A list of the best NFL betting sites for U.S. And Canadian bettors looking to bet on NFL online for 2020-21.This list includes the top NFL online betting sites, reviews, and bonuses so you can bet on the NFL this season. It will be a LA Rams vs New England Patriots Super Bowl 54. NFL Online Betting Guide. NFL betting eclipses all other forms of sports gambling in Las Vegas, and NFL football bets are always just a click away if you’re playing online. We’ve searched high and low for top odds and have found that, with Betway Sports offering the best bonuses around. Stick with our recommended online sportsbooks for.

The best NFL betting sites for the 2021 football season have emerged from the pack, following our extensive research to find the top online sportsbooks. You can safely bet on the NFL with any of these sites and enjoy competitive odds, fast payouts, and more.

We apply a highly refined system to evaluate all of the online NFL football betting sites that are competing for your business. Since we are looking for nothing but the best, we will only approve sportsbooks that check off all the boxes.

Any site that passes this test can be relied upon to provide a superior gambling experience.

For more on how we select the top NFL gambling sites, please keep reading. We’ve also explained some of the main benefits of betting on the NFL online, and provided details on the most popular wagering options that are available.

• Bovada – Best for casual football bettors, wide range of NFL wagers.
• MyBookie – Reliable betting site offering competitive NFL lines.
• BetOnline.ag – A safe site to bet on the NFL with fast payouts.
• BetNow – A top NFL betting site for US residents.
• SportsBetting.ag – Big NFL bonuses with competitive football odds.

Online NFL betting has become increasingly popular over the last few years. As a result, you can now bet on NFL football at almost any real money gambling site. However, this doesn’t mean that you just join the first site you find.

We’ve examined many online sportsbooks and bookmakers to compile our list of the best online betting sites for NFL, and there is a reason why our list is reasonably short. Quite simply, only a few sites meet our high standards in terms of the all-round package they provide.

If you want to bet on the NFL online, and have the best possible experience, then our recommendations are the way to go. Based on our extensive research, there are no better options for online NFL gambling.

How We Rank NFL Betting Sites

Let’s delve into some of the key criteria that’s important to us when choosing which NFL betting sites we recommend to our readers.

You are naturally going to take pause before you deposit your hard-earned money into an online sportsbook account. How do you know that you can trust the people behind the site? After all, anyone can put up a website, and there may or may not be any oversight to maintain legitimacy.

These concerns are totally valid, but you can set them aside when you stick to any NFL sports betting site that has earned a place on our list.

Though it can seem as though website operators exist in a gray area without any guidelines, this is not the case at all.

Major economic powers and smaller jurisdictions alike license and regulate the internet sports betting industry. Reputable licensing bodies go to great lengths to make sure that applicants are fully qualified before they issue permits, so it is wise to stick to sites that are licensed in these jurisdictions.

When we are putting our rankings together, we evaluate the licenses that are held by the contenders, and we consider reputational factors. Longevity is an element that we weigh heavily, and we visit forums that are frequented by serious players that share feedback about NFL betting sites.

The websites that we recommend are deeply invested because licensing fees and operational costs are considerable. They are in it for the long haul, and they take their responsibilities to their players very seriously.

The best online sportsbooks that highlight NFL betting make it easy for players to deposit funds into their accounts. Common methods include Visa, MasterCard, ACH transfers, wire transfers, and Bitcoin, just to name a handful. High rollers are welcome, and there are modest minimum deposit requirements.

With the exception of the credit cards, gift cards, and debit cards, the withdrawal methods are the same as the deposit options, and you can add in phone transfers, E-checks, and checks by mail.

If you have the need for speed when it comes to the transactions, you may want to use Bitcoin to fund your account. Deposits and withdrawals can be facilitated in a matter of minutes on some sites because there are no intermediaries, and payout processing will usually be free within certain frequency limits.

