Even when you win 55% of your bets, you will come out consistently ahead. This really 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 in 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 as well as the sports books could 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’s since the bookmakers set very tight lines for trusted casino online the games. However, if you keep the following tips in mind, it should enhance your probability of winning.

Bet as early when 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 following week’s games. If you locate a game and odds that you like make sure that you will discover no serious injury problems for the team that you pick. Bookmakers are not perfect and may also make mistakes in setting the line. Pounce early before heavy betting irons out the mistakes.

Focus on a few teams. Because knowledge is essential, if you concentrate on a couple of teams, you can build up a tremendous amount of knowledge which you can use in making your bets. Also limit your betting to just a number of games every Sunday.

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

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

Use yards per play ranking. One method of evaluating teams is to look-at the offensive yards gained per play as well as the defensive yards given away per play. Teams that gain more than they lose find yourself winning more games. The statistics are readily available and you may calculate the real difference with a positive difference being an advantage. The rule of thumb to calculate a points spread from the yardage differential is the fact that every 0.15 yards is 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’s a common perception that teasers are a rip-off and therefore best avoided. Under certain circumstances, an NFL teaser which is a two-game parlay bet will make sense.

Pay attention to the injury reports. Read the injury reports carefully to determine what difference it’s going to make to the performance of your chosen team. Don’t just look-at key players because all the guys within the team have to perform at their peak.