NFL Football Betting - How to Bet on the NFL Online

Last checked 24 September 2026

We analyzed almost every aspect of each site using a long list of extensive criteria. This process ensures that our recommended sites have the NFL’s best bets and betting odds week to week. Our experts only suggest safe sites for bettors and offer a fantastic overall online gambling experience.

None of the sites that make any of our recommendations lists ever pay for placement on these lists. We do this to remain as objective as possible to provide you with quality info without any outside influence. You can use our criteria as a reference when looking at any NFL betting site you might be considering.

Resources for NFL Betting

Free Expert NFL Picks

The first great resource you will find on Gambling Sites is our expansive library of expert picks. Here, you will find hot tips and critical insights that can not only help to inform your picks but will also give you an inside look at what the pros are thinking. We provide a detailed analysis of the match, including info on previous games, top players, and many other statistics.

Our picks are here to help you bet on NFL games online. Watching these picks are also helpful because you will see correlations and patterns emerge over time that you can incorporate into your strategy. These picks are like having a mentor who can give you all the inside knowledge while you learn how to bet on the NFL online.

NFL AI Computer Picks

On top of expert picks, we also give you access to our advanced AI picks. As you surely know, “AI” stands for “artificial intelligence.” We used extremely complex algorithms and predictive models to account for hundreds of different factors and statistics.

These models help us predict the most statistically probable outcome for the given match. The best thing about using an AI model is that the model learns and improves over time. It takes into account each incorrect pick as a data point to help refine the model to be more accurate in the future.

NFL Betting News

One of the essential parts of successful sports betting is staying up with current events and reading NFL news. While statistics are great and give you a ton of information, sports aren’t entirely quantitative. Knowing what’s happening around the league will help you learn where to go big and where to pull back.

Also, keeping a pulse on the league will enable you to identify opportunities well in advance. We track all the breaking NFL news and report it all on our news page. Our up-to-the-minute news section will keep you informed about everything from league controversies to upcoming rivalries.

NFL Betting Blog

In addition to keeping current with the news, we also take on many other great topics in our NFL blogs. This section has dozens of informative pieces that go well beyond current events. You can get lost for hours in all the guides, tips, and analyses we’ve accumulated over the years. In our blogs, you’ll find everything from comparisons of different strategies to an analysis of division matchups.

NFL Betting Strategy

Finally, we provide excellent tools to help you build your own NFL betting strategy. Being a successful NFL bettor goes way beyond just picking a winning team. You need to know all the ins and outs if you want to come out on top.

Our strategy resources can teach you everything from the basics to how to bet real money on the NFL. Here, you will find a vast collection of knowledge to benefit both the beginner and the pro.

What Makes a Quality NFL Betting Site?

Promotional Bonuses

One of the first things you will see when you register for your new online NFL betting site is that you will likely qualify for a promotional sportsbook bonus. Bonuses are a great way to boost your NFL bankroll. Some common bonuses you will see include:

• New player welcome bonuses
• Deposit match bonuses
• Free NFL bets
• Reload bonuses

NFL Betting Promotions

Promos are similar to bonuses, but they are much less exclusive. These regular events are run by almost every NFL betting site to encourage players to bet on NFL games online. They can come in many forms, including:

• Wager matches
• NFL betting odds boost
• Survivor pools
• Weekly pick’em tournaments

Competitive NFL Betting Odds

To get the most out of your bets, you must bet using an NFL sportsbook that offers competitive odds. NFL betting odds are how the sportsbook communicates the payout with a specific bet.

Because each bookmaker makes their odds, you’ll find a wide range of odds offered on the same bet across the web. Thankfully, we’ve helped narrow things down by recommending NFL betting sites that offer the best odds anywhere on the internet.

Cryptocurrency

You may be familiar with cryptocurrency, digital money, which took popular culture by storm in 2026 with Bitcoin’s exploding valuation. Cryptocurrencies are easier to transfer, offer much more anonymity than typical payment methods, and generally incur fewer fees. Please visit the best crypto betting websites to find out where you can use the banking method.

Strong Security

Of course, we can’t discuss online gambling without examining the safest online sportsbooks. You must play on online NFL betting sportsbooks that keep all your data secure using state-of-the-art technology.

Platforms

In addition to top-notch security, players must be able to access their accounts and bet on various platforms. We chose mobile betting sites that allow players to bet on NFL football games with PCs, tablets, or phones. This puts the player in control and enables you to take advantage of every opportunity that may pop up, even if you can’t get to a computer.

