Thanks to things such as the prevalence of various different sports channels in the United Kingdom, as well as the decision of the National Football League to host some of its matches in the UK, American football has become more and more popular in this country.
Betting companies are always keen to offer odds on a sport, irrespective of its popularity, but when something becomes more popular than before, the number of betting companies offering coverage goes up. If you’re reasonably new to American football, you might not know how to bet on it, which we’re looking to help you with here.
Understanding American Odds
If you’ve decided that you would like to play a wager on an American football game, we’re going to assume that betting as a general concept is something that you understand. When it comes to betting on gridiron, however, things work slightly differently. With that in mind, it is helpful to get a clearer sense of how you will need to go about placing a bet on the likes of an NFL match, with most bookmakers treating such wagers as their American counterparts would. That is to say, the types of bets that you can place aren’t the same as they would be for an association football game.
When you first look at American odds on a betting site, things can be slightly confusing. Whereas decimal odds are reasonably easy to understand, with 2/1 meaning that you will get £2 back for every £1 bet, it isn’t quite so simple with the odds system used in the United States of America. The first thing that you need to know is that American odds are based upon the idea of you placing a £100 bet (or $100 if you’re actually betting in America). What is key here is that the relationship between your £100 and the odds you’re given depend on whether the bet is favourable or otherwise.
Plus Odds (+) For Underdogs
In a very real sense, + is a positive sign and may be interpreted that way when you first see it. In American odds, however, the presence of a + indicates that you’re betting on an underdog. What it is telling you is how much profit you will get on a bet of £100, so a bet with odds of +300 would mean that a wager of £100 will give you £300 profit as well as seeing your original £100 returned on top. That would equate to a total payout of £400. Obviously, if you’re betting less than £100, you would simply need to do the maths to work out what your payout would be on the bet.
Minus Odds (-) For the Favourites
Just as + is a sign that you’re betting on the underdogs, so too does a – indicate that you’re looking at the odds of the favourite. This time, you’re being told how much you would need to bet in order to win £100. If the odds say -120, for example, then a bet of £120 would win you £100, meaning that your payout would be £220 – your original £120 bet plus the £100 profit. Similarly, odds of -300 would mean that you would need to bet £300 in order to win £100 and so on. Again, you can bet less than £100, but would need to do the maths to figure out what you need to bet to win.
Even Money
The truth of the matter is that Even money odds aren’t very common in the world of American sports betting, but they do occur sometimes. The easiest odds to understand on that front is when they are labelled as EV, but they can also be labelled as -100 or +100. If you see that, it simply means that you will only double your money with the wager, rather than make a larger profit on your £100 bet.
Break-Even Percentage
If you’re placing a bet, it makes sense to ensure that you know what your break-even percentage is, which is how you can work out if it’s a good bet or not. Say that the odds are +200, which means that a £100 bet will see you take a payout of £300, including your initial £100 bet. In order to get the implied odds, you divide 100 by your original odds plus 100, which in this case would mean you do the following:
100 / (200 + 100) = 0.333
In other words, your implied odds are 33.33%. To put that another way, the odds suggest that your wager would come in one in every three times. If you think that the odds of your bet coming in are higher than that, say one in every five times, then the implication is that that is a good bet. Obviously, the world of sporting events is significantly less predictable than that, but it is still something that you can keep in mind when working out whether you think that the bet that you’re looking to place is a good one or not.
Overtime in American Football
As anyone who has ever watched an American football game will know, the presence of overtime is a very real threat for games that are close as the end of it approaches. For those that haven’t watched the sport very often, overtime is the equivalent of extra-time in a knockout association football match, in the sense that it used to try to decide upon a winner. If you have ever bet on the likes of a Champions League knockout tie that has gone to extra-time, you will know only too well that British bookmakers don’t include extra-time on any match wagers you’ve placed.
When it comes to American football, however, overtime counts for all of the markets that you can bet on, unless the bet states otherwise. This is because overtime is simply a part of American sports, put in place in order to ensure that there is a winner at the end of play. The likes of quarter or half betting will not include overtime, though, so bear that in mind when you’re looking to place your bets. That is to say, if you’ve placed a bet on the 4th quarter specifically, overtime will not be included in your wager, but it will be if you’ve placed a wager on the overall outcome of the game.
American Football Bets
If you are keen to place a wager on an American football game, there are all sorts of bets that will be available to you. Understanding what they are and how they work is key to ensuring that you’re not just handing your money straight to a bookmaker uncontested. Here is a look at some of the bets that you’re likely to be offered by a British bookmaker on NFL and other gridiron matches, as well as a short explanation of what the bet type is. Obviously, this list is far from exhaustive, but it will give you a sense of the kinds of bets you can place:
Moneyline Bets
The Moneyline is what association football bettors would more commonly understand as being the Match Result bet, giving you odds on which team is likely to win. Whereas in the UK such a bet would be written as 1X2, with X representing the draw, there is no draw option with American football matches. It is also worth noting that NFL games put the away team first, meaning that Pittsburgh Steelers @ Cincinnati Bengals would mean that the Steelers are the away team and are at the home of the Bengals. This is one of those bets where overtime counts.
Total Points
Just as association football matches feature goals, so too do American football games have points scored by the teams. The Total Points bet, which includes overtime, is a wager on the total number of points scored by both teams combined. It is usually an Over/Under bet, so you might be offered odds on Over 42.5 and Under 42.5, say. If you bet on Over and a total of 43 or more points are scored, your wager will be a winner, whilst a bet on the Under with 43 points scored in total by both teams would be a loser.
