Betting types for American Football

Straight Bets

This is the most common form of football betting. You pick a team in a game to either win or loose. This particular bet involves point betting.

Moneyline Bets

The majority of these bets are made by those wanting to bet on favorites without them needing to win by a certain amount of points. When placing your bet remember that an a (-) sign always denotes a favourite, while a (+) sign shows the underdog. 

Over/Under Bets (Totals)

In this bet, it doesn’t matter who wins the game. Your aim is to try to determine if the total points scored in a game will be over or under the number posted by the sports book or bookmaker. It’s a simple bet and one that is easily understood.
Here’s an example: Cowboys vs. Bears, 34. You decide if the amount of points scored by both teams will be over or under this number.

Parlay Bet

You pick a certain number of teams or totals and place them on the same bet. To win the bet, all your individual bets need to win. The profits can be potentially big, but these are difficult bets to win.This is especially the case when you place a large amount of teams on a parlay. You can place a parlay on just two teams or totals.

Teasers

The Teaser is quite similar to a parlay bet in that it is a multi game bet where you need to win all of them. But the nice part about teasers is that you move the point-spread in your favor. The 3 most popular teasers bets played are of the 6, 6.5, and 7 point variety.

Pleasers

This is most probably the biggest dare-devil bet available. Pleasers are the opposite of teasers, in that you make a multiple-team bet and instead of gaining points, you give them away. The pleaser bet is not always available for play.

Half Time Betting

A Half time bet is when the game is not in play and is placed at half time. (you have to be quick to place it) You then place a bet what you think will happen in the second half of the game. Quite a few people enjoy these bets, as they can sometimes offer good value and give you a chance to see how the game is being played before putting your money on the table.

Prop Bets

Prop bets are bets you make on results that happen within a game, not on the actual game itself. These have become more popular over the years. The bigger the game, the more prop bets will be on the table, with the Super Bowl being the king of prop bets. Anytime you are betting on a sub-result within a game, it is called a prop bet. Possible prop bets can be over/unders on individual player performances or which quarterback will throw the most yardage between two different players. 

Futures Bet

Normally, bets are placed on events in NFL football no more than a week in advance, but a futures bets allows you to place bets months in advance of the game. (thereby the names futures). The most popular of these bets is the “Who will win the Super Bowl” bet. The list of futures bets has grown over the years, and there are futures which allow you place bets on which team will win their division or conference. You can also place a futures bet on over/unders as to how many games a team will win in a season.