A site can act with integrity, and they may make it easy to facilitate transactions, but what about the customer experience? This is always going to be a resistance point for online businesses because consumers have to wonder if they will be able to get in touch with someone when they need help.

The NFL betting sites that have gotten our green light are sensitive to this dynamic. They provide top-notch customer service over the phone, through email, and via real-time chat. They offer wide windows of availability, and agents can resolve most issues quickly and efficiently.

Website design is another important element that we examined closely when we were compiling our list of the top NFL betting sites for 2021. The websites that you will visit if you follow our lead make it very easy for you to get around from the start.

There is no learning curve, and there is no confusion. This is key when you are going to be putting your cash on the line, especially when you are in a hurry to get your action in before you are shut out.

The site operators make huge investments in the infrastructure, and this includes high-tech, state-of-the-art encryption technology to keep sensitive information safe. Plus, while some circumstances cannot be controlled, you can play on these sites for years and never run into any downtime.

Now, these are just a few factors that we consider when ranking NFL gambling sites. There are many others that also influence how highly we rate sites. We won’t weigh you down in too much of the detail, though. Just rest assured that if you’re looking to bet on NFL football online, our recommendations are genuinely the best options around.

Many sports bettors in the US are confused by the current situation relating to the legalities of betting on sports online. This is not surprising, as things have changed regularly over the years and there’s still a distinct lack of clarity about exactly what’s legal and what’s not. It’s not illegal to place a bet on an NFL game through an online NFL betting site.

We won’t get into too much detail here, as you can read more about the whole situation in our page dedicated to the best US sports betting sites. What we will say, however, is that you don’t need to worry about the legality of placing wagers online. There are two different types of sites though, known as regulated and offshore. There is a lot of catch up for the regulated market to make in order to properly compete with the others.

The offshore sports betting sites have far more experience with online betting and are still regulated, just not in the US. Instead, they’re based outside the United States, but they operate legally and are licensed within their respective jurisdictions.

The top NFL betting websites offer a host of benefits for players to enjoy. If you have never placed sports bets online before, you will undoubtedly be quite impressed when you take the plunge for the first time.

Here are some of the main advantages of doing your NFL betting online.

Even if you are fortunate enough to have a brick-and-mortar sports betting parlor in your community, the convenience that is afforded by the online experience is off the chain.

Geography is simply not a factor because you can access NFL betting sites from anywhere, as long as there is an internet connection available.

You can make spur-of-the-moment decisions when you have your own sportsbook in your pocket wherever you may roam, and this is another advantage when you’re betting on the NFL. When it comes time to watch your action, you can hunker down at home or head down to the local sports bar and bet on NFL games as you see fit.

One of the best things about the safe and legitimate NFL betting sites is the bonus money that is offered. You get a sign-up bonus right off the bat, and it is typically tied to the amount of the initial deposit. Maximum welcome bonuses will typically be anywhere from $250 to $1000.

A lot of sites will offer an initial risk-free bet as an additional shot in the arm. The promotions that are offered on each respective site vary, but it is not uncommon to see reload bonuses as well to keep the free money coming for existing players.

Loyalty can be a good thing when it comes to business relationships, but it has its place. If you check out all of the NFL football betting sites that we recommend, you will see that there are different sign-up bonuses offered. To take full advantage of these opportunities, you could open accounts at all the sites to reap the rewards.

Bonuses for NFL online betting vary from season to season, and they’re something we monitor when updating our rankings. We’ve also provided some additional information about the best NFL betting bonuses for 2020 on our blog.

Back in the day on the well-trodden concrete of the Las Vegas Strip, grizzled denizens of the sports betting scene would go from property to property shopping for odds. They wanted to make sure that they got the most favorable numbers that were available for the plays that they wanted to make.

When you open accounts at several sites to snag the bonuses, you can easily visit all of them before you place your wagers. The odds can vary, so you will be sure that you are getting maximum value if you shop around for odds.

