
NFL moneyline explained
Who will win? If you want a simple way to bet on football, learn to bet the moneyline.
The NFL is one of the most bet-on leagues in the world. As a result, all NFL moneyline betting sites offer moneyline odds. NFL moneyline betting online can be a profitable tool for any football bettor as it's the simplest of all NFL bets – just pick the winning team.
A moneyline bet is a wager on the game's winning team. It doesn’t matter if our team wins by one point, or 25 points, a win is a win in the moneyline world. Conversely, if we take a team to win on the moneyline and it loses, then we lose our wager. NFL teams rarely tie, so each game is a two-way market.
Betting the moneyline is different from betting the spread because teams don’t need to cover a certain number of points to win. The spread is a way to even the playing field between two teams — like a handicap. A huge benefit of betting the moneyline over the spread is we want what our team wants: a win.
Parlaying moneyline favorites (betting on more than one team) is also a common strategy to increase our payout odds. The odds of each of our moneyline picks are multiplied together and then multiplied again by our wager amount to give us our potential winnings.
NFL odds are usually given in American odds (-120, for example). These numbers can be converted to fractional or decimal odds using our bet calculator .
With the rise in popularity of NFL moneyline betting online, there are loads of NFL betting sites available to us. Most football betting sites offer the moneyline as well as spreads, totals, and prop markets.
Once you've signed up to any one of the NFL moneyline betting sites out there that suits you best, find the NFL markets, and look for the moneyline – sometimes abbreviated as ML.
The simplest way of understanding wagering on favorites with American odds is that they are always represented with negative odds, so you’ll see a minus (-) symbol in front of them. When betting on favorites, you also need to bet the number set by the oddsmaker to win $100. For example, at -200, you’d need to bet $200 to win $100 back.
Game | Moneyline |
---|---|
Dallas Cowboys | -200 |
New York Giants | +100 |
Above, the Dallas Cowboys are (-200), and the New York Giants are +100. If we bet $200 on the Cowboys moneyline, we’d win $100 back with a Cowboys victory.
Underdogs are much easier. They are always represented with positive odds, so you’ll see a plus (+) symbol in front of them. Conversely, you win the number set by the oddsmaker when you bet $100.
Using the same example, if we bet $100 on the New York Giants to win with those +100 odds, we would win $100 with a Giants victory. If they were +180, we would profit $180, and so on.
$100 is the standard measure across NFL betting sites, however, NFL moneyline bettors can bet any amount they feel comfortable with and is within their limits. Our Odds Calculator can help determine how much we’d win based on the amount we wagered.
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.
Find out why betting over/unders (totals) is an important skill for any online bettor.
Get bigger odds and bigger returns - find out how to make the most of parlays.
Betting an NFL team on the moneyline at +200 indicates odds of 2/1 (fractional) or 3.00 (decimal) and implies a 33.3% probability. If we were to place a $100 bet on this underdog to win the game, we would be paid back our initial $100 wager plus $200 for the win.
Overtime is included in virtually all NFL moneyline bets. Like all bets, confirm with your NFL betting site or sportsbook if you are unsure, as different NFL moneyline betting sites and books offer different rules. If the game is tied after a 10-minute overtime period, the moneyline bet should be deemed a push and bettors will get their initial wager back.
Moneyline betting is just picking the game's winner. With betting the spread , teams will have to cover a certain amount of points (decided by the sportsbook) to win the wager. A team could win the game, but fail to cover and lose the spread bet.
The amount that we wager on the moneyline is multiplied by the odds — this is true for all NFL moneyline betting sites. For example, if we bet $100 on the Cowboys to win at -140, we would profit $71.
-140 means we need to wager $140 to win $100 and +140 means that a $100 wager would profit $140. As always, our Odds Calculator can help us determine how much we’d win based on the amount we bet.
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