NFL-Lines

In the world of NFL betting lines handicapping, the first suggestion you’ll hear from most ‘how to’ articles, is to limit the amount of teams you include in your wager. For casual bettors, this may mean placing five different bets, on five different games. However, for most sharp bookie software bettors, this usually means playing a single bet called a parlay. In weeks one and 17 of the season, parlays receive a ton of action, and here is why.

For those new to exotic sports betting, parlays are a single bet, spread out over a few games. In football, the most common parlay is to make a five team parlay, which requires, that you take five teams in five games, and all five teams must win in order for your bet to be declared a winner. Unlike an if bet where the money from each victory is carried over and placed for the next team in the parlay, your basic parlay requires that every team win in order for you to win. In other words, you won’t be refunded the money from the first team that wins if the second team in your parlay loses. Instead, if you win four of your five games, you lose your NFL parlay completely, because that fifth team didn’t pull its weight and win.

In theory, parlay’s can be both good and bad when placing a wager. On the one hand, a parlay containing five teams can make you as much if not more money then if you were simply making five different bets. At the same time, if you lose a parlay, you won’t receive any payout, regardless of how any of the teams do. For instance, if you spread your money into five separate bets and four teams won, you would four out of five times. Yet, if you made a five team parlay and four teams won and the fifth one lost, your bet would still be a loss.

With the NFL betting lines regular season coming to a close this weekend, fans and handicappers alike, are already looking ahead to next weekend’s schedule, when the playoffs get underway. We started out with 32 teams, but are now down to 12. Today, for your bookie software pleasure, we’ll be looking at why the playoffs are the most exciting time of the year.

The one major difference between regular season and playoff games in the NFL is that if you win you continue on, but if you lose, you go home. For this reason, most handicappers and analysts unofficially throw out the trends from the regular season, as literally the team with the best game plan can win on any given night. The best example of this took place a season ago, as NFL bookies had the New Orleans Saints as a 21-point favorite over the lowly Seattle Seahawks. Despite being a heavy underdog, the Seahawks who had entered the playoffs with a losing record, came up with a brilliant game plan, to stop the Saints offense. As a result, Seattle destroyed New Orleans, before getting eliminated them in the second round.

As handicappers ourselves, one of the trends we like to take a look at, is a teams success in the final stretch of the regular season. Essentially, capping every team from weeks 11 to 17 provides you with a good idea of which teams are for real, and which were fortunate to start out hot in the beginning of the season. For instance, the Detroit Lions have quietly put together a strong second half to the season, as they have killed opponents. The Lions started off the season with five wins, before dropping their next five games. But in the final six games of the season, the Lions have gone undefeated.