If you are going to be making NFL bets on a consistent basis, unless you don’t mind losing your shirt in the long run, you have to take bankroll management seriously. We are not going to get into strategy here, but you should wager within your limits and track your progress so that you know where you stand.

This can be difficult to do in the realm of brick-and-mortar sportsbooks when you are reaching into your pocket to place your bets in cash. The situation is entirely different when you bet online at the top NFL betting sites.

All of the info is stored in the cloud, so in a real sense, a free accounting feature is included when you open your account. This is useful in a general sense when you are evaluating your handicapping success, and the records are easily available if you ever have to discuss a transaction issue with a site.

You might also like to check out these top reasons to bet on the NFL online.

Online NFL Betting Options

There are a number of different types of wagers that can be made at the leading NFL websites that we have separated from the pack. You can keep it immediate and simple if you choose to do so, and on the other side of the spectrum, there are long-term and exotic betting possibilities.

The standard tried-and-true NFL football bet is the straight bet against the point spread. You can place these wagers at the NFL betting websites, and the standard odds are -110 on either side.

You have to lay this extra 10% as the vigorish. If you are not familiar with the term, the sportsbooks do not want to take gambles, and they have to make money somehow. If an equal number of bets are taken on each side at -110, they will make a profit regardless of the outcome.

This is interesting because a lot of people are under the impression that the bookies are trying to beat the players, but this is really not the case. All they want to do is balance the action and take equal wagers on both sides. Bettors are actually playing against other players that back the opposite side.

Another type of bet that you can make on sides to win games is the moneyline wager. With this type of action, you have to pick the winner outright. This sounds easy enough, but the odds complicate things.

Unlike the point spread bet with -110 odds on both sides, the talent differences are accounted for by the variations in the moneylines. To explain through a simple example, let’s say that the Lions are visiting Chicago, and the Bears are nine-point favorites.

There can be slight differences depending on site policies, but as a rule of thumb, the Bears would go off at odds of -400, and the return on Detroit would be +300. It is not a very appealing prospect to lay $400 to win $100, but some people are okay with the risk/reward equation.

On the other side of the coin, a moneyline bet on the plus-side can provide some extraordinary value at times if you can isolate a live dog.

The pro football betting websites post totals on all of the games. A total can be described as an estimate of the combined number of points that will be scored by both squads in a given contest. You can bet the over or the under, and the odds are balanced at -110 on either option.

The best NFL betting sites take a lot of parlay bets because many people want to put out a little to make a lot. A parlay is a wager with multiple different betting interests on the same ticket. The more teams on a parlay, the more you win if every single betting interest on your ticket is a winner.

To see the potential payouts for parlays with different numbers of teams, check out this page.

Another type of bet that involves putting multiple different plays on the same ticket is a teaser. The difference between a teaser and a parlay is the fact that you get additional points in your favor when you bet a teaser. The standard increments for teasers are 6, 6.5, 7, or 7.5 points.

You can tease sides, and you can tease totals at the online sportsbooks that offer this option. We also have a page on this website that explains how to bet teasers, complete with a payout chart, that you can check out to learn more.

A cousin to the teaser bet is the pleaser. It is based on the same concept since it is a multi-interest wager, but it works in the reverse manner. Instead of getting a more favorable betting line, you surrender points.

This means that a six-point favorite on a seven-point pleaser would become a 13-point chalk for the purposes of your bet.

It’s tough enough to pick a winner against the normal point spread, so this wager is quite difficult. That’s the bad news, but the good news is that the payouts are nice and juicy. For example, if you can hit a two-team pleaser, you get paid at odds of +600.

The internet sportsbooks post halftime lines on sides and totals for NFL games.

This is a complete reset starting out at zero to zero for the second half, regardless of the scoring that was done during the first half.

Every NFL football fan should make at least one futures bet every year. If you are not familiar with them, a futures bet is a wager on a team to win a title. There are odds to win division championships, conference crowns, and the Super Bowl.

