American Football Betting

The first game of American Football was played between Rutgers and Princetown Universities in 1869, though the game that was played that day bore little relation to the game as we know it now. For a start picking up the ball was strictly forbidden; the two teams of 25 players each had to kick or hit the ball through a goal to score.

Nowadays, it is the most popular sport in the USA, with over a million high school 700,000 college athletes playing every year. The National Football League (NFL) is, on average, the most well-attended sporting league in the world and the final game of the season, the Superbowl, is one of the world’s most watched sporting events. The NFL has an official income of $10 billion per year; however, that number is dwarfed when compared to the amount spent on American Football betting – over $93 billion per year is wagered on NFL and College games every year.

Rules of the game

If you want to do some American Football betting, it’s important to know the rules. If you have a passing familiarity with the game of Rugby League, then you are already in good shape: it is almost exactly the same, only made easier in every conceivable way. The idea is to get the ball over the line at the end of the pitch as it is in rugby. But where Rugby League gives a team five chances to achieve this, American Football gives teams five chances every 10 yards (known as ‘downs’). Despite there being only 11 players from each team on the pitch at the same time, teams are comprised of a maximum of 53 people. That’s because there is no limit on the amount of substitutes that can be made. All teams have an offense, a defence and a special team (i.e. for taking or returning kicks).

Because everything stops when the ball hits the ground, the game is a very stop/start affair. Most offensive and defensive players have just one job – run into the guy in front of you and stop him from getting the ball (whether he has the ball or not). The quarterback (essentially the scrum half) can throw the ball forward just once per play, but there is no limit on how many times the ball can be thrown backwards (though for some reason, this passing option is very rarely utilised). Finally, there is the running back, whose job is to make as much ground down the field before they are tackled – usually by three or four people wearing armour who weight in excess of 300 pounds each. Yeah, it’s not a gentle game.

NFL Injuries

The wearing of large pads and metal helmets has not made the game much safer. In fact, the extra protection has created an environment of false safety, where players run into each other at full speed, head-first. This has led to some serious injuries, not just on the pitch but also later in the player’s career. There are risks of concussion and CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) which can be the root cause of early-onset dementia and depression. As yet, the NFL has not taken too many steps to make the sport safer.

Big Bets

American Football betting is huge business, despite the majority of it still being illegal. Sports betting in the USA is still an emerging market. It is still not permitted in many States, while others have relaxed their rules or done away with the prohibition altogether.

By far the most popular type of American Football betting is Point Spread Betting. Scores in American Football can go into the hundreds, which makes predicting an exact result almost impossible. The same goes with scorers, and so this is the most accessible type of American Football betting. Because not all teams are equal, sportsbooks in the USA create a point spread for a game which makes things roughly even. What this means is that a favourite and an underdog are selected. Say for example the Chicago Bears are playing the New England Patriots. The Patriots are a slight favourite, and are given a -1 spread. This means that they need to win the game by one point or more for the bet to pay out. In the same way, the Bears are given a +1 spread, and must either win the game outright or lose by only one point in order to win.

This can lead to some absolutely huge bets. In 2015, Talia Polia, a Las Vegas native, made a $5 combination bet on 15 NFL teams at odds of 20,000/1. Despite not really being completely sure what she was doing (she thought her bet was over after the very first game and was surprised to learn that she’d won a few days later), every one of her predictions came true, earning her over $100,000.

One of the biggest bets ever made was placed on the 2010 Superbowl between the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts. The Saints were considered pretty big underdogs, but Bill Walters, a former poker pro and professional gambler, had done his research and felt sure that the Saints would win. He was so confident that he bet $3.5 million on the team from New Orleans, who went on to win 31-17. No one is quite sure exactly how much Walters won, but it was probably a fair bit.

The Replacements

One of the most heartwarming stories in NFL history is the story of the 1987 NFL strike. After just the second week of that season, a 24-day players’ strike was called. While 15% or so of NFL players decided to cross the picket lines and play, many teams did not and replacement players had to be drafted in so that games could go ahead. The Washington Redskins were one team who had to find a full roster of replacements and went into the last game of the strike facing the Dallas Cowboys, who still had plenty of their first-team players on the pitch. However, the replacements won the game 13-7. The story was later made into a movie starring Keanu Reeves and Gene Hackman.