The Best Tips and Strategies for NFL Betting

Betting may sound quite simple, but winning a football bet is herculean. Asides from combining your knowledge of the game with your betting skills, winning real money football bets require some practical strategies.

If you're a newbie or an experienced bettor, there are certain things you must do to increase your real money winnings. Here are seven basic guidelines every NFL bettor should know.

Top NFL Betting Strategies

There is no magic or shortcut to becoming a successful bettor; it's a process that requires time, money, and experience. However, we have provided seven tips to help you develop a good strategy for winning NFL bets.

Choose a Trusted Sportsbook Site

This is the first strategy for a successful NFL betting career. There are reasons why you should choose a trusted and reputable sports betting site:

  • They are safe for gambling 
  • Keeps your information secure from third-party invasion
  • Diverse betting options with the best odds.
  • Winning bets have bonus rewards.
  • Live bets.
  • Easy deposits and withdrawals.
  • Responsive customer service.

We recommend that you choose a reputable bookie due to the numerous benefits it provides punters. Bookies that lack the various features listed above would affect your gambling adventure negatively; psychologically and financially. It's even better to have an account on multiple sports betting sites to quickly get the best odds by comparing the lines on each site.

For example, another reputable sportsbook might list a betting option as a 4.5-point spread instead of a 5-point favorite on another site. The difference between the odds may sound negligible, but a win or loss would have a wide margin in your bankroll.

You can join up to 3 of the best NFL sportsbooks in our online sports betting section to increase your chances of winning NFL bets. There is enough money for everyone to win at NFL betting, so why not go the extra mile?

Don't Bet with Feelings

If you're reading this, you're most likely a football fan before being a bettor. Being a fan of an NFL team has its pros and cons alike. Football fans have a favorite team and rival teams they don't like, so it's common to see these staunch supporters bet on the outcome they want in favor of their favorite teams or ally with another opponent of a rival team. Fans are unable to disconnect their emotions from their wagering.

NFL betting requires a great deal of logical reasoning and critical thinking alongside some luck, but placing a bet based on your feelings is a NO if you want to make more money. Most amateur gamblers bet on the favorites to win a match. Although they may win most of the time, these wins have little value since the odds are little in moneyline bets. You can place ten moneyline bets in support of the favorites and need to win at least 8 of those bets to make a profit. Big underdogs usually find a way to keep up the fight in front of the home crowd, so it's okay to give them a shot. Ignoring the favorites might be difficult, but don't wager on them every time.

Do Not Bet on Every Match

The NFL season is very long, and with the number of matches teams play, it's practically impossible to monetize every game all season long. Most bettors see the fixtures and try to predict the outcome a short period before the game begins.

Every pro gambler knows that you cannot make money from every NFL game because you won't have time to assess and study the outcome of every game together. It's pretty impractical as there is a lot to consider in one game, and you cannot make accurate predictions for each game. The best approach is to be selective with your games and bet choices; make findings on the games and competition you want to bet on. Then you can wager your money when you're confident of your prediction based on sound analysis. Although you won't place many bets like before, you'll likely get a better outcome as time passes.

Do Your Research

One cannot overemphasize the importance of devoting some time and effort to some research. Professional bettors don't just bet on any NFL game; they research various factors that can affect a team's performance and overall outcome. Although unforeseen circumstances might affect your bets, getting familiar with the teams is still advisable.

There are various aspects you should consider when conducting your research. For example, the team's home and away records. Some top teams like the New England Patriots and The Seahawks have had a better record at home in recent times; this may be due to the support from the home fans or the energy that should have been used up while making trips. You should also study the two teams' head-to-head records; the outcome may be similar to the previous meetings.

How many injuries do the competing teams have? Which players are available on each team for the match? How is the team's performance when they play their backup players? These are other essential questions you must answer when doing your research. Most professional gamblers are successful because they invest in searching for information that even most sportsbook sites don't know about. Such diligence rewards their winnings and sets them apart from other bettors.

Have a Budget

Since you need money to make more money, financial management is a course every sports bettor must ace. You should have a bankroll to bet with once the NFL season starts – a specified amount of money you can afford to lose. Your bet budget can be weekly, monthly, or for an entire season to manage money smartly. Using a full-season bankroll, you can wager between 2 - 5% of the total money on weekly bets.

One common mistake among gamblers is increasing bet sizes once they start winning or trying to cover up previous losses. In most cases, you end up losing more money with bigger bets. It's easy to win thousands and lose it all in a week if you don't have a plan for your wager. The NFL season is long, so we advise that you stick to your bankroll for longevity if you wish to make a profit in the long run. Having a budget would help maintain discipline and gamble responsibly. Bet what you can afford to lose!

Leverage on Live Betting

Live betting is one of the best features of NFL bets; utilizing them is an excellent way to become a successful bettor. It's now an ideal alternative for bettors who cannot place bets before the game for various reasons. Rather than trusting everything football experts say, why not watch your favorite games live, place bets in real-time, and leverage odd changes?

If you have doubts about a specific bet option, you can wait and see how the first quarter of the game goes before making a decision. Once the first quarter is over, you can then decide to stick to the initial plan or make changes based on the gameplay. For example, before Team A (the underdogs) makes a third-quarter comeback against Team B (the favorites to win), the odds of team A winning would have increased. So, as a bettor who follows the action in real-time, you can wager on Team A to win and leverage the increased odds to increase your winnings.

Track Your Bets

NFL betting is more complicated than other sports, so tracking your results is the only way to know if you're making progress. Some of the best gamblers in the NFL have a record of their bets and results to know their strengths and weaknesses, even before placing a wager. Knowing your forte and sticking to it is one crucial way to improve at NFL betting. It's one of the various reasons why pro gamblers are successful at what they do.

Unlike other sports, NFL betting is quite tricky because it requires experience in betting on games to understand these kinds of bets. You might mistake luck for improvement and vice-versa. You can only know your status quo and measure your progress by tracking your bets.

Robert Miller
Robert Miller
Last updated: 3/9/2023

Robert is responsible for all content on BettingGuide US. Robert previously worked as a poker dealer during his college years at MIT where he studied Computational Science and Engineering. With a great interest in gambling, Robert likes to go in-depth when writing so that you can make a wiser choice when choosing an operator.