How We Rate NFL Betting Sites
Let’s delve into some of the critical criteria that are important to us when we recommend which NFL betting sites you should sign up for an account with.
Betting on the NFL is by no means confined to the U.S., with competition in the worldwide growing market, and the better NFL betting sites will have plenty of markets for you to place your NFL bets on.
Given the popularity of the NFL, you are going to want to make sure that you find an online bookmaker or betting site you can trust and one that offers plenty of betting options.
NFL Betting Sites You Can Trust
You’ll probably pause before depositing real money into an online sportsbook account. Why do you know you can trust this online betting site? After all, anybody may build a website, and there may or may not be regulated.
These concerns are entirely legitimate, but if you sign up to any NFL sports betting site that has made it onto our list because these are all completely trustworthy.
The main reason is that for a betting site to make our list; it has to hold a license with a credible provider.
Deposits and Withdrawals
The best NFL betting online betting sites make it easy for sports bettors to deposit funds into their accounts with a wide selection of deposit methods.
Popular methods include credit card options like Visa & Mastercard and other payment types like debit cards, PayPal, wire transfers, and Bitcoin, to name a few.
High rollers & VIPs are welcome at these sites, with modest minimum deposit requirements and a great selection of deposit options.
Fast Payouts
There are absolutely zero reasons for not collecting your winnings quickly from an online sportsbook bet. Sadly, some NFL gaming outlets do not adhere to the same ideology as us. Those sports betting sites aren’t on our approved lists.
NFL betting online is meant to be simple, offer better odds, and a better experience than betting in person. If that’s not the case, if you have to wait forever to get your winnings, that’s all going out the window. Despite this, we put a lot of weight on the NFL betting sites payout method speed and performance.
Thankfully, all NFL sportsbook sites we recommend are top performers when it comes to paying out quickly.
Great Customer Support
A site can act with integrity and facilitate transactions, but what about customer experience? There are numerous cases where people become frustrated with a betting site because there are problems, and there is nowhere to get help.
All the sites on our list have proven customer support via phone, email, and real-time chat. They have proven time and time again that they can solve most problems quickly and efficiently.
Great Design & A Secure Website
Website design is another critical factor we studied carefully when compiling our 2020 list of top NFL betting sites. The websites you visit if you pick one from our list are there because they have a great design and everything is laid out well.
There’s no learning curve, no uncertainty. You want to be able to deposit fast and securely and be able to place a bet without wondering where everything is.
Site operators make a significant investment in website security, including high-tech, state-of-the-art encryption technologies to keep confidential information secure. Plus, though some situations can not be managed, you can play for years on these sites and never run into any downtime.
Sign Up Bonus
Bonus Offers and promotions are one of the ways that a betting site will try and secure you as a new customer. The sign up bonus, sometimes called the deposit bonus, are what these online betting companies offer new customers is a good way of getting some free money that you can use to try out a betting site with.
Great Betting Odds
You want the best possible odds when placing a bet on any sport; for a bookmaker to be considered a Top NFL Betting Site, then they must offer great odds to punters. Many bookmakers have a best odds guaranteed service, meaning that if a rival bookmaker offers better odds and your bet wins, they will make up the difference. Best odds type services are only usually offered by the larger bookmakers, which is one of the main reasons to use a well known bookie.
Wide Coverage Of Events
The Super Bowl is probably the most well known NFL event and is watched by millions of viewers throughout the world. Given the size of the Super Bowl, there is a lot of betting action on the season finale but if you have an interest in NFL other than the Super Bowl you are going to want to pick an online sportsbook site that has you covered regular season games.
NFL Live Betting & Live Wagering
Like many sports, bookmakers offer live betting options and live NFL betting is a feature on many bookmakers websites. Each bookmaker will allow you to select the games and will display a list of live betting options and live odds.
The live betting options with NFL are endless with bookmakers continually coming up with great in play options.
Casino Games
Most of the online sportsbook sites also have an online casino section of their website. So of the casino games are something you enjoy playing then make sure to take a look at what each bookmaker offers in the casino section of their website.
Most of the bookmaker websites we have recommended have a fantastic casino section that sports fans will enjoy playing. You’ll find all the classic table games there for you to take full advantage of and plenty of casino bonus programs for you to take advantage of.
Responsible Gambling
Football bettors will want to make sure that when they are online gambling, they are doing so with a betting company that is committed to responsible gambling. A responsible gambling site will allow you to set betting limits, opt-out of marketing preferences and take a break from placing bets. These are just some of the features that these sites offer and all the NFL betting sites we have recommended are committed to responsible gambling.
Is Legal NFL Betting?
Most U.S. sports bettors are frustrated about the current state of sports betting online in the U.S. as it’s not clear cut. Things have continuously changed over the years, and there is still a strong lack of consistency on what’s legal and what’s not. Placing an NFL game bet on an online NFL betting platform is not illegal.
Here, we won’t go into too much depth, because you can learn all about the whole situation on our page dedicated to the best sports betting sites in the U.S. Nevertheless, we’ll guarantee you don’t have to think about the legality of putting wagers online.
There are two separate locations, known as controlled and offshore. The controlled market must do a lot to catch up and compete better with others. Offshore betting sites have even more online betting expertise and are also limited, but not in the U.S. Alternatively, they are located outside the U.S. but operate lawfully and are regulated within their respective jurisdictions.
