NFL Moneyline Betting
Before sports betting branched into spreads and totals, the moneyline was the only option on the board. This is the simplest way to enjoy the best NFL Odds and the second-most popular gameline wager.
Moneyline Betting Explained
With NFL and Super Bowl moneyline betting, you simply pick the team you think will win in any given game. If your team wins the game straight up, your bet pays out. If both teams tie, the result is a push, and your money is returned.
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What are NFL Moneyline Odds?
The amount you get paid depends on the odds you locked in when placing your bet. With most games, there’s a favourite and an underdog, and they both have their own odds. Typically, the favourite has a negative sign in front of their odds, whereas the underdog has a positive sign. However, when both teams are closely ranked, they’ll both have a negative sign, with the favourite having a bigger number. For example, —140 is a slight favourite over —130. But most of the time, you’ll be looking at one team with negative odds and one team with positive odds. Let’s take a look at a classic moneyline example dating back to Super Bowl XLIV:
New Orleans Saints +165
The Colts went 14-2 in the regular season, which was the best record that year. The Saints weren’t far behind with a 13-3 record. As a result, the Colts were favoured to win the Super Bowl, with —200 odds. When it comes to payouts, whenever the odds are negative, the amount you see is how much you’d have to stake to win a $100 payout. In this case, a $200 bet would pay $100. It’s the opposite for the underdog payouts; the amount you see if how much you’d win when betting $100. As for the underdog Saints, betting $100 would yield a $165 payout if they were to pull the upset, which they did, winning 31-17. Although the odds shown on the moneyline are based on $100 bets or payouts, you can wager any amount you’d like (within the minimums and maximums allowed at Bodog Sportsbook). For example, a $20 bet on the Colts would pay $10, and a $10 bet on the Saints would pay $16.50.
In some cases, two opposing teams in a game will be so close that they’ll have identical odds of —110. This is a Pick for the moneyline. You can pick either team, and regardless of the team you choose, the payout will be the same: $100 on a $110 bet.
Since the only way to balance the action between both teams on the moneyline is by adjusting the odds, you’ll notice that they change frequently. Going back to our Super Bowl 44 example, if too many bets were being placed on Indianapolis, their odds maye shift to —220, and even lengthen the Saints’ odds to +175. The increased payout for New Orleans combined with the pricier odds for Indianapolis would encourage more bets on the underdog, which would help the sportsbook reduce the risk of exposure.
When deciding when’s the best time for betting on the NFL moneyline, there are a couple of things to keep in mind. First, the more lop-sided a game is, the more polarized the team’s moneyline odds will be. That results in poor value for the favourite, but great value for the underdog.
The second thing to keep in mind is moneyline odds are always responding to the betting public. Some teams having bigger fanbases than others. The Green Bay Packers, New England Patriots and Dallas Cowboys always generate a lot of action on the moneyline, so if you want to get good value on them, you have to get in early. Alternatively, since they can have inflated odds, there’s often great value with their opponents. Predicting an upset against one of these powerhouse teams on the moneyline will net you a bigger payout than what you can get from spread betting.
Betting on the moneyline is a great way to get in the action because it lets you win alongside your chosen team with no spread attached. If your team ekes out a 1-point win, you get to join the celebration. It’s a classic NFL wager and one that should be included in your betting portfolio.
NFL Moneyline Betting
