Even Bets

When people bet NFL games online, they generally prefer even bets. These are situations where you can bet on one side or the other and get the same odds either way. When you bet on the point spread, that’s an even bet. You double your money (minus the vigorish) if you win. Same thing when you’re dealing with a total, or a prop bet where both YES and NO are priced at -110.

Even bets are the foundation of your NFL betting bankroll. It’s a lot simpler this way to calculate wins and losses and keep track of your handicapping progress. You need to be right at least 52.4% of the time with your even bets in order to make a profit – that’s factoring in the juice. Professional NFL handicappers are doing very well for themselves if they can get 60% of their even bets correct. If you bet the NFL point spread 10 times in a given week and you’re right six times, you know you’ve done a good job. However, you could get six out of 10 moneyline bets correct and still lose money.

Playing even bets also helps you decide how much to wager when you bet on the NFL. It’s always a good idea to break up your bankroll into a number of betting units, and bet one or more units on each game. Maybe you’ll begin with $200 and break that into 100 units of $2. Then you can make even bets of $2 each and start building your bankroll the smart way.