or loser until you see zeros on the clock in the final game.
Most sportsbooks offer different ways to read to Super Bowl Odds. In the fractional NFL Futures Odds format below, you simply take the odds and multiply by the amount wagered.
Ex. Green Bay (8/1) to win the Super Bowl
The Packers are listed as an 8/1 betting choice to win the Super Bowl. If you wager $100 on Green Bay to win the NFC and they capture the championship, then you would win $800 (8 ÷ 1 x 100). Your online betting account would then credit your account $900, which includes your win and stake ($100).
The American Format would see Green Bay listed at +800 and for the Decimal Format, the Packers would be 9.00.
If you are in a state where online betting is legal, we encourage you to check out our sportsbook directory to find the most trustworthy and reputable sites and mobile apps to place your Super Bowl bets.