You will be hard-pressed to find more value for a single bet because you have action for as long as your team stays in the hunt. There can be some pretty nice odds floated on promising teams that fly under the radar going into a season, and this is a potentially lucrative avenue that should be explored.

Proposition bets are offered on some NFL games at the top betting sites for 2021. These are wagers on certain “games within games.” For example, you may be able to bet on a particular running back gaining over or under a specified number of yards or the number of field goals kicked in a game.

These wagers add a dimension to your action, and a prop bet can keep you alive even if your primary wager on a side or total is not doing very well.

The culmination of the NFL season is of course when the Super Bowl is played. When it comes to proposition bets, there is a small phone book full of possibilities for the big game, and some of the propositions offered at the NFL betting sites are quite bizarre.

They have an over/under on the length of the performance of the national anthem, the color that will be worn by the halftime act, the number of commercials that will be shown, and many other oddball props.

It’s not uncommon to see promotions that are offered around Super Bowl Sunday, so it’s always one of the most exciting days of the year at any of these top Super Bowl betting sites.

Bet With Safe and Reputable NFL Online Sportsbooks

Betting on the National Football League is one of the simple pleasures of life for pigskin fans. It’s easy to become totally engrossed in a game that involves your favorite team, but even if you love the sport, it’s hard to get excited about other contests.

When you choose to bet on NFL football online, all of that changes.

For three hours, you get to enjoy a supreme entertainment experience as you watch the drama unfold with a monetary interest in the outcome. If you win, it’s great, but even if you come up short, you got some fantastic bang for your buck.

The trick to NFL gambling is that you have to be certain that you are placing wagers on a site that you can trust. When we were compiling our list of the top NFL betting sites for 2021, we applied exacting standards, and the ones that have been left standing get high marks across the board.

These online sportsbooks are proven to be safe and reputable. They make it very simple to deposit funds, and withdrawals are readily available. Turnaround times are surprisingly fast, and transactions can be consummated in minutes when Bitcoin is used as the funding source. They provide outstanding service, and they resolve issues in a timely manner.

As the icing on the cake, the best sites that offer online NFL betting provide hefty sign-up bonuses, and we are talking about hundreds of dollars, if not more.

Many sites will give you a risk-free bet to get you started, and the bonuses keep coming after the welcome premium because there are reload infusions.

A single introductory bonus is enticing enough, but you have the freedom to establish accounts at all of the online betting sites that have made our list. If you go this route, you can pocket multiple sign-up bonuses to take full advantage of this opportunity to rake in all the free cash that is there for the taking.

We have provided you with a pathway to the football betting sites that go the extra mile to provide a world-class gaming experience, and the next step is yours.

Go back to our NFL betting site rankings that we’ve gone through extensively, and get in on the action today.

During the NFL season, we keep our readers updated with our top picks of the week. However, just because Super Bowl 54 is behind us doesn’t mean we’re going to stop covering what’s going on across the league.

From following the future of Tom Brady to delivering detailed reporting of the 2021 NFL Draft, we keep you informed of all things pertinent to the National Football League on our blog. We cover pretty much anything and everything that can help you bet on NFL football successfully.

Here are some of our more recent posts, or you can see all our NFL blog content here.

Our experts’ selections for betting on NFL games and other markets can be found in our dedicated NFL betting picks section.

You can bet on the NFL online at any of our recommended betting sites. They all offer extensive wagering options for futures, props, and individual games.

Yes. The NFL betting sites we recommend are all operating legally in the jurisdictions they are based in.

Absolutely, so long as you use reputable and trustworthy NFL betting sites. The online sportsbooks we recommend provide the best online betting experience available and that includes ensuring your safety.

Every site is unique, but sometimes all it takes is making an initial real-money deposit. In most cases, your rewards will directly be correlated by how active you are placing wagers and how big or small you are betting. Some betting sites also offer NFL contests for additional bonuses and rewards.

