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As legal sports betting rolls out across the US, the biggest slice of the market is betting on the NFL.
Pro football is the most-watched sport in America, and that translates to it being the most bet-on sport as well.
Read on for more information about betting on the NFL in 2021 and the market for it in the US.
There are more than a dozen states where you can legally bet on NFL football games currently. Here is the list of states where sports betting is legal, or where it has been legalized pending launch (click through to learn more about betting options in any of these states:
State | Is sports betting legal? | Is online sports betting legal? |
---|---|---|
Arkansas | Yes | No |
Colorado | Yes | Yes |
Delaware | Yes | Yes, launch undetermined |
Indiana | Yes | Yes |
Iowa | Yes | Yes |
Mississippi | Yes | Yes, on-property only |
Montana | Yes | Yes |
Nevada | Yes | Yes |
New Jersey | Yes | Yes |
New Mexico | Yes, at multiple tribal casinos | No |
New York | Yes | No |
North Carolina | Yes, pending launch | No |
Oregon | Yes | Yes |
Pennsylvania | Yes | Yes |
Rhode Island | Yes | Yes |
Tennessee | Yes, pending launch | Yes, pending launch |
Washington DC | Yes, pending launch | Yes, pending launch |
West Virginia | Yes | Yes |
Online betting is currently live in these states, which should be the largest markets for sports wagering in short order:
The second biggest market for betting on the NFL is New Jersey, and it will likely surpass Nevada in the near future — possibly in 2020 or 2021.
That’s for several reasons:
There are no shortage of NJ sports betting apps:
Pennsylvania is the biggest state that has legal sports betting apps. Population centers and football-crazy cities Philadelphia and Pittsburgh create a good starting based for legal sports gambling.
There are only a handful of apps in the state as of September 2019, but more are on the way.
Illinois is the sixth most populous state in the US, while Chicago is the single largest metropolitan area with legal online sports betting. Sportsbooks are also keen to acquire customers now, while in-person registration is suspended.
There are already a handful of live apps in the state, including:
Despite only launching in May, the Colorado market already has a wide range of sportsbooks for betting NFL.
The CO apps live today include:
West Virginia has two of the major players in online sports betting: DraftKings Sportsbook and FanDuel Sportsbook.
There are also a trio of physical sportsbooks. While betting on West Virginia University is huge, expect a lot of betting on the NFL teams in surrounding states as well.
Sports betting has been around for decades in Nevada, and it’s the biggest market for NFL betting right now. Hundreds of millions are wagered on NFL games in Las Vegas and beyond.
While there are more than 100 physical sportsbooks, nearly all of them also have a sports betting app. While the tech in Nevada lags behind other markets, and you have to sign up in person for an app, they are still a good option.
Mobile betting accounts for more than half of all betting — NFL and otherwise — in Nevada.
Iowa went live with sports betting in the summer of 2019, rolling out physical sportsbooks and online sports betting apps almost in parallel.
There are already more than a dozen sportsbooks in the state, along with apps that you have to register for at a casino and racetrack.
If you’re not in one of the states mentioned above, you are not betting at a site that operates legally in the US or in your state.
While many people believe that sports betting became widely legal in 2018, all that happened was the repeal of a federal ban allowing states to legalize sports betting.
So if you want to bet on the NFL, keep in mind where you’re betting. While individual bettors are unlikely to get in trouble for betting at a site that operates outside of the constraints of US law, the sites themselves do run afoul of federal and state law. Despite the fact that these sportsbooks will tell you they are operating legally, that is far from the truth.
If you’re in Nevada, New Jersey and other states that have betting laws, you have a number of regulated choices to choose from. Unfortunately for much of the country, there is no legal option. That includes large states like California and Florida. In New York, you can bet at some upstate sportsbooks but only in-person.
Despite the fact that the NFL has the fewest games of any pro team sport, it’s by far the most popular to bet on.
With a handful of preseason games, 16 in the regular season and then a win-to-advance playoff system, there’s a premium on every game. That dynamic makes the NFL the most popular sport to watch on TV; the Super Bowl every year is the most-watched program on TV in the US.
All of that interest creates a robust market for betting on the NFL in the US, despite the fact that single-game wagering has only been legal in Nevada before 2018. People still find myriad ways of having a monetary interest on the outcome of games, from fantasy sports, to betting against friends, to using illegal offshore sportsbooks.
Gauging how much is bet on the NFL by Americans is tricky because of all that. The American Gaming Association says that 38 million adults will bet on the NFL in 2019.
If you include fantasy and social betting, the number is certainly in the hundreds of millions. If limited to offshore books, the number has been estimated from the tens of billions to $150 billion.
The advent of legal sports betting outside of Nevada will increase all of these figures even more. The NFL, as the country’s most popular sport, will drive betting handle in most states.
The interest in betting on the NFL usually follows a rhythm, starting out strong before hitting a crescendo in the postseason:
NFL fans love to watch games at sportsbooks. Nevada has long cashed in on the intersection of betting and lots of TVs, packing sportsbooks in Las Vegas and elsewhere with fans on NFL Sundays.
