| Understanding The NFL Point Spread |
| Written by Ross Everett | |||
| Tuesday, 29 December 2009 09:47 | |||
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In order to bet on NFL football its important to start with the fundamentals. And were not talking about the Xs and Os of professional football game planning"were talking about the fundamentals of understanding the wagering side of the equation. Theres a lot of misunderstanding about what NFL pointspreads mean and how they are setting. A firm grasp of the essential bookmaking concept of setting NFL lines is a prerequisite for sports betting success.
In order to bet on NFL football its important to start with the fundamentals. And were not talking about the Xs and Os of professional football game planning"were talking about the fundamentals of understanding the wagering side of the equation. Theres a lot of misunderstanding about what NFL pointspreads mean and how they are setting. A firm grasp of the essential bookmaking concept of setting NFL lines is a prerequisite for sports betting success. The general public has a tendency to oversimplify the meaning of an NFL pointspread. The conventional wisdom is that it is simply a prediction of which team will win and by how much. In theory, a sportsbooks primary goal is to equally divide the action they take on an individual game. If they do their job right, the outcome of the game is irrelevant to the bookmaker. Youll frequently hear clueless sportscasters make inane comments following a big upset like Boy, the sportsbooks in Las Vegas must have lost their shirts on that one. Thats something that simply cannot be determined from the outcome of the game alone. Since a bookmakers primary goal in setting NFL betting lines is to equally divide action, they have to make each side of a wagering proposition attractive to a prospective player. For that reason, its more accurate to say that NFL lines are more of a reflection of the betting publics perception of which team will win a game and by how much than anything else. Some NFL teams are considered public teams due to their popularity and/or perceived qualitative skill. A bookmaker may shade the NFL lines involving teams like the Dallas Cowboys or New England Patriots to make their opponent a more enticing betting option. So if the numbers in a hypothetical game between Dallas and Cincinnati indicate that the Cowboys should be a -6 favorite a book may open the game at -7 or -7. For that reason going against public teams is almost always a strong wagering strategy. In early season wagering there are a few additional factors at play. A bookmaker may consider a teams NFL preseason record for the simple reason that the NFL betting public gives it undue attention. Sharp players know that there is little correlation between a teams preseason success (or lack thereof) and their regular season performance. Another consideration is a teams performance in the previous season or, in some cases, their historical performance. A team with a winning tradition like New England or Carolina may be priced higher than the true odds indicate as a result. Its also important to understand why NFL lines are moved after the opening numbers are posted. While it may occasionally be due to external factors such as injury or weather, more often than not its a direct result of the money a book is drawing on one side of the proposition or another. If in our hypothetical example above, Dallas opens -7 and not long after the line is moved to -7 that is an indication that the book has received the majority of their bets on the Bengals. Indeed, many sharp players base their NFL football bets exclusively on line movements. To successfully bet on NFL football, however, it is important to spend as much time as possible understanding the intricacies of the sports gambling marketplace"and in this regard nothing is more fundamentally important than understanding how NFL pointspreads are made and why they are moved. About the Author: Ross Everett is a respected freelance writer who covers travel, casino gambling and sports handicapping. He is a consulting handicapper for Anatta Sports where he is responsible for providing daily free sports picks. In his spare time he enjoys fine dining, falconry and scuba diving. He lives in Las Vegas with four dogs and a pet coyote.
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