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The NFL is the king for sports bettors.
Every year football fans push their chips in and wager on games played on Sundays and Thursday and Monday nights. Since anything can happen on any given Sunday, the NFL can be unpredictable even though the better team generally wins over the course of 18 regular-season weeks of the NFL schedule.
Because the better team usually wins, sportsbooks offer unique betting markets to inspire players to place their bets on football. One of those markets is the spread, where bettors are asked to determine whether the favorite will not only win but do so by a minimum number of points.
If you are intrigued by the idea of spread betting but aren’t quite sure how it works, here’s a guide to betting NFL point spreads at our favorite NFL betting sites and apps.
How NFL Spread Betting Works
A sportsbook will typically display an initial table of numbers for bettors to consider before a game. The three most popular wagers are moneyline – which team will win – then the spread and total for a game.
There are odds for moneyline bets, as well as numbers and odds for the spread and total. In the case of spread betting there will be a plus or minus in front of the number.
The favorite will have the minus in front of its number, whereas the underdog will have a plus. Typically, if all things are equal in the NFL, the home team will give or lay three points, meaning it will show as -3. The underdog will have a plus in front of its number, like +3.
For example, if the Chiefs are hosting the Ravens in a game between two AFC elites, Kansas City might be a three-point favorite or -3. That means if KC wins by four-plus points then it will cover the spread and win the bet, but if Baltimore wins or loses by two or fewer it will beat the spread and win the wager.
If Kansas City wins by three then the bet will push, and the player will get his/her money back.
Why to Spread Bet on NFL
Spread betting is a riskier but more fun way to wager, especially on the NFL where games can be tighter than fans or even sportsbooks initially believe.
Plus, unlike its college counterpart, most NFL games are settled by 10 points or fewer, even though pregame spreads can look lopsided. That means if you are the fan of an underdog and facing a team it likely has no chance of winning outright against, you can wager your team to beat the spread at +14 or even higher and still win your wager.
Or if your favorite team is a huge moneyline favorite of -250 or shorter, but you still want to get in on the action, you can wager it to cover -6.5 and cash in when it wins by a touchdown.
Or if there is a spread that simply looks too lopsided on a marquee game, or not lopsided enough, you can take it and cash in. There are a lot of times when betting a favorite to cover the spread is more lucrative even though the potential of that favorite to cover is almost guaranteed as long as it wins.
For example, say the Chiefs are only a 2.5-point favorite, listed at -2.5, you can bet them to win by at least a field goal at the slightly more lucrative -110 odds over their -135 moneyline odds. The vast majority of NFL games are settled by three-plus points, and a favorite winning by three will cover the -2.5 spread.
However, if the Ravens are a 3.5-point underdog, and you feel Baltimore won’t win but could lose by only a field goal then you could bet Baltimore +3.5 and cash in at -110 if it loses 27-24 instead of losing a moneyline wager.
How to Bet NFL Spreads
Betting NFL spreads is about as easy as wagering on any sports-betting market at an online sportsbook. Here are the steps:
- Sign up at one of the legal online sportsbooks in your home state or log into your online sportsbook account.
- Deposit into your account if necessary. Be sure to use any necessary promo or bonus code to unlock the best new-user offer.
- Click on the NFL tab on the sportsbook’s home page.
- Tap on the game you wish to wager.
- Click on either the favorite (-number) or underdog (+number) to cover the spread.
- Enter the amount you wish to wager, tap place bet.
- Root for your wager to hit
NFL Alternate Spreads
If you want to spread bet but don’t love the number listed by the sportsbook, you can wager on an alternate spread instead. An alternate spread bet is one where a bettor chooses the favorite or underdog to cover a line that is more favorable at shorter odds.
For example, if the Chiefs are listed at -3.5 over the Ravens, but you’re worried about KC only winning by a field goal, you can change the line to -2.5. The odds will change drastically, like from -105 to -140, due to the fact it is a more likely wager to hit.
If KC was listed at -3, but you wanted to change the line to Baltimore +3.5, you could do that as well, again with corresponding odds based on how likely that bet is to hit.
Alternate spreads typically make terrific parlay legs, since it’s very hard to hit a multi-leg wager when all the odds are -110 – the sportsbook equivalent of a coin flip. But be sure to consider the fact sportsbooks will typically only let bettors wager alternate spreads within a few points of the actual spread.
