We might not yet know which two teams will be facing of in the season finale but that doesn’t mean we can’t get ahead of the game by looking at some betting strategies before the big day.
Remember, you can always look here for tips on how to bet on the Super Bowl online. So, without further ado, we look at how to bet on the NFL Super Bowl.
At a glance
Right, before we dive into the NFL Super Bowl betting strategies, we want to take a moment to talk about what you can expect to find in this article. We won’t be making actual predictions for the Bowl itself and we won’t be hyping up bookmaker promotions.
Instead, we’ll take a look through some Super Bowl stats and some key bet types that can be used to create betting value and broaden your chances of backing a winner. Still interested? Let’s get cracking.
Who will win it?
This is perhaps the obvious place to start; who will win the Super Bowl. There are a couple of ways you can approach this sort of bet. You can place your wagers now where you’ll tap into bigger odds with more horses in the race, so to speak, or you can wait until you know what two sides are locking horns and bet from there. If you take the latter option, your odds will be much smaller but your chances of calling it right are, obviously, increased.
How much difference can that make we hear you ask. Well, at the moment, you can back the favourites – the Green Bay Packers – at +380. For context, last season the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were priced at +143 and they were the underdogs heading into the Super Bowl. The Chiefs, who were the favourites, were odds on at -160.
What does that actually mean for your bet? Well, if you correctly back the Packers now with $100, you’d win £475 returns. If they hold on to their position as favourite through to the end and are available at a price similar to the Chiefs from last year the same $100 would return just $162.50. That’s a swing of $312.50 or a near 66% change!
Fact on favourites: Just four of the last 10 years has seen the favourite lift the Super Bowl.
How much will they win it by?
We’ve just spoken about how quickly the NFL betting odds squeeze when we know what two teams are playing the Super Bowl. That might kill some excitement amongst punters. Don’t fear though because dipping into the points spreads can unlock some bigger odds very quickly. With points spread betting, you’re essentially wagering on how much you expect a team to win or lose by.
Of course, how aggressive you are with your points spread bet will likely be determined by what teams make the big game. Even so, we can give you some understanding of how you might see the odds ramp up as you turn the screw. Take Sunday’s upcoming match between the Buffalo Bills and New England Patriots as an example:
The straight result odds are Bills 1/2 and Patriots 13/8
A small ‘handicap’ or spread of Bills -2 or Patriots +2 sees a bizarre shift with many bookies unmoved in their pricing of the Bills. The Patriots, however, shorten to 6/4.
You can wind that forwards though to notice a much larger impact to the betting odds. An 11 point spread puts the Bills to 5/2 with the Patriots dropping to 2/7.
Fact on spreads: The average winning margin across the last decade sits at 11.7
There you have it, two ways you can look to either increase your odds or boost your chances of winning money on the Super Bowl.