Betting on Bad & Good NFL Teams

Making Money Betting on the NFL's Bad Teams

There are a number of ways to make money betting on NFL football, the problem is there are whole lot more ways to lose money. Many average bettors get into sports betting because they have proved to themselves that they have a good track record picking the outright winners in various games over the course of a season or multiple seasons. They think because they can usually predict who will win the game that they will be successful in betting NFL football. The problem with this practice is that it's rather easy to pick the winner when picking games involving the better teams in the league. Sportsbooks and linesmakers know this and will adjust the point spreads accordingly. Money can be made and success can be achieved if bettors would stop focusing on just the NFL's best teams, and pay closer attention to the average or below-average teams in the league.

There is a big difference between picking a straight up winner / loser in a football game, and picking the right team to successfully cover the posted spread. Many average and novice bettors don't think that the spread is relevant when you are picking one of the NFL's best teams against a much weaker opponent. This couldn't be any further from the truth. A lot of times the better will just look for good teams that are playing a weaker opponent with a somewhat low number. This is the exact trap that the sportsbooks want you to fall directly into. They don't want you picking underdogs because when you bet on an underdog, you are winning and the sportsbook is losing when the game begins. On the other hand, when you select a favorite, the sportsbook is winning and you are losing at kickoff.

Examining the bad teams in the National Football League and knowing their strengths and weaknesses, and then comparing them to their opponent's strengths and weaknesses is a great way to come up with more games that a bettor will feel comfortable placing a bet on. Often knowing that a team is bad, but that they have a good run defense, may be just enough information to go with. Likewise, knowing that a team has a terrible defense, but actually a surprisingly good offense can mean that even though they are a bad team with an awful win-loss record, they may just be to match them on the scoreboard and cover the spread. That bad team may even pull off an upset against a better team with an average defense.

Knowing the ins and outs of the bad teams is just as important as, some may say even more important, than knowing what good teams in the league are capable of. Bad NFL teams are still professional football teams with highly skilled professional athletes on their roster. Many public bettors tend to forget that even a bad team has the ability to pull off an upset on their best days, or even lose outright but cover the point spread when they have good days. While it is easiest to bet on the good teams, often bettors overestimate exactly how much better the good teams are are than their opponents. The same is true in reverse for the bad teams, although they are not great, they are often surprisingly better than most people think. So, make sure that you pay close attention to all the teams in the league when you do your NFL betting this season.