Even when you win 55% of your bets, you will come out consistently ahead. This is, however, easier said than done and involves more than just a little reading and checking the injury reports. If Paul the octopus picked every winner within the recent soccer World Cup, picking winning football teams should be just as easy, right? Wrong. If it were that easy, many people would be making money and the sports books might have to go out of business. If winning at football betting involves some knowledge, some strategy and, let us face it, a dash of luck, it really is because the bookmakers set very tight lines for the games. However, if you keep the following tips in your mind, it should enhance your prospects of winning.

Bet as early as you can. Many of the sports books post their lines as early as they can and some offshore books do this by Sunday afternoon for the next week’s games. If you locate a game and odds that you like make certain that you will find no serious injury problems for the team that you pick. Bookmakers are not perfect and will make mistakes in setting the line. Pounce early before heavy betting irons out the mistakes.

Concentrate on several teams. Because knowledge is essential, if you pay attention to a number of teams, you can build up a substantial quantity of knowledge which you can use in making your bets. Also limit your betting to just a couple of games every Sunday.

Avoid heavy favorites. The crowd loves favorites and may rush to bet on them. However, they’re not good choices if you want to maintain your 55% average in winning bets. Even when you do win a couple of, the payouts will be small. The most effective strategy is to bet on short priced underdogs because, whenever you win, you generally make more than you have bet.

Use totals judiciously. Totals set early in the week are typically based upon predictions of good weather. In late season games, rain or snow sometimes affects the scoring and a heavy wind more often than not keeps scoring down. In these conditions, you would do well by betting the Under

Use yards per play ranking. One method of evaluating teams is to look-at the offensive yards gained per play and the defensive yards given away per play. Teams that gain more than they lose end up winning more games. The statistics are easily accessible and you will calculate mouse click the following post main difference with a positive difference becoming an advantage. The guideline to calculate a points spread from the yardage differential is that every 0.15 yards may be worth one point. A differential of 0.60 yards between the two teams is worth four points. As with all betting tools, use your other data and information to confirm your findings.

Do not avoid teasers. There is a common perception that teasers are a rip-off and so best avoided. Under certain circumstances, an NFL teaser which is a two-game parlay bet could make sense.

Pay focus on the injury reports. Read the injury reports carefully to determine what difference it’s going to make to the performance of your chosen team. Do not just look-at key players because all of the guys in the team have to perform at their peak.