Most recreational gamblers cannot avoid the temptation to bet on a Sunday Night Football game. However, due to a lack of data and experience in betting, they often make betting mistakes that can easily be avoided. We have to carefully design our own betting strategy.
In the United States, football is undoubtedly the most popular sport for wagers and the second most bet on a global scale. NFL wagers in the United States make more than half of all sports bets placed in the country, which is not surprising since the Super Bowl had a record-breaking $158.6 million worth of bets back in 2018. Click here if you want to find out how to bet on the playoffs and Super Bowl.
Clearly, football is a popular betting sport, but this doesn’t mean that people are winning a lot of money. In fact, most of the bets are from people that casually watch the sport, and they don’t have any specific betting strategy.
In today’s article, we will cover 6 basic tips for betting strategy that can improve your winning chances on your next NFL bet.
1. Bet With Your Head, Not Your Heart
Obviously, emotion is non-existent in betting which has proven to be a challenge for many beginners. If you want to increase your winning chances on your next bet, you need to hard decisions, even sometimes bet against your favorite team.
Being more objective towards the sport and your betting decision is the best way to make smarter bets. After all, cheering for your favorite team is fun, but losing money on the other hand is not fun at all.
2. Data is Crucial
Most beginners make the same mistake of placing a bet without doing any research at all. Yes, sometimes researching and analyzing results is time-consuming and boring, but a quick glance at previous results can massively improve your winning chances.
You don’t have to become a professional bettor and run in-depth analysis before every game, but avoid betting without at least knowing the previous results for each team.
Trying to find a pattern that can predict the outcome of the next match is almost impossible, but data will help you make smarter bets and significantly improve your winning chances.
Also, be aware that the COVID-19 outbreak might influence the player’s rosters that are and aren’t available, so it’s a factor to keep track.
3. Location is Important
Just like in any sport, location plays a huge role in the outcome of the game. Home-field advantage matters, but it doesn’t affect every team equally. Some teams even perform better when they are playing away.
Apart from the push from cheering fans on home fields, bettors also need to consider Time Zones. For instance, West Coast teams have less difficulty overcoming time changes than East Coast teams that are forced to play three hours later.
4. Check for Injury Reports
Injuries can seriously affect the outcome of a game especially if the appearance of a key player is in question. Football is the ultimate team game where small changes can throw of the entire unit. There have been countless situations where the underdogs have won the game only because a key player was missing from the opposing team.
Usually, teams won’t announce a missing player at least a day before the match, which means sometimes is hard getting the information at the right time. The best way is to check social media pages, and Tweets from official accounts.
5. Diversify Your Betting Strategy
When it comes to making the right bets, try working your way up to your own betting strategy that is comfortable for you. Most beginners stick to the basic bets like moneyline, spread, and game totals, but the secret to maximizing your success is knowing all the alternative bets you can make.
Looking for alternative bets and diversifying your betting strategy can open more opportunities for safer and smarter bets. When you feel more confident, you can try some of the more advanced bets like parlays. If you plan on doing that, Doc’s NFL Parlays can help you come up with the best bets.
6. Know the Individual Matchups
As we mentioned, football is the ultimate team game, but don’t expect a team to perform exactly the same between different opponents. For instance, premier edge-rushers can perform really well against offensive tackle, which is why you need to pay attention to skill discrepancies between players that are going head-to-head.
On top of that, there is a rivalry to pay attention to. The long history between two rival teams can change the outcome of the game and teams can perform very differently from their previous matches.