NFL Bet Types
There are plenty of different bet types and wagering options available for NFL football fans. When looking to place a bet, you need to look for an NFL Betting Line being offered by bookmakers. If you aren’t based in the U.S. then you will find a lot of the betting options and betting terminology used may be different to what you are used to; therefore you may be unfamiliar with some of the terminology being used.
We’ve selected a list of the different bet types that you can place on an NFL game or season.
NFL Draft Betting
The NFL Draft happens every April and is one of the highlights for any NFL fan. Each team has one pick with the team finishing bottom having their first choice in the draft and the team that has won the Super Bowl having the last pick.
Another exciting aspect of the NFL draft is that teams can trade picks and also trade players for whom they hold the rights too. The event takes place over three days with plenty of betting options available, for example, who will have the first pick and who is likely to trade players?
Moneyline Betting
NFL Moneyline Betting is the simplest form of betting, and if you are new to American Football Betting, then it’s a good bet to start with as you are betting on the outcome of a single game.
You back Team A or Team B to win the match and if it ends in a draw after Overtime, then all stakes are refunded, the refunding of the stakes is known as a ‘Push’.
A money line bet is offered on American football betting markets.
Total Points Betting
Another straightforward bet to place in American Football, you bet over or under the total number points scored by both teams. The bet includes any Overtime that may be played. The bookmakers set the totals (or betting lines), you pick whether or not the total points will be over or under that amount.
First Touchdown
This is another straightforward bet, who do you think will score the first touch down. The bookmaker will display the odds; these are calculated based on where the betting market has gone rather than any factual data. Informed sports fans will, of course, consider all the options like the form, a player’s previous record against a team and whether or not they are coming back from injury.
A favourite for a first touchdown is the person who has been backed most rather than anything sophisticated.
First Scoring Play
First scoring play is another straightforward bet to place as you are backing the team that you think will score first in a game. The point could be scored by a touchdown or field goal, you back which side you think will score first, and if it happens, you win.
Points Spread or Straight Bets
If there is a clear favourite for a game, then there is probably little value in betting on the winner because there is no value in the bet. This is where the Points Spread Bet also know as a Straight Bet comes into place. NFL point spread betting is the most popular bet type wagered by NFL fans.
The favourite is given a virtual minus score on the bookmaker’s website by you the bettor or the underdog is given a virtual plus score.
Once the game is concluded including any overtime, the bet pays out if you predicted the right outcome factoring in the minus or plus score. If you are familiar with betting on other types of sport, this is also known as a handicap bet.
Totals Wagering
Totals wagering betting is another straightforward bet to place. You are predicting the total score of a game with the points tally from both teams being added together.
For example, Team A scores 20 points, and Team B scores 40 points the total score would be 60 points. If you bet that there would be of 50 points scored in the game the bet pays out when the team totals are calculated.
Parlay Bets
A Parlay Bet is when you combine two bets from two separate games and if both stakes win then the bet pays out. The main advantage of doing this is the combined odds of both outcomes are higher, and therefore there is the potential to win more.
You can combine different bet types so you could combine a Points Spread (handicap) bet from one game with a First Touchdown bet from another game.
NFL Teaser Bets
A Teaser Bet offers some fantastic odds but is one of the most complex bet types that are available when it comes to NFL betting. However, they provide better odds than most bet types so worth considering.
The basis of a Teaser Bet is combining outcomes from different games in the same way a Parlay Bet does. What makes a teaser bet stand out, however, is that they include a points spread. A points spread is a plus or minus amount added to a points tally in a game. The difference with a Teaser Bet is the spread is fixed amount of 6, 6.5 and 7 points.
A simple strategy would be to take the clear favourite from 3 games or the clear loser from 3 games and combine the odds into a 6 point teaser bet.
If the clear favourite in each game didn’t win by six or more points, the bet wouldn’t payout, the same would be true if the least fancied team didn’t lose by six or more points if you backed the losing side.
Halftime Bets
You see your team is down 3 points at half time and you fancy resetting the score to 0-0 and starting again? Halftime bets are your friend and a great way of adding some extra excitement into what could be a dull game.
Pretty much all of the betting options that are available before the game are also available as a half time bet. The difference is that the odds will be different at half time vs before the start.
Halftime bets can go in your favour or against you.
Online NFL Futures Betting
Do you think you know who will win the Super Bowl before the start of the season? How about who will be the next Conference Champions?
If you’ve seen the NFL draft and want to predict a winner of the competition from a whole season, then futures betting is an excellent bet to place. NFL MVP Odds are great value at the start of the season but as the season gets underway you can see odds slashed quickly, betting on who you think will be the MVP is also a popular Futures Bet to place.
Prop Bets
Prop Bets are also known as propositional bets are more seen as a fun bet than a way to make serious money through sports betting. In a prop bet, you are betting on something happening in the game that isn’t the win or lose outcome.
An example would be for a player to cover so many yards or the number of field goals kicked within a game. Proposition bets responsible for many of the smaller bets placed on professional sports in North America.
NFL Betting Sites Conclusion
NFL is one of the most watched and loved sports in the world, and its audience has grown significantly outside of North America in the last few years.
Regular season games are being played in London with talk of a franchise being set up in London.
As the sport has grown in popularity, so has the number of betting options and dedicated sections being created on bookmakers websites.
All in all, if you stick to the list of recommended NFL betting sites, you should be able to enhance your fun and enjoyment of the sport with a few bets that add to the whole experience.
If you aren’t used to the betting options and some of the terminology being used with NFL bets, then please re-read the article so that you become familiar with it our check out our NFL betting strategy which goes into more detail.