Most sites set their minimum bet at either $1 or $2. While prop bets sometimes cap out at $500 or $1,000, you’ll find instances where sites will accept five- and six-figure bets. You can always reach out to customer service if you would like to bet larger than what is stated is permitted.

NFL betting sites are competing with one another for your business. That means certain operators are willing to “take a stance” more than others in hopes of capturing the public’s money on one side as opposed to the other.

Online Nfl Betting Sites

The easiest option for this is to have active accounts at several of the top NFL betting sites. This allows you to easily shop around for the best odds for any given wager.

Yes. In today’s day an age, NFL live betting is becoming increasingly more popular and widespread. In turn, sportsbooks that want to remain competitive in this industry have had no choice but to offer in-playbetting.

Depending on where you reside, yes. You’ll have to check our in-depth reviews for each particular NFL betting site to be sure.

The opening lines and the closing lines can sometimes differ greatly, so important to pay attention to all things considered. Typically, waiting until later in the week and as close to kickoff time as possible allows you to bet with the most pertinent information at your disposal.

It sure does. All you have to do is place your hard-earned dollars on the outcome of an NFL game that you will be watching on TV and you will find out just how captivating the experience is!

Professional football is the king of pro sports in the United States. Professional football draws the largest TV audience of all pro sports in America. If that’s not proof enough, understand that NFL games also draw the biggest live audiences, and that’s saying something considering the size and fandom of NCAA football games. To top things off, pro football is the most gambled-on sport in the US. Lest you forget, the Super Bowl is by far the most exciting sports event in the USA, a marketing juggernaut, an event like no other. Clearly, Americans love pro football.

As more and more Americans discover they have the ability to place online bets, we’re getting more and more requests for information. We’ve prepared this page as a guide for our readers in the United States who’re interested in online football betting.

An FAQ for First Time Online Football Bettors

What is online football betting?

Online football betting is using the Internet to place wagers on professional football games. Online football betting differs from traditional sportsbook betting only in its use of the Internet. Substitute an online bookmaker for the guy behind the counter at a Vegas sportsbook, and you’ve got online football betting.

Isn’t it illegal to bet on football online?

This question is tricky to answer. In America, we have to deal with three layers of gaming law. The federal government has its share of laws, but most gaming regulation in America is done at the state level. To further complicate things, some local governments (county and city) have their own gaming laws in place. You can see why this question gives us a bit of a headache.

• Let’s start with federal law – is there any federal law that declares online football betting illegal? There is, but that sounds worse than it really is. The Federal Wire Act of 1961 declared wagering on sports across state lines “by wire” illegal, and the Department of Justice clarified this in 2011 to focus on Web-based sports betting exclusively. But there’s an important caveat. The US government is not in the business of arresting individuals for placing bets on sports. The Wire Act is designed to attack the operators of illegal gambling, not the participants. The federal government is not coming to your house to press charges for placing bets on the NFL.
• What about state laws? Yes, some states have banned online gambling in general, so if you place a bet on football and you live in one of those states, you’re breaking the law. The list is: Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Montana, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin. In those states, it is illegal to place any wager online.
• As for local laws, Ythey’re so convoluted and they change so often that it’s impossible for us to keep our finger on that particular pulse. If you’re concerned about a local gambling law, consult a lawyer in your area familiar with the gaming industry.

Where can I place a legal online football bet in America?

The US online gambling market is a complicated thing. It’s even more complex when it comes to the sports betting marketplace. That’s because the US government has an enforceable law which says, plainly, that placing sports bets across state lines using the Internet is illegal. What’s worse, this law has been on the books in some form for sixty-five years. But as we’ve already said, this law shouldn’t be a concern for you, the sports bettor. The Department of Justice is interested in big fish – lawsuits that bring down multi-million dollar operations and put the heads of these organizations in prison. They never have, and as far as we can tell never will, arrest Joe Blow for buying a $100 parlay once a week during the NFL season.

