Even if you win 55% of your bets, you will come out consistently ahead. This is, in contrast, 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, a lot of people will be making money and also the sports books would have to go out of business. If winning at football betting involves some knowledge, some strategy and, allow us to face it, a dash of luck, it’s since the bookmakers set very tight lines for the games. Alternatively, if you keep the following tips in your mind, it should improve your prospects of winning.

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

Pay attention to a few teams. Because knowledge is essential, if you focus on a number of teams, you may build up a considerable quantity of knowledge that 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 can rush to bet on them. Conversely, they can be not good choices if you want to maintain your 55% average in winning bets. Even if you need to do win a number of, 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’ve got bet.

Use totals judiciously. Totals set early in the week are typically based on predictions of good weather. In late season games, rain or snow sometimes affects the scoring and also a heavy wind almost always 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 as well as the defensive yards given away per play. Teams that gain more than they lose end up winning more games. The statistics are easily available as well as you can calculate the real difference with a positive difference being a advantage. The general guideline 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 2 teams will be 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 thus best avoided. Under certain circumstances, an NFL teaser which is a two-game parlay bet may make sense.

Pay attention to the injury reports. Read the injury reports carefully to determine what difference it really is Going in Esapa to make to the performance of your chosen team. Don’t just look at key players because all the guys in the team have to perform at their peak.