There is no dyeing that the Super Bowl has become one of the most anticipated sporting events on the calendar. 96.4 million football fans worldwide watched the 2021 game, and if that sounds like a lot, it is. Yet it was still the lowest watched Super Bowl since 2007. The NFL has dominance over other Major League sports in attendance as well, with the highest average per game. Even normal games in the NFL season average 14.9 million people watching from home.
The NFL is huge, and therefore it is no surprise that betting on the sport is increasing in popularity as well. Players are using legal US sportsbook to place wagers on football games to make them more exciting than ever before. If you don’t know the first thing about betting then this guide is for you. Our expert bettors will explain the most popular bet types used on the NFl, and how to bet on the Super Bowl.
Moneylines bets are the simplest bets you can come across. All you are betting on is the victor of the match. That’s it. They can win by 1 point or 40, but you get your winnings as long you pick the right team. With moneyline bets there are favored teams (-) and underdog teams (+). These symbols help players understand how much they can win when placing bets on these teams. With the (-) symbol, the number next to it indicates how much you need to bet to win $100. With the (+) symbol, the number next to it shows you how much you can win if you bet $100. It’s pretty straightforward, and there are some examples below to help.
If you put $125 on a team with odds of -125, you will receive $100 profit as well as your stake.
If you put $100 on a teams with odds of +220, you will received $220 profit as well as your stake.
Of course, you may think that there are clear favorites in certain NFL games, which takes the thrill out of betting. Spread betting is the solution to this problem. In addition to the odds offered as explained above, each team will be assigned a point total to cover. This is referred to as covering the spread. This means bettors can bet on underdogs, and if they lose by a certain amount or win, the bet comes through. For favorites they have to win by a certain number of points for the bet to come through.
NFL parlays are a great way to raise the tension, by boosting the odds of you bet and having it dependant on multiple teams. In essence this is combing multiple moneylines or spreads into one bet. Each game a bet goes on is called a leg. You need every leg of your parlay to come through to win any money. These bets are harder to get right, as if one thing goes wrong, the whole thing is ruined. But they have much have larger payouts.
Most bettors consider prop bets as fun little side bets that shouldn’t be taken too seriously. There is sound reasoning behind this. You can place these bets on anything that could happen in the game. Sometimes they are straightforward bets like who will win the coin toss or the first team to score, but other sportsbooks will offer odds on wackier markets. You may see bets like the length of the national anthem at the Super Bowl. These bets are almost entirely dependent on luck, so few people see them as main bets. Other betting types can be influenced by your knowledge of teams, stats, form, etc. Not prop bets. They are almost shots in the dark.
The rise of legal online sports betting has seen the Super Bowl rise to be one of the most bet on events of any given year. Billions of dollars are wagered through moneylines, spreads, and prop betting. The Super Bowl and prop betting have been linked since Super Bowl XX. Sportsbook offered bettors the chance to bet on whether William ‘The Refrigerator’ Perry would score a touchdown. Sure enough, on the day of the game, who was crashing into the endzone? The 300lb defensive lineman. Since then, American bettors have loved prop bets on the big event.
In 2018 the US Supreme Court struck down the PASPA and allowed states other than Nevada to welcome sports betting. Many states have passed the legislation, including Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Iowa. More states are looking to do so in the future. If you want to bet on the NFL and Super Bowl, you just have to be in one of those states. Make sure you are of legal age, download a sportsbook app, and start placing your bets.