User Interface

To go along with their various platforms, we also looked for websites offering an exceptional user experience. Each site we recommend has made significant investments in building user experiences by designing intuitive, clean, and aesthetically pleasing websites. Not only will betting on these platforms be easy, but you’ll enjoy being on the site.

Customer Service

And finally, good online NFL sportsbooks must offer fantastic customer service. Bettors should be able to rely on a great customer service department to address any issues as needed. Some factors to consider when judging a customer service department include:

• Multiple means of access (phone, live chat, etc.)
• Hours of availability
• Experiences of other customers

Understanding NFL Odds and NFL Betting Lines

The first step to betting real money on the NFL is understanding odds and lines. These are simple concepts but can look intimidating at first. These compact, information-dense tables tell you everything you need to know about a bet. We’ll give you an overview of these concepts and then show some real examples later.

First, let’s take a look at the odds. As we mentioned, odds are how a bookmaker communicates that payout on a bet. Most often, these will be represented as positive or negative numbers.

If the number is negative, that team is favored to win. Positive numbers indicate that a team is expected to lose. The numeric value represents the payout in relation to betting one dollar.

For Example

If a bet is paying +300, you would win $3 on a $1 bet for a total payout of $4 (winnings + original bet). If a separate bet is paying -300, you will win $.33 on a $1 bet, resulting in a total payout of $1.33. As you might expect, the better a team is expected to do, the less you win betting on them. Conversely, the worse a team is expected to do, the more you win by betting on them.

Second, the “spread” (or the “line”) shows you how badly a team is supposed to get beat or how much they should win by. This number is usually given in half-point increments. Spread betting is one of the NFL best bets every week.

If a team is showing -5.5, they are expected to win by 5.5 points. Meanwhile, if a team is showing +5.5, they are expected to lose by 5.5 points.

Most Popular NFL Bets

Over the years, sports betting has become more involved and complex than simply picking a winner. Bettors have more betting markets available than ever before. Most pros only use one or two bet types and work to refine their skills.

We suggest you see which works best for you, then stick to those. Check out the video below from Bovada.lv for a brief introduction on how to bet on NFL games.

NFL Spread Bets

Betting the spread is one of the most common ways to bet on the NFL online. When learning how to bet real money, these are the best NFL bets to start with. The idea behind spread betting is to “level the playing field” between two teams with different levels of skill and different expectations.

No two teams are ever perfectly matched, and there will always be small differences that contribute to one team being more likely to beat the other. Bookmakers adjust for these variances by offering the “spread” or the “line” to equalize the teams.

The spread reflects how many points a team is expected to win or lose by. If sportsbooks didn’t offer this spread, everyone would bet on the favorite every time. Since the payout for picking the winner is the same for two unequal teams, this is their way of adjusting the expectations needed to win the bet.

Let’s look at an example.

Team 1 Chicago Bears -5.5 (-105) Spread Bet Team 2 Detroit Lions +5.5 (-125)

Here we see that the Bears are projected at -5.5 while the Lions are projected at +5.5. We read this as “the Bears are expected to beat the Lions by five and a half points.” These bets equalize the teams because rather than winning being the goal, beating these expectations is the goal.

One thing to note is that the half-point is generally used to prevent ties. If the bookmaker doesn’t use half points, there is the possibility of a “push” or a tie.

You win one of these bets by “beating the spread.”

Simply put, this means your team needs to do better than the expectation represented on the spread. Using our example above, the Bears not only have to win the game, but they must win by more than 5.5 points. If the Bears win by 6, you win. But if they only win by 5, you lose.

Conversely, If the Lions lose by 5, you win. But if they lose by six, you lose. Obviously, if the Lions were to win the game, you would also win as you bet on the underdog.

One thing to remember with these NFL bets is that the spread is not set in stone. The line will change as the bookmaker tries to balance bets. Their goal is to have an equal value of bets on both teams, so they adjust the line to encourage or discourage betting.

Let’s say they have too many bets on the Bears and not enough on the Lions. They could move the line to -6.5, meaning the Bears must do even better to win the bet. Simultaneously, this makes the Lions more attractive because they can do worse than before and still win the bet.

NFL Moneyline Bets

Placing moneyline bets is also quite popular across a wide range of NFL sportsbooks online. These are more straightforward forms of betting where you focus on picking the winner. However, while selecting the winner, these bets are not a 50/50 proposition.

Just like with spread bets, the teams still aren’t even, and bookmakers need a way to account for that. With moneyline bets, sportsbooks change the payouts to account for the inequity between teams rather than adjusting the expectations.

