The NFL, the most popular sport in the USA, is also unsurprisingly the most popular sport to bet on. It’s a sport that everyone loves to bet on, from the experts to the occasional punter who likes to spice up the Superbowl with a cheeky wager.

"I have yet to be in a game where luck was involved." – Urban Meyer

Meyer’s words also ring true for betting on the NFL. Knowing what type of bet and when to place it, can massively increase your chances of winning. This will involve knuckling down and doing a little bit of homework before you get started.

In this page we will provide you with which sportsbooks we recommend for betting on the NFL in your respective state. As it stands, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Colorado, West Virginia and Illinois have the best selections of online NFL betting.

If it is just football and the NFL specifically that you are looking to bet on, then finding the right sportsbook becomes much easier for you. This is because you can really narrow down your search, and really focus on a certain set of factors.

If you are looking to primarily bet on one league you are most likely a big football fan, which will put you at an advantage as you'll really know your stuff. The more you know, the more you analyse the full range of odds offered on all the events, and you increase your chance of finding real value.

If you are based in New Jersey then you really are in luck. The Garden State is storming ahead of its rivals when it comes to online sports betting. This is thanks to unrestrictive legislation, which creates an attractive market for sportsbooks, and an existing base of betting aficionados.

The state is home to the New York Giants and the New York Jets.

Football, along with basketball, is the most popular sport in the state, which means that sportsbooks have focused heavily on offering a wide range of NFL bets.

You can check out our dedicated page to finding the best sportsbook in New Jersey but when it comes specifically to betting on the NFL in NJ we have one standout winner.

DraftKings was already a well established brand in Pennsylvania before they launched their sportsbook in the state.

Since their launch in 2018, they have firmly established as one of the states most popular sportsbooks. FanDuel is it's largest rival, not just in PA, but across a number of states and the two undoubtedly have two of the best products on the Pennsylvanian market.

When it comes to NFL betting DraftKings has it all. Not only does it provide you with the largest selection of bets to chose from, but also some of the best value odds.

We have to admit this is somewhat of an unusual choice. We usually recommend PointsBet for spread betting; a type of bet that provides both teams with a points handicap.

However, when it comes to NFL betting in Indiana we have to say this niched sportsbook delivers on all fronts.

Not only do PointsBet offer some of the best NFL odds, but their Indiana sportsbook app is arguably the best in the Hoosier State.

As FanDuel and DraftKings established themselves in NJ and PA, PointsBet decided to focus on the Hoosier State as well, building a highly optimized product. The Australian brand obviously felt at home in the Midwest and now it has gained significant popularity in the state.

When it comes to the NFL they offer excellent odds, especially for point spread betting. You can find some real value in the odds they offer for the Indianapolis Colts.

This is the most common form of betting on the NFL. When you place a moneyline wager you are backing either the underdog or the favourite to win outright. It’s the easiest type of bet to understand as a beginner and probably the first type of bet that people place.

Any sportsbook that offers betting on NFL, will offer moneyline odds as it’s the bread and butter of football betting.

Moneylines odds are the type of odds used in the United States. In Europe, they use decimal odds, and in the UK they use fractions.

The underdog will be assigned a + symbol, whilst the favourite will be assigned a - symbol. In some instances, when the odds are even, both teams will be assigned a - symbol.

Numbers will appear next to the +/- symbols indicating how much you can expect to win according to your wager.

In short: A positive moneyline is the amount you will win if you put down $100 and a negative moneyline is how much you will need to bet to win $100.

Working out how moneylines work, can be a bit frustrating at first. Everyone has their way of doing it, either in their head, online or on a bit of paper.

Eventually, you'll be able to calculate your payout in a second. Put the practice in now and we promise you it will be worth it.

Moneyline bets are great because they are straightforward and ubiquitous. You simply won’t find a sportsbook that doesn’t offer moneyline bets on the NFL. This can be both a blessing and a curse, however.

Here we have listed some advantages and disadvantages with placing moneyline bets on the NFL:

Advantages with NFL moneyline bets 👍

• They are always available. Every sportsbook that offers NFL betting will offer moneyline bets.
• They are easy to understand. You will be hard-pressed to find a bettor who hasn’t placed a moneyline bet.

Disadvantages with NFL moneyline bets 👎

• Sportsbooks will have invested a lot of resources into perfecting their odds. You will find it hard to find really great value in big game moneyline odds.
• There are three outcomes to a moneyline bet, but it can feel like two. Just like the green on the roulette table, it’s easy to forget that there is a third outcome, a draw. Moneyline bets are unforgiving from this perspective if it’s a draw you lose.
• Emotions can play a part in moneyline bets. Many sports fans enjoy betting on their own team, which although understandable is not always the best idea. Sometimes your heart will trump your brain in this regard. We advise against betting on your own team when it comes moneyline betting.

Congratulations, you’ve reached the next skill level! Spread betting is where you can really hone your football betting skills. It’s also where you can start to find some really great value odds.

This form of betting is popular with high scoring sports as it is decided by the point spread. These type of bets adds a points element to the outright bet and can help reduce the differences between the favourites and the underdogs.

Like with moneyline betting, the underdog will be assigned a - symbol, whilst the favourite will be assigned a + symbol.

Ironically, with spread bets, it is the favourite that is handed the handicap.

Your sportsbook will look at all the factors that will lead to one team being considered the favourite. These factors will include; form, home/ away advantage/disadvantage, weather and more.

Once it has been decided how much a team is a favourite or underdog, a numerical value will be attached to the teams reflecting this.

Halftime lines are an example of in-play betting and are only available during half time. These odds will take into account what happened during the first half of the football game when they are set, but the outcome of the bet is actually unrelated to the first half.

With this type of betting you should really think of the second half as its own game.

When you use this form of betting, you’ll start to see the football game differently. For example, you could bet on a team to win the second half and win your bet, but they actually lose the game as a whole.

We would suggest that you only use this form of betting when you are in no way emotionally involved. Placing an in-play bet at halftime on a game which involves a team you support is not always a good idea. Betting should never be done in the heat of the moment or when you are not thinking straight.

Having said that, halftime betting can be a great option for a neutral who is actually attending a game. At an NFL game, you’ll be able to pick up on things that the cameras and stats - which is what your sportsbook use - won’t.

This form of betting, known as an accumulator in Europe, means you add bets together to achieve a higher payout.

These type of bets can seem attractive as they can generate great returns.

With some sportsbooks, you can smash together around 15 bets

So you can imagine the amazing payoffs you can get. However