The 2006 UIGEA bill adds another wrinkle. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act became law by being tacked onto a unanimously-approved anti-terror omnibus law. While the goal of UIGEA was to end all online gambling in America, it fell far short of that mark. The only thing that a sports bettor has to deal with in regards to UIGEA is the fact that it’s hard to send and receive money as an online gambler than it was before UIGEA passed.

We said all that to say this – so long as you’re placing sports bets with an offshore company, you’re not technically breaking the law. You’re certainly not breaking the law in any way that will attract the attention of law enforcement. That means you’re free to make an account at any online sportsbook that accepts US customers.

A Crash Course in Online Football Betting

Football Lines & Odds

The odds formats used for online bets on football are the same that are used for betting on many different sports. If you already know how to wager on basketball, baseball, or hockey games, you’ll immediately recognize the betting options available for football bets.

NFL bettors use four different types of bets on NFL games: money line, point spread, game totals, and parlays. These four bets make up the vast majority of (if not all) bets placed on professional and college football. Each of them acts a bit differently.

The Money Line

Bookmakers create the money line in the hopes of bringing in balanced bets. That is, their goal is to make both sides of the contest attractive, so that they profit regardless of how the game turns out. The money line is popular in part because it’s easy to read, and you can glean a lot of information about a game from a quick glance at a money line.

Beating the money line is as easy as picking the team that’s going to win outright. The money line is created by oddsmakers, who evaluate each team against its opponent and create a line that honors the favorite as well as the underdog. The difference in odds created by this balance of favorite and underdog is desirable for the bookmaker, but can be tough for the bettor to beat.

Here’s a totally made-up money line to use as an example:

What do we learn from these two simple lines? For starters, the Colts are identified as the favorite. How do we know that? The favorite in a money line is always marked with a “-” sign. We also know that the game is taking place in Houston – the team on the bottom is always the home team. Since the favorite is marked with a “-” symbol, the underdog must be the one marked with a “+” symbol. In other words, just from looking at the line, we know that Indianapolis is favored to head down to Houston and walk away with a road win.

What about those numbers next to the team names? Each team’s number indicates something different. For the favorite (in this case, Indianapolis), the number indicates how much you have to bet in order to win a $100 payout. For the underdog (in our example, the Texans), the number indicates the payout for a successful $100 bet. If you want to win $100 by betting on the Colts, you’ll need to drop $210. If you place a $100 bet on Houston to pull off the upset, your payout will be $170.

The Point Spread

A point spread is a different tool oddsmakers can use to create a balanced set of bets on both sides of a contest. The point spread is a number that stands for the difference in point totals between the two teams. It sounds complicated, but here’s an example of a made-up point spread to give you an idea of how it works:

We get a lot less information here than we do with the money line. In this example, we know that Denver is the favorite, because their point total is reduced by 13 to equal the Raiders’ point total. We also know that Denver is the visitor, and Oakland the home team, since the home team is always listed at the end.

In this example, the sportsbook has decided that the Broncos are going to beat home-team Oakland by 13 points. If you want to bet on Denver, the team’s final score must be 14 points or more above the Raiders’ score. If you want to be successfully on Oakland, the Raiders have to either win outright or lose by fewer than 13 points.

Game Totals

The simplest way to bet on an NFL game is to bet on the game total. Also known as “over/unders,” game totals represent the oddsmakers’ educated guess about the point total between two sides in a match. It works like this – the sportsbook will set a number (something like 40) and accept bets on both sides of that total. If you think the teams will score more, you bet the “over.” If you think the teams will score less, you bet the “under.”

Parlay Bets

Parlay bets are a popular way to bet on pro football. So popular are parlay tickets, a handful of US states now sell them as part of their state lotto system. Parlays are sometimes considered exotic wagers, in that they pay off potentially big rewards for a small investment, and the odds are often very long, depending on the size of your parlay ticket.