Handicap
Handicap betting is pretty much exactly what it sounds like, with an imaginary handicap given to the better team or an advantage given to the underdog. Again, using the example of the Steelers and the Bengals, let’s imagine that the Steelers are the favourites. In handicap betting, you might see them offered a handicap of -5.5 points. This means that 5.5 points will be deducted from their overall score, meaning that they will need to win by 6 points or more for your wager to be a winner. Alternatively, the Bengals might have +5.5, which means 5.5 points will be added to their score, so they will win if they lose by 5 points or fewer.
Anytime Touchdown Scorer
Touchdowns are the goals equivalent in American football, with this bet being the equivalent of an Anytime Goalscorer bet in association football. As long as the player that you’ve chosen scores a touchdown at some point during the match, your bet will be a winner. You can sometimes double this up with the likes of a Match Winner bet to increase your odds. That is to say, you are both betting on the player to score a touchdown and the team in the bet to win the game.
First / Last Touchdown
If you’ve ever placed a wager on the First or Last Goalscorer market in an association football game, you will understand the principle of these bets. You are betting on the player to score the first touchdown or the last touchdown of a game, depending on which of the bets you choose.
Other Touchdown Bets
There are numerous other touchdown-based bets that you can choose to place, such as a player to 2+, 3+ or 4+ touchdowns during the game. If they score at least that many touchdowns, you will win your bet. Similarly, an Either Player Touchdown bet is a wager that one of the two players chosen will score at least one touchdown. You can alter this slightly to bet on an Either Player First Touchdown, say, or an Either Player Anytime Touchdown.
You can also choose to bet on something such as Both Teams to Score 1+ Touchdown in Both Halves, which is a wager that does exactly what it says on the tin.
Both Teams to Score X Points
If you think that the game is likely to be a high-scoring one, you can place a wager on both teams to score a given number of points. The list is often something like 10 points through to 40 points in five-point increments. There is also the option to choose ‘No’, if you don’t think both teams will reach the given target.
Quarter Betting
The vast majority of bookmakers will allow you to bet on the Over/Under for points in each quarter of a game. It might say +13.5 in the 3rd quarter, for example, which means that there will be either more than or fewer than 13.5 points scored during that specific quarter. Some bookies will also allow you to bet on which team will win each quarter.
Super Bowl & Outright Betting
Even people whose knowledge of American football only extends to having watched Friday Night Lights will have heard of the Super Bowl. The game that is the culmination of the National Football League season sees the champions of the National Football Conference take on the champions of the American Football Conference to decide on the overall winners of that season’s NFL. Given the importance of the match, there are all sorts of wagers that you can place around it that go above and beyond the bets we’ve talked about above.
Outright Betting
Although we know that the Super Bowl will see the winners of the AFC go up against the winners of the NFC, we don’t know the details of which team will make it there early on in the season. As a result, one of the things that you can look to do is place an outright bet on the overall winner of the game on the ante-post market. Because you’re betting so far in advance, you will usually get much more favourable odds than if you’re placing your wager nearer the time, when the two teams taking part have been decided upon.
That being said, bookmakers might be many things but stupid isn’t one of them. Although the odds are more generous than they would be a week or so before the game, they aren’t that generous and will still take into account the performances of all of the teams in the NFL and the players that they have on their rosters. It isn’t outrageous to suggest that the least fancied teams can see odds as long as 500/1 (in fractional form) put in place for them for a Super Bowl win, whilst even those more likely to win can still see odds of, say, 6/1 available.
Super Bowl Specials
If you’re looking at betting on the Super Bowl far enough out from the actual event, you might well be able to place some special wagers on the event. One of the most common is on the two teams that will make it to the Super Bowl, which is essentially like placing an accumulator on the winners of both the American Football Conference and the National Football Conference. If the two teams win their respective Conferences and make it to the Super Bowl, you will win your bet. Obviously, if they fail to do so then you won’t.
Another bet you might be offered is on something such as a first-time winner of the Super Bowl to win it. This is a bet saying that one of the teams that has never previously won the Super Bowl will emerge victorious this time around. If there is a serious chance that one of them may well make it all the way to the end of the season game, it isn’t a terrible bet to place in the sense that you’re getting several teams covered in the same wager.
Given the prominence of the Super Bowl as a sporting spectacle, it isn’t all that surprising that there are numerous different wagers that you can place on it that might differ from a regular season game. You can, for example, place a bet on the Super Bowl MVP, which is effectively like placing a bet on the Man of the Match for the FA Cup final. Typically speaking, this type of bet doesn’t become available until the two teams due to take part in the Super Bowl have been decided.
Super Bowl Prop Betting
Prop bets have become more and more common for sports fans to look towards when they’re looking to find some sort of edge to their betting strategy. Prop bets are wagers that are placed on something that won’t necessarily have an impact on the outcome of the game. You could, for example, place a bet on the total passing yards that a quarterback will manage during a game, or who will score the first touchdown of the Super Bowl.
There are also more exotic prop bets that you can place, with the following being some examples of the kinds of things that we’re talking about:
- Colour of Gatorade Poured on Winning Coach
- Artist to do Half-Time Show
- First Song of Half-Time Show
- Team to Win the Toss
- Longest Advert Played During Half-Time
Obviously, none of these bets require any sort of skill or even knowledge of the sport. Instead, they are simply wagers that are based almost entirely on good fortune. Generally speaking, such prop bets won’t go live until much nearer the time, so you will already know which teams are playing in the Super Bowl and also who the half-time artist is going to be. Each bookmaker will have their own variation on the prop bets, whilst some won’t offer them at all.