It is usually a good experience, except it can be difficult to get your bet down in-person on a busy Sunday. The lines to place bets in states with legal sports betting are usually extremely long; in states where online betting is legal, it’s far more convenient.
Here’s a bit of a breakdown:
If you are betting on the NFL, there are a variety of ways to do so. Here is a quick look at some of the ways:
Note that all of these types of winning bets will include vigorish or a commission that the sportsbook charges on winning bets. More on sports betting terms can be found here. And that’s not an exhaustive list of bet types either.
Betting on football can be an extremely frustrating, and costly, pastime with many people wondering how to bet on football and win.
Whilst there are success stories of punters who won thousands from a 50p stake, most punters know the sinking feeling of a last-minute goal ruining their accumulator or the team at the bottom of the table picking up a surprise victory over the defending champions.
Some people continue to place the same type of bet week after week, with the hope that one day their ship will come in.
However, to win at football, punters must follow a few certain rules.
Rule number one of football betting is that the punter must gather as much information as possible before placing a bet.
Study statistics, recent form, head to head information, and team news to give you as much of an advantage as you can have. Knowing all of this will help you take an analytical approach and work out which outcome is most likely.
For example, the second-placed team in the league are playing a team in the relegation zone in midweek. The higher team would be priced as a heavy favourite but there may be factors to take note of before betting.
Although most people would take the league positions as a good indicator of who will win, what if the second-placed team have an all-important match with the leaders at the weekend?
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There are chances they will rest players against the lesser team, to keep them fit for the bigger challenge. They may also take the midweek match lighter than usual thinking they already have the victory.
But, taking a match lightly against a relegation threatened side who also need the points can be a dangerous tactic.
Also, what if the so-called bigger team have failed to win in their last three matches against the team in the relegation zone? What if the last five head to head meetings have all been draws? What if the team in the relegation zone have hit a purple patch of form and won their last few games?
These factors can play a huge part in determining the outcome of a match. The favourites may not look such a banker now, with the chance of a draw or even a surprise victory for the underdog being much higher.
This is one of the many reasons why we provide team news to our members.
Betting on impulse, betting with your heart, letting your emotions take over, and betting solely based on the betting odds are all sure-fire ways of losing money.
Impulse betting is where a punter places a bet on whichever matches are available, regardless of their knowledge of the teams involved. It’s something which many online punters will do, and their win percentages from this type of betting will probably be extremely low.
Betting with your heart means backing your own team to win, or favourite player to score first, regardless of the opposition or form of the player. Whilst some punters may get lucky and win often if they support a big team, those who support a team struggling against relegation every year will lose more than they win.
Letting your emotions take over is a big no-no when it comes to betting. This is usually described as chasing your losses, when you are angry and frustrated after a bet fails to win. You then place more money on another bet you believe to be a banker, to try and regain the money you lost before. This is a slippery slope and could quickly lead to a bank balance of zero.
Betting based solely on the odds is another thing punters should never do. Whilst short odds favourites obviously have the best chance of being victorious, there may be mitigating factors which could weaken that chance.
Remain analytical and do not bet on a match unless you have gathered as much information as possible.
Some punters look for the big, life-changing, win every week. They place a few pounds on bets which could return thousands, with the chances of these bets coming in being small.
Those few pounds every week may be small to start with, but done every week for several years will mount up to a lot of lost money.
Punters should always be looking to make a profit, even if it’s only a few pounds.
Would you rather place £10 on a single bet which returns a £12 profit, but has a 92% chance of winning, or place two £5 bets on sixteen-team accumulators which return £10,000 each, with a 1% chance of coming in?
Some people will say the second, but sensible punters will know that £12 profit every time soon adds up.
For more information on this you might like our post on focusing on losing less often.
There’s a big chance you have sat in a pub, or café, and overheard a conversation about how close someone came to winning £26,000 on Saturday or how one team let them down for £500. You never hear the punters who were £5 up talking about their win, although they are the more successful punter.
The best advice we can give when gambling is, your first thought should be how best you can avoid losing rather than how much you will win if your bet comes in.
Look for a small profit, which will help to boost your betting bank and may ultimately lead to a big life-changing profit over time.
Keeping note of your wins and losses can help you see how much money you’re throwing away, and can help you change the way you gamble.
In this record, write down the type of bet you placed, the stake, the potential return, and how much profit or loss you made from it. Also add any notes which will help you moving forward, such as which team(s) let you down.
At the end of a set period, such as every week, fortnight, or month, you should tally up your results to give you an overall profit or loss.
If you are suffering constant losses betting on accumulators with the promise of a big return, maybe change the way you bet for the next period. Consider backing less teams in an accumulator or placing single/doubles/trebles bets which return a small profit.
You can then see if your overall profit has gone up.
If you regularly see a + amount in the profit/loss section, it will be a big eye-opener that the way you were previously betting was wrong and you should stick to your new approach.
If there was a fool-proof way of winning on football every time, bookies would go out of business and football betting would cease to exist.
However, there is no fool-proof way because football is unpredictable and shocks happen. The favourite doesn’t always win, everybody has off days, and punters will often be out of pocket. There are no 100% guarantees in football betting.
In those times, you must remember to have fun, stay analytical, and follow our advice to give you the best chance of making a profit.