This is how your NFL betting site would show a moneyline bet. Each team is assigned a number representing the payout related to betting on that team. This number also tells you who is expected to win and who is expected to lose.

Team 1 Chicago Bears -305 Moneyline Bet Team 2 Detroit Lions +220

The big thing to remember when placing a moneyline bet is that your team still needs to win the game to win the bet. Unlike spread betting, if your team loses the game, you lose. Also, the payout that corresponds with your bet is scaled to the probability of your team winning.

This means you often win much less when you successfully bet on the favorite. Let’s look at the result of a winning bet on each team in our example.

First, let’s say you bet $1 on the Lions, and they win this game. They are offered at +220, meaning they are expected to lose. As a result of them defying the odds and winning, you win $2.20 plus the $1 you bet for a total payout of $3.20. Not a bad return on a $1 bet!

Next, let’s say you place a $1.00 bet on the Bears, and they win. In this case, they are favored to win at -305. This means you win just $.33 plus your $1 bet for a total payout of $1.33. As you can see, there is a significant difference compared to betting on the Lions.

As you would expect, you get rewarded for successfully betting on the team everyone expects to lose. This is why you hear about Cinderella stories that make people rich. In our examples, we win much more by betting on the Lions because the chances of the Lions winning were expected to be very low.

The real opportunity in moneyline betting is to use your knowledge to find bets where you think the risk reflected in the odds is less than the real risk. Finding these bets will make you more successful.

NFL Over/Under Bets

Let’s say you aren’t interested in betting on a specific team but rather in the game as a whole. Over/under NFL bets enable you to bet on the total points scored in the game rather than on who will win. Let’s look at our previous example to see how the over/under works.

Team 1 Chicago Bears O37.5 (-115) Over/Under Bet Team 2 Detroit Lions U37.5 (-115)

On the left, you will see two numbers designated with “O” and “U.” These represent the line that differentiates an over bet versus an under bet. Even though these line up with teams, the team is irrelevant. In our example, we can either bet that the total points scored will be over 37.5 or under 37.5. As you will see, these bets pay the same at -115.

Since both bets are offered at -115, there is no favorite and you would win $.87 on a $1 bet. This is how the house makes money. Both sides of the bet pay like betting on a favorite, and one bet earns $.87 while the other loses $1.
Although more conservative, these bets can be useful if you believe a game will be particularly offensive or defensive. They are one of the best bets NFL fans can make.

NFL Prop Bets

NFL prop bets are sometimes the most fun and can add a new level of excitement to betting. Prop bets are wagers you place on specific outcomes within the game.

For example, you might be able to bet on who will win the coin toss, which team will score first, or the number of rushing touchdowns by a specific team. Prop bets are one of the best NFL bets because they can be made as single wagers or as a part of a parlay.

Online betting sites are the best place to find NFL prop betting odds. Brick-and-mortar sportsbooks have too much happening at once to offer the more granular prop bets that are widely available online.

If you decide to play on any NFL betting sites like the ones above, you’ll have access to a vast array of exciting prop bets that can make every single aspect of the game enjoyable.

But keep in mind prop bets aren’t just pure luck. If you just want to have fun, try any that sound interesting. But if you are a serious bettor, look for the prop bets that require skill.

NFL Live Betting

NFL live betting is the best bet for NFL fans after the game has begun. Live betting has become wildly popular in recent years thanks to the rise of online and mobile betting sites. Fans can bet on every play of every game throughout the season.

In-play NFL bets can encompass a wide range of betting options. However, they mostly involve special prop bets regarding the upcoming play. You can also find live betting odds with updated points spreads and moneylines as the game progresses.

Future Bets on the NFL

While not necessarily a type of betting altogether, it’s worth mentioning future bets. Just as you might suspect, these are bets placed long before an event occurs. The most common is betting on a team to win the Super Bowl.

Depending on when you place your bet, the payout can vary dramatically. Betting on your team to win before the season starts will pay much more than betting on them to win after they win two playoff games. These are the best NFL bets for people who want to place a few super long-odds bets or want a bit more hands-off betting but still want a bit of skin in the game.

NFL Betting Summary

Betting on NFL games can add excitement and make watching the game much more profitable. There are lots of betting styles, super competitive games, and a postseason that provides some of the best entertainment in sports.

Be sure to use all the resources on Gambling Sites to help you learn how to find the NFL best bets every week. We have a ton of great content that will help you avoid some of the common pitfalls while also helping you improve rapidly. Always bet on NFL games for money responsibly, have fun, and good luck!