Betting options for the new NFL football season

Betting options for the new NFL football season

With the start of National Football League 2016 barely a week away, there’s plenty of speculation as to how events will unfold leading up to Super Bowl 2017. There are a range of wager options available that will enable any bettor to maintain an interest over the course of the season, both long-term and on an individual match-by-match basis.

In addition to betting on the Super Bowl outright winner, there is a market for the total number of wins any given team will secure over the course of the regular season. The spread on the Philadelphia Eagles is likely to be around + or – 7.5 wins, so should you believe that they will win eight or more games, your wager would be on +7.5.

If you envisage a less successful campaign of seven victories or less for the Eagles, then the -7.5 would be the wager to place. These are great bets to have and will retain interest over the course of the National Football League 2016, ensuring that most, if not every match has meaning for your wager.

For those new to betting, agood option when opening an account with an online bookmaker is to do so with a Betfred free bet for example. Free bets generally work by matching your first deposit with a bonus wager of equal value or more. So, open an account and have a bet on an NFL game and, provided you have followed the T&Cs, you could have a free bet on any other sporting event (within certain parameters).

There are three main markets for bettors on individual games – Money Line, Handicap and Total Points.
The Money Line is simply a wager on who will win the game, but the odds can be unappealing if you want to back the favourite if the two teams are mis-matched by ability.

The benefit of opting for the Handicap market over the Money Line is when one team is a heavy favourite. The Handicap ensures a more level playing field.
So, for example, if you fancy the Eagles to beat Cleveland Browns in their season opener, you will get better odds by backing them on the Handicap at say -6 points (with the Browns +6) than were you to take the Money Line price, given that the Eagles will start the game as strong favourites. Provided the Eagles win the game by a margin of seven points or more, you win your wager.
As with the NFL, the three basic markets on a NBA match are also the Money Line, Handicap and Total Points.
Total Points is simply an Over/Under bet on the number of points scored in the game. For instance, the market might have a quote of Under/Over 200.5 points, so you simply wager whether you think the total points scored will be higher or lower.

Another option is half or quarter betting, which allows bettors to wager on the result of a quarter or half, rather than the full 48 minutes. The end-to-end nature of the NBA means it’s common for a team that wins the match to lose a quarter or two, so this market can often provide value.