Sunday, January 29th, 2012

Online Super Bowl Betting - Every year for the last four decades, football fans have been betting on the Super Bowl - the annual NFL championship game. The Super Bowl is easily the most watched sporting event in the United States, and no other game draws as much interest from sports bettors. Luckily, you don’t have to wait until the big game to start betting. The best online sportsbooks take Super Bowl wagers on a nearly year-round basis, and it is never too early to start planning. Here are the most important types of wagers for Super Bowl bettors, how they work, and when to use them.


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Super Bowl Futures Betting


Futures wagers, in general, are bets made months in advance of a sporting event. In the case of the NFL, futures bets can be made on statistics such as how many games your team will win in the regular season, who will win the conference titles, and which team will win the Super Bowl. Online sportsbooks typically start to take futures bets for the upcoming season after the completion of the NFL spring draft.


Because futures bets look so far ahead, they’re your first chance to start betting on the Super Bowl. However, you need to be careful to have success when making Super Bowl futures wagers. First of all, be aware that the odds on the most successful teams are usually slim; you may only stand to win a small percentage of your wager if you choose a particularly strong team. Because of this, many futures bettors choose to put their money on the underdogs (and take advantage of their spectacular odds) in hopes of a miraculous upcoming season.


Time is the other major factor to consider when making futures bets. Simply put, a lot happens between the spring draft and the following Super Bowl. Players get hurt, coaches get fired, and major trades take place. The odds on your Super Bowl futures wager are susceptible to changes: both good and bad.


Straight Bets


Every year, as we approach Super Bowl Sunday, the most popular wagers are straight bets and money line bets. These two types of Super Bowl wagers let you choose which team you believe will win. With straight bets, there is a point spread which tells you how many points the favored team needs to win by in order to cover the spread.


For instance, assume that the Steelers are 7-point favorites over the Cowboys. First, you can wager that the Steelers, the favored team, will win by more than seven points. On the other hand, if you have faith in the Cowboys, you can wager that they will stop the Steelers from covering the spread. Even if the Cowboys lose by six points, you would still win your bet. If the Steelers win by exactly 7 points, you simply get your money back. To prevent this from happening, point spreads are often given in ½ point intervals (eg. 7 ½, 5 ½, etc).


Money Line Super Bowl Betting


Money line bets do not use a point spread, but rather they have weighted odds to keep the wager fair. The easiest way to understand this is to look at an example. When you visit your online sportsbook to see the money line odds on an upcoming football game, let’s suppose you see this:


Browns: +130 Eagles: - 140


You simply have to choose whichever team you believe will win, but the Eagles are the favored team. If you choose them (The Eagles) to win, you would have to risk $140 to win only $100 (-140 odds). If you want to take a chance with the Browns, you would only have to pay $100 for a chance to win $130 (+130 odds). Ideally, the money line system makes for a fair wager without the use of point spreads. When there is a game in which both teams are evenly matched, the money line odds will look something like this:


Colts: -110 Patriots: -110


No matter which team you choose to win, you need to wager $110 to win $100. In this example, the ten-dollar differences represent the profit of the bookmaker. You might know this as the juice, the vig, or the house edge. It guarantees that, no matter what happens, your bookmakers will get paid.


Proposition Super Bowl Betting


Proposition bets, also known as prop bets, are extremely specific wagers. For the Super Bowl, proposition bets can be made on dozens of events, including which team will score the first point, how many yards a quarterback will throw for, and even the outcome of the coin toss. Prop bets can also be made on the half time show and other out-of-game factors. Some proposition bets can be made as futures, months before the Super Bowl, but most of them won’t be posted until we get closer to the Super Bowl Sunday.


Placing Your Super Bowl Bets Online


So far, we’ve talked about the most common types of wagers, but there are countless Super Bowl betting opportunities available. Through much of the off-season, right up until kick off, you can make any number of these bets, or even combine several wagers through the use of parlays. In the end, though, the most important decision that you need to make is which online sportsbook is right for you.


Online sportsbooks are not created equal. To find the perfect sportsbook for your Super Bowl betting, you should consider everything from customer service and payment options, to betting variety and available odds. At first, choosing your sportsbook can seem overwhelming, but after browsing through the exclusive sportsbook reviews on this website, you can safely sign up and start betting with your favorite sportsbook.