American football is an adaptation of rugby football played in the United States during the autumn and early winter months. Its popularity has spread worldwide and there are amateur and professional American Football leagues in Europe, Scandanavia, Asia, Australasia and elsewhere.
The game has fans worldwide who love to bet on American Football and it is the matches played at the highest level in the United States that attract the most betting interest. Benefiting from global TV broadcasting, bookmakers have demands from every country where gambling is legal, to accept bets on American Football.
Most bets are taken for matches in the NFL, (National Football League) which culminates with a playoff tournament for the final championship game, the Super Bowl. The NFL is broken up into two pools of 16 teams (National Football Conference & American Football Conference) with the top four from each division qualifying along with two wildcard entries for the NFL Playoffs. The Playoffs are played in knockout format with the teams seeded according to their conference finish and the winners of each conference final go head to head in the Super Bowl, the biggest event in the American Football calendar.
Superbowl Betting Odds 2021
- Kansas City Chiefs – 13/2 with BetVictor
- Baltimore Ravens – 7/1 with BetVictor
- New Orleans Saints – 14/1 with bet365*
- Seattle Seahawks – 18/1 with GentingBet
- San Francisco 49ers – 20/1 with 888sport
- Dallas Cowboys – 20/1 with BetVictor
- New England Patriots – 22/1 with bet365*
- Pittsburgh Steelers – 25/1 with GentingBet
- Buffalo Bills – 25/1 with BetVictor
- Tennessee Titans – 28/1 with GentingBet
- Green Bay Packers – 28/1 with GentingBet
* Superbowl betting odds quoted correct at the time of writing (24th September 2020). All prices are subject to fluctuation
College Football
College football in the United States also a big following outside the country and bookmakers offer betting markets on the NCAAF (National Collegiate Athletic Association) and from Canada the CFL attracts a lot of betting interest.
National Football Conference Contenders
It’s still very early days, but the Seattle Seahawks and New Orleans Saints are currently vying for favoritism to win the National Football Conference (NFC) this season.
After an impressive start to the season, Seahawks’ quarterback Russell Wilson is now the favorite to win the NFL MVP award too. By contrast, it’s been a slow start to the new campaign by New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees. That has to be a concern for a 41 year-old.
In a very congested market, there’s not a lot to choose between the next trio in the betting market either, with the Dallas Cowboys, Green Bay Packers and San Francisco 49ers all available at similar odds.
The Cowboys overcame a 20-point deficit in the first quarter to beat the Atlanta Falcons 40-39 in coach Mike McCarthy’s home debut in Week 2 in a game that could really boost their self-belief.
It’s also been an encouraging start to the season from the Packers and their 36 year-old QB Aaron Rodgers.
Last season’s NFC champions, the 49ers, started the season as marginal favorites to retain their title. However, a number of injury concerns, not least that of quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, has seen them drift a little in the betting market.
The other teams seen as potential contenders in the NFC are the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Los Angeles Rams and Arizona Cardinals.
American Football Conference Contenders
The defending Super Bowl winners, the Kansas City Chiefs, and the Baltimore Ravens are very much seen as the dominant duo in the American Football (AFC) based on their early betting odds, with the pair vying for favoritism.
The Chiefs were reliant on a game-winning field goal from Harrison Butker in overtime to beat the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 2, but with quarterback Patrick Mahomes on the roster they should certainly be in the mix for the AFC title again.
The Ravens have started the season with two straight wins, to stretch their run to 14 consecutive regular season victories. With the all-round game of NFL MVP QB Lamar Jackson looking good early on, Baltimore look definite Super Bowl LV contenders this year.
Should there be a surprise package winning in the AFC, most bookmakers seem to regard the Buffalo Bills as the most likely team to achieve it.
It’s been a superb start to the season for Buffalo’s third-year QB Josh Allen, who reached a career high in yards passing for the second week in a row with consecutive 300-yard games.
The Bills are closely followed in the betting odds by the New England Patriots, Pittsburgh Steelers and Tennessee Titans.
The Patriots will always have their backers whilst they still have coach Bill Belichick at the helm. Veteran quarterback Ben Roethlisberger retains good form and the 38 year-old is set to make a Pittsburgh record of 221 career games in Week 3.
The Titans have started with two narrow victories, with kicker Stephen Gostkowski boosting his confidence in hitting a late field goal to beat the Jacksonville Jaguars, a week after missing four kicks against the Denver Broncos.
American Football Betting Jargon
Betting terminology for American sports differs from the UK and Europe and American Football bettors quickly become accustomed to the betting jargon.
Game lines are simply the odds and the staple bets are for the Spread, where one team receives a handicap, Totals, a target points total for the game where bettors can back Over or Under the Total and the Money Line which is the odds for the team to win.
American Football games will play overtime to determine a winner, so there is no draw betting on the games. With those betting markets effectively reduced to a ‘two horse race’ the odds are quite short and punters looking for big wins from small stakes will opt to Parlay their bets. UK and European bettors will be familiar with the terms accumulator and multiple, which is what it means.
As you can probably imagine, with such a long season there are many twists and turns along the way and it is advisable to make use of American Football offers from online bookmakers to increase your chances of being profitable.
Top 5 Quarterbacks Of All Time
- Drew Brees – 77, 888 yards
- Tom Brady – 75,027 yards
- Peyton Manning – 71,940 yards
- Brett Favre – 71,838yds
- Dan Marino – 61,361yds
* Last updated – September 24th, 2020
Everyone has their own opinion as to who is the greatest quarterback of all time, but we have used passing yards as the deciding factor here.
Brett Favre made 297 consecutive starts which undoubtedly helped him to be the only player to top 500 touchdowns.
Dan Marino’s stats fell down in the postseason games and he never won the big one, so would not be in many people’s top five despite his phenomenal regular season record.