So what is a parlay ticket? A parlay bet is a bet placed on the outcomes of multiple games on the same day. A parlay ticket has to be made up of at least two games and generally no more than twelve on a single day of NFL play. Parlay bettors pick the size of the combo bet, and obviously the more teams you add to your ticket, the larger your potential payout. A parlay bet only pays off if all the selections on the ticket are correct.

Here’s an example pay table for a parlay card. Note how the payout increases exponentially as you add more games to your card:

How can you use this information to become a better football gambler? Smart bettors incorporate all four of these styles of bets for different situations. While we don’t recommend that novice sports bettors jump in and start wagering with parlays or other exotic bets, you’ve learned plenty about money lines, point spreads, and game totals to get out there and start placing pro football bets like a seasoned veteran.

Best Online Nfl Betting Site

How to Place an Online Football Bet

Placing a bet online is easier than betting in a live sportsbook. The atmosphere is much less intimidating. You can’t really make a mistake, since the bets are laid out for you. Your living room is probably more comfortable than even the fanciest sportsbook lounge, especially considering you can place an online sports bet in your underwear or from the bathtub or whatever.

Though every online sportsbook offering football bets uses a slightly different interface, the basic idea is the same. Log in to the sportsbook where you have an account. You’ll find football bets listed in a prominent location – sportsbook operators know that Americans have a lust for football betting, so they make NFL bets easy to access. Sometimes you’ll have to find NFL bets on a drop-down menu, or in a list running down one side of the screen.

Once you’ve found the football bets, you’ll find a list of available games, along with some other options. The fancier sportsbooks online have streaming game links and other ways to follow along. Regardless, you’ll see every NFL game bet available that day, which is usually most games for the week, minus a Thursday or Friday contest mid-season.

Each contest is like to have its own drop-down menu of available odds formats and bet styles. You can choose a straight-up wager, your odds format, and other options as you click through and research the game. You can easily add a game to a parlay ticket – most online sportsbooks make this option easy, since they want to encourage exotic bets. Once you’ve built your wager, it’s time to confirm it, then way for the game to play out.

Football Betting Strategy

We could write volumes on the subject of sports betting strategy. Handicapping, the act of comparing the abilities of two athletes or two teams, is an art unto itself. The world’s best bettors are constantly studying, learning new techniques, and producing new content for us to study. It’s a vast echo chamber, and there’s no way to cover it in a “crash course” format that won’t leave you wanting more.

Below you’ll find our most powerful football betting tips for newcomers. We’ve distilled thousands of words of strategy down to the five critical elements of a beginning sports betting regimen. If you follow this advice, then continue to do your own research on the subject, you’ll be a better and more confident football bettor.

1. Take advantage of football’s schedule.

The NFL’s schedule is beneficial to new bettors, because it offers an extended period of down-time between games. Sure, every now and then a team is dealt a short week. Sometimes, a team will play on Sunday night and then turn around and play again on the following Thursday. But even in those rare short week cases, bettors still have four days to do research, to handicap matchups, and to shop for the best lines before they have to decide on a wager. Some Web-based sportsbooks open their NFL lines as early as Sunday night. That means that NFL bettors can act and react at a slower pace. It also gives you time to study and adjust your strategy for new situations.

The NFL schedule benefits bettors in another important way – some game odds aren’t released until later in the week, due to an injury, a trade, or some other big shift in the team’s makeup. Even in these situations, you’re unlikely to have to make a big betting decision in a matter of hours, thanks to the stately pace of the NFL’s schedule.

2. Ignore the talking heads.

If you’re brand-new to NFL betting, you’re not likely to know much about handicapping. You probably don’t know how to compare two teams. It’s tempting, in that situation, to put ESPN on at all times, in the car, at home, even at work. ESPN delivers easy-to-digest news and opinions, and you probably already pay for ESPN. Heck, the radio station is free. We say you should probably ignore ESPN, stop watching Sportscenter, and turn all the talking heads off during the NFL season. At least while you’re betting.

