In the United States, Football is distinctive sports to bet on simply because of the time that exist before a specific team plays his next game.
With MLB Baseball, the betting line is usually up the night before the game is played, so you basically have at most a few hours to do your homework by handicapping each games properly before placing your bets. Vegas lines for NHL Hockey and NBA, take a little longer to go public but not by much. In the NFL, the lines usually goes public a full week before the game are played.
Because NFL Football betting line are posted so early before the game take place, bettors have to not only decide on who they are going to bet on, but also when should they place the bet. More than a few people prefer to place their bet early in the week; preferably on Sunday night or Monday Morning.
On the flip side, many other bettor prefers to wait until the last minutes before the game start to place their bets. You should be aware there are advantages build-in in both approaches and below, we will take a closer look at 3 advantages in each.
Placing your bet early
Take advantage of any mistake - It is not so unusual in NFL Football for point spread to be completely wrong. Oftentimes, you will see betting lines that are posted which doesn't match the assessment of the smart handicappers. In these condition, Las Vegas odd-makers will swiftly modify the spread to accommodate the heavy betting action that is happening on the side that is out of whack.
In case you place your bet later than Monday morning or Sunday at the very latest, then those changes that we talked above will already have been taken place and you would have most likely miss the chance to get a piece of them.
Obviously, if you decide to place your bet early, you will have to get your analysis and handicapping done correctly and on point since placing a losing bet early will be as costly as making the bet late.
Purchase a more advantageous line - if you've decided to go with the favorite which is the team the public believe will win. These teams will draw the majority of the bets and when action is heavy, it causes the line to move in one direction. During the period of week, it is not unusual to observe the line of a team that is favorite to move by as much as a full field goal or even more. If your intention is to bet on a popular team that everyone is betting on and you are 100% sure about this bet, then it would make great sense to place your bet early so you can get the extra point on your side.
Be prepare to take advantage of any line movement - Even if you may not feel strongly about a particular game, placing a bet on them early could open up opportunities later during the week if the line were to move.
Here's an example: Let's say you place a bet on a favorite and the line spikes up significantly, then the chance may be there to bet the middle - an extremely lucrative approach. Let's say for example, the football game line opens at -3.5 and you place a bet to win $100 on the favorite team. During the week, the betting action is massively skewed toward the favorite and the point spread spike up to -7.5 just before game time. Under that price, if you were to place a bet on the underdog, you would have a "middle" opportunity. If the favorite were to win by less than 4 point, that would mean your bet on the favorite would be a loser, but your underdog bet would be a winner. At that point, what you would have simply lost is the juice on one of the bets - commonly about $10 in that case.
If the team that is favorite were to win by more than touchdown, that would mean your bet on the favorite would win but your underdog bet would lose. which means you would also lose just $10.
If the favorite were to win by 4, 5, 6, or 7 points, that would result in both of your bets to be winners which would bank you a profit of $200. Remember that you are only risking $10, so the return on investment has the potential to be huge.
When it comes to NFL handicapping, middling betting can be risky, and it is not easy to always make it work. But when it works, it can be very fruitful financially. Remember that it works best when you place your first bet early.
Placing your bet late
Best price for underdog team that the public doesn't like - If you are betting on a team that the public doesn't think have a chance to win, then you should expect the line for that team to improve over the span of a week as the public splash their money on the team they believe have the better chance of winning. By demonstrating some patience, when it comes to your bet, you must always bet on line that are a few points better than it was at the beginning of the week. Every single point that you can muster should be extremely valuable. Particularly if you don't have to pay anything for the few extra points.
Additional time to get ready - It is always a very good thing to take your time looking for an edge, when it comes to betting on the NFL Football. The longer you delay the placing of your bet on a game would mean more time for you to handicap a specific game properly and this can only bring good result. I n most cases, I presume that the extra time that is used to handicap a specific game would result in good value for bettor, even if the line were to move in an unfavorable direction during their handicapping since they are making better assessment which would avoid bad bets.
Can respond to line-up alteration and injuries - By deciding to delay your bet until the week end, you will protect yourself from any surprises like line-up changes which could happen if a player get hurt during practice or maybe a now healthy player who was hurt and is expected to be back in the line-up. Other surprises could consist of players who were expected to come back from injuries but are now declared not ready to come back to play or a previous starter who is being benched for poor performance.
Any of these circumstances above can have a massive influence on the potential result of the game and the way the line eventually move when these changes occur on a particular Football game.