
NFL moneyline explained
Who will win? If you want a simple way to bet on football, learn to bet the moneyline.
Spreads, totals, props, NFL betting is big business across the globe and is one of the world’s most bet-on competitions. Betting on the National Football League is available to anyone with access to the many NFL online sportsbooks. It’s easy, exciting, and you might be able to make a profit along the way.
Beating the books is no easy task. Any advantage a bettor can have over the book is valuable and could mean the difference between being in the red or the black. Getting certain perks, such as odds boosters or early payouts help put the odds slightly more in our favor. Every little bit helps and familiarizing ourselves with these promotion offerings is just one more tool we can use to help us win.
Many online NFL sportsbooks offer great sign-up bonuses and lure us with a plethora of promotions. Because of this, choosing a sportsbook can be intimidating, but researching and understanding the rules for these promotions can go a long way in helping us gain any advantages versus NFL sportsbooks.
You can also follow our expert handicappers, who deliver regular NFL picks. If you love NFL betting, or want help in deciding where your money should go, then you can head directly to our NFL picks page.
Picking the Super Bowl champion is one of the most popular future bets available. Nearly all NFL betting sites offer this market before and throughout the season, and even before future NFL schedules are announced with odds constantly shifting as games are played.
Betting early gives the best odds and with each team starting with the same record at the beginning of the year, taking non-favorites can be appetizing. The Cincinnati Bengals went into the 2021 season at +6600, while that number jumped to +18000 at one point in the regular season. The eventual champions, the LA Rams started the preseason at +1200 and drifted up to +1500 in the regular season.
Despite the confetti just having dropped at the end of Superbowl LVI: the odds are already available on who will the Superbowl next season, with the Kansas City Chiefs (+650) and Buffalo Bills (+700) the two highest odds available.
While only one team can win the Super Bowl, the NFL has two conference winners with each of those earning a trip to the season’s final game. Choosing the winner of a conference final is therefore statistically easier than picking the Super Bowl winner, but the NFL odds will reflect that. Each conference has 16 teams with seven making the playoffs in 2021-22.
Not many predicted Cincinnati would make the AFC Championship game preseason, but even if we didn’t choose a conference winner at the beginning of the year, there’s no need to fret as some huge odds can still be found even after the regular season has concluded. The Philadelphia Eagles may have had the second worst record out of any team in the playoffs, but at +2500 odds to win the NFC, it will have been a wager to tempt some.
Favorites have far smaller returns, as the Packers had odds of +380 to win the Superbowl at the start of the playoffs. A big reason for this is that the best team in each conference gets a bye into the second round of the playoffs and only needs two wins to capture the conference title.
Picking a divisional winner is a bet best made at the beginning of the season and is a great NFL betting pick for players who want their money to stretch for a possible 17 weeks. That said, in some divisions it remains a tricky prediction to make – the winner of the NFC East hasn’t repeated since 2004.
Each NFL division has just four teams which give NFL bettors a 25% chance of nailing their pick. Teams play their divisional opponents twice a season, which leads to some important games down the stretch. In the 2020-21 season, only the Kansas City Chiefs had worse than +100 odds to win their division. In 2021-22, the Cincinnati Bengals were huge winners at +2500, the second longest odds of any team in the NFL.
One of the must-do bets every year is to parlay all eight divisional winners on a small wager. Turning $10 into $10,000 isn’t likely, but it sure makes the NFL season more exciting. The NFC South should be a safe part of the parlay, but it gets a lot trickier trying to work out who wins the NFC West, with the division providing three playoff teams in 2021-22.
If betting NFL spreads and totals is getting stale: a look into divisional and conference winners is a great way to expand our wagering portfolio.
The NFL crowns a regular-season MVP each year and that player is announced at the NFL Honors ceremony in the days before the Super Bowl. Much like everything else in the NFL: betting on the regular season MVP is an easy thing to do with many online NFL sportsbooks offering the market throughout the entire season. Quarterbacks have dominated the award, having won 13 of the last 14 years.
If we had placed a $10 bet on Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson in the 2019-20 season, we would be $8000 richer as 2019’s MVP was +8000 to win the award before the season started. Aaron Rodgers’ MVP win in 2021-22 was his second in two years and was more predictable but would have still yielded a good profit at +1000 before the season got underway. Who will the smart money be on for 2022-23? Is Kyler Murray comfortable in Arizona? Can the Chargers surround Justin Herbert with the talent to shine? Can Lamar Jackson return to full fitness?
The Super Bowl MVP can also be wagered on before the season starts but is more widely available once the Super Bowl matchup has been decided. Betting on the Super Bowl MVP is one of the most common NFL prop bets for the season’s biggest game.
Betting the moneyline is the simplest of all football betting picks – just pick the winning team. Sometimes referred to as ML, the moneyline will have two sets of odds – one for each team. With ties being very rare in American football, the moneyline is a two-way market which means you only have two choices, a winning outcome and a losing outcome.
Who will win? If you want a simple way to bet on football, learn to bet the moneyline.
Understand how the spread works, and what that means for your betting.
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Odds updated: May 28, 1:26 AM UTC
The Super Bowl is the NFL’s championship game and one of the biggest events in sport – a single game that crowns the best football team in the world. Over $10 billion is wagered on the event annually – according to the American Gaming Association, over $6.8 billion of that is bet by Americans alone – with NFL betting sites offering the usual NFL spreads and totals , but also some of the most diverse NFL prop bets imaginable.
The Super Bowl brings out the bettor in everyone. We can wager on the length of the national anthem, the color of the Gatorade dumped on the winning coach, and, of course, the game itself, which features the top team from each NFL division.
If we missed the start of a game and didn’t get a chance to get our bets in, there’s no need to worry. NFL in-game betting can be found on a majority of online NFL sportsbooks and lets us place wagers after the game has already begun.
Outside of spreads and totals, many derivative and prop markets are usually available to customers with the NFL lines and odds changing as the game goes on.
For example, if the Pittsburgh Steelers were -10.5 favorites before the game and were losing 14-3 after the first quarter, we might think of placing an in-game bet on the Steelers with the new live line of -3.5.
There are numerous NFL betting sites around the world that offer markets. It is always best to use a respected brand based in a licensed territory. We’ve handpicked some of the best NFL betting sites to use on this page. Focus your attention on operators who offer large payout percentages, excellent customer experience and plenty of special offers and boosts.
Exact numbers are hard to come by, but it is estimated that nearly $100 billion is wagered on the NFL yearly. Americans bet over $6.8 billion on last year’s Super Bowl alone, according to the American Gaming Association. That was a 15% increase from the previous year.
Almost every online sportsbook will offer NFL spreads, totals, moneylines, and prop markets because the NFL is one of the most bet-on sports in the world. Finding where to bet on the NFL is easy. Finding an online NFL sportsbook that is right for us can be trickier – see our full list of NFL sportsbook reviews to help you with that here.
Yes, absolutely. As long as you are based in a territory where a particular sportsbook holds a license, and betting is legal in your country, you are free to enjoy NFL betting. It’s always worth checking whether or not there are any local, state or national restrictions.
Want to know how to bet on NFL games? It’s as simple as finding a sportsbook, signing up, depositing, and placing a bet. Users should only use books they feel comfortable with and remember that having accounts on multiple sportsbooks can also be beneficial.
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