Face it, these guys are there to entertain us. They’re not there to provide legitimate insight into the game. Not the kind of insight you need to actually gain an edge on the bookmaker. Remember, the bookmaker is one of the best in the world at handicapping, at comparing two teams, at predicting sports future. You’re just some guy who works in Accounting. Arming yourself with the dime-a-dozen pieces of advice that any idiot with a TV has access to is not arming yourself at all.

Your task is to find alternative sources of information that do a better job than ESPN, Fox Sports, and the rest. Elsewhere on this page, we identify some sources of information that will actually help you learn to out-fox the book, from time to time. One day, you’ll have a regular list of sources to trust. For now, your best bet is to do all your research on your own, stick to one or two games a week, and follow the rest of the advice in this section.

3. Bet consistently.

For your first season of online NFL bets, we recommend that you decide ahead of time how much and how often you’re going to wager during the regular season. The playoffs are a different animal altogether, and we cover that strategy elsewhere on the site. During the regular season, you’ll want to create a unit bet size, and bet consistently.

Creating a unit bet means betting the same amount on every game. Here’s how we recommend newcomers do it – take your bankroll for the season, divide it by seventeen (the number of weeks of the NFL regular season), then divide that number the total number of games you want to bet on per week. Here’s an example – let’s say you have $2,000 to wager for the coming NFL season. That gives you $117 to bet per week. Since it’s your first year betting, you should probably bet no more than two games. That leaves you with a unit bet size of $58 per game. Think of it this way – if you identify a game that you have a strong feeling about, you could always double your bet on that game and skip betting on the second game.

Why are we betting so consistently? If you’re not a professional sports handicapper, you have no business giving any weight to one bet over another. You just don’t know how to handicap games yet, at least not well enough to be deciding to bet $200 on THIS game, but only $50 on THIS one. Remember, the oddsmakers are smart, they’re good at this, and they’ve been doing it since before you were born. That’s not to say that they never make mistakes – just that you, as a novice, are unlikely to be able to find and exploit them.

4. Practice patience.

You’re not going to get rich overnight by betting on NFL games on the Internet. In fact, odds are you’ll NEVER get rich betting on NFL games on the Internet. Remember, this is supposed to be entertaining. If you learn to practice patience, you’ll enjoy sports betting more, which is really the same as winning more often. None of the tips on this list are designed to actually turn you into a person who knows more than the sportsbook. Instead, you’ll notice, they’re designed to help you enjoy yourself while you bet.

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Some weeks, you may not feel strongly enough about any contest to place a bet. Other weeks, you may decide to place a double-size bet on one contest, because you’ve found a great line or have some insight into the outcome. Remember that if the odds are too long, there’s a reason for it.

The world’s best sports bettors struggle tooth and nail to achieve a win rate above 50%. If professional sports bettors only barely win more than half the time, how well do you think you’re going to do? Be realistic – be patient.

5. Use a reputable sportsbook.

Don’t sign up with the first online sportsbook you find. Don’t sign up with a sportsbook just because it offers NFL bets. Don’t sign up with a sportsbook without doing your research. Check the many online blacklists for mentions of any sportsbook you’re about to send money to. If nothing else, put the book’s name in a Web search and see what people are saying. The downside to signing up with a scam site? You could literally lose every cent you send them. Or they could refuse to pay you a legitimate win. With so many legit sportsbooks still serving the US market, and plenty of sites to find reviews and lists of scam operations, you have no excuse for signing up with a disreputable book.

Summary

Betting on the NFL is as American as the Second Amendment. It is part of our birthright – at least, that’s how many of us feel. Though some in the federal government have been trying to shut it down for years, and others at the level of state government are still actively pursuing its prohibition, betting on the NFL on the Internet is still legal. We’ve covered the basics of placing online NFL bets, and even outlined the legal landscape. It’s now up to you to put our advice into practice.