Betting Total Points Football
Easily the most popular type of betting for NFL football is “spread” betting or more commonly known as betting against the spread. Bettors who are new to NFL betting or betting in general may be a little confused with NFL spread betting, but it is pretty easy to understand once it is explained to you. We will explain what betting against the spread means below.
From this point onward you can add more factors to the football prediction model in order to tweak the percentages. The idea is that adding more complexity improves the accuracy of the predictions. It's essential that you're competent in Excel (or comparable program) in order to produce a stats-based betting model. One of the most popular types of football wagers is the Totals, also known as the Over/Under. This bet is placed on the total points scored by the two teams playing. It’s an exciting betting option, as you don’t have to worry about who wins or loses, just how many points are scored.
Extra-time does not count towards the total. Only cards shown to players currently on the pitch will count. Cards shown to managers, players already substituted off or substitutes not yet used do not count towards the total. If your bet is on 10+ booking points your bet is a winner if there are 10 or more booking points. Total Football ATS Logs Team logs for each of 32 NFL and 120 College Football teams. Schedule, score, statistical AND point spread information is grouped together in 15 categories per game. The most convenient and complete at-a-glance reference of its kind for ATS, Football Totals and all betting angles. Compu-Match Predictions. What is a Total or Over/Under Bet? A total or over/under bet is a single wager on whether or not the combined goal, point or run total of a single game will be over or under what the oddsmaker sets it at before the event. When placing a total wager, all the bettor is concerned with is the combined score of each team at the end of the game.
What is Betting Against The Spread?
For each NFL game the oddsmakers set a number of points in which the favored team is favored by. Bettors can then either choose for the favored team to win by more than the number of points set, or bet on the underdogs to lose by less than the number of points they are underdogs by or win the game straight up. For example, the spread could be set on the favored team at 6.5 points. This would mean in order for a bet on the favored team on the spread to win they would need to win by more than 6.5 points (7 or more) in order to win the bet. It also means that a bet on the underdog team would win if the underdogs lost by less than 6.5 points (6 or less) or won the game outright.
Example of NFL Spread Bet
Below is an example of what NFL spread betting would look like:
Matchup
- TeamsSpread
- Dallas Cowboys -2.5
- New York Giants +2-5
The negative (-) sign indicates that the Cowboys are the favorites, while the positive (+) sign indicates that the New York Giants are the underdogs. With the spread set at 2.5 points, a bet on the Cowboys would mean that they would have to win by more than 2.5 points (3 or more) in order for you to win that bet. A bet on New York would mean that the Giants would have to either lose by 2.5 or less points (2 or less) or win the game outright in order for your bet to win.
Here is another example with a screenshot taken from 5Dimes.eu during Week 3 of the 2013 NFL season:
Here you can see that the Rams are +3.5, while the Cowboys are -3.5. So for this example the Cowboys are 3.5 point favorites, while the Rams are underdogs of 3.5 points. If you were to bet on St Louis you would need them to lose by 3 or fewer points or just win the game outright. If you were to bet on Dallas you would need the Cowboys to win by 4 or more points.
Betting Total Points Football Game Today
If the Cowboys were to win by 3 points, lets say 30-27, any bets on the Rams +3.5 would win. Even though the Rams didn’t win the game they covered the spread of 3.5 points.
Now if the Cowboys were to win by 4 points, lets say 31-27, the Cowboys have covered the spread and anyone who wagered on Dallas would win their bets.
Other NFL Spread Betting Information
You may often notice that the spread is sometimes set at an even number such as 3, 6 , 10, etc. In this case if the favored team won by the exact amount set for the spread the bet would be pushed, and all bets would be returned. For example, if the Patriots were 3 point favorites and they won by a FG (3 points) than this would results in a push, meaning no matter which side you bet on you would get your money returned to you.
Betting Total Points Football Game
The most common NFL spreads are usually set between about 2.5-10.5 points, but you will also almost always have games each week with spreads lower than 2.5 and higher than 10.5. In the event that the oddsmakers feel the game doesn’t need a spread, it would be set at 0 or what some call a pick’em (both teams are given even odds to win for this type of bet).
The odds given on the spread are usually -110 unless otherwise noted. It is not uncommon to see one side of the spread being -105, with the other side being -115. If you don’t see any odds listed for each side of NFL spreads you are supposed to assume the odds are -110 on each. Not sure how to read NFL betting odds? Check out our Sports Betting Odds guide.
Now that you know the basics of NFL spread betting you’ll want to check out our Sports Betting Strategy guide which has some great NFL strategy articles written by a professional bettor.
Much like in baseball where the traditionalists complain that the new wave of players are taking over and disrespecting the game, sports betting is slowly becoming geared to the younger generation of players. The demand for quick results and instant gratification have taken the sportsbooks by storm and sportsbook have replied by offering up more and more obscure bets. However, one of the simplest forms of betting has remained the same and that is betting the “total” for a particular game or event.
What Does Total Mean?
If you hear the phrase “total” being talking about during a sports betting discussion, it is referring to a betting option where the bettor is predicting the number of runs/goals/points scored by the two teams combined. The two options a bettor has is to bet “over” the total, or “under” the total.In order to understand how the “over/under” works, you must first understand what betting on totals entails.
To keep it short and sweet, linemakers set a total for the number of points they think the two teams will combine to score in a particular game. Bettors then have two betting options to choose from – the “over” or the “under”. Taking the “over” means you think that both teams will combine for more than the linemakers posted total, while taking the “under” is the exact opposite.
When setting these totals, sportsbooks try to set a line that gets balanced action. They hope half the bettors think the line is too high, while the other half think the line is too low. If they can accomplish this, they can make a profit without any risk to them.
The concept is straightforward but throwing in an example never hurt. Let’s say you are looking at a hockey game between the Red Wings andLightning and the linemakers set the total at 5.5 goals. If the teams combine for six or more goals, any bet on the “over” would be graded as a winner. If there are five or fewer goals scored, “under” bettors would be the ones celebrating a winning bet.
Different Types of Total Bets
Almost every single sport available for wagering will have a posted total that you can choose to bet on. In it’s simplest form, bettors typically choose to wager on the “over/under” for the entire game. This does not mean that it’s the only option available.
Sportsbooks give bettors the opportunity to wager on the “over/under” for half time “totals”, team “totals”, individual performance “totals” and future bets. To keep it simple, I will use the Red Wings and Lightning example to explain each of these options.
Some sportsbooks offer a 1.5 goal total for each period. This means you can wager on the “over/under” for each period. If you are playing team totals, the Red Wings may have a team total of 2.5 goalsin which case you would have to choose either the “over” or “under”. There are also individual performance totals available, such as the number saves a goalie will make or the number of shots on net a certain player will have. And lastly, if you decide to lay a future bet down on the “over/under” you will likely be betting how many games a particular team will win over the course of the season.
Betting Strategies for Totals
Just like any betting option, you will come across a totals opportunity every once in a while, that is just screaming out at you to bet it. These are the opportunities that you need to capitalize on in order to be a successful handicapper over an extended period of time.
Betting strategies surrounding the total often time revolve around the weather in a particular matchup. In football, if it’s snowing or raining profusely, the “total” could be effected which is why the “under” may be worth looking into further. Now, I’m not telling you to bet every game that has snow or rain “under” the total. I’m telling you to do your research and understand that snow and rain effect all aspects of the game and could take away the part of the game a team has success in (think pass-happy team playing in snow storm – probably won’t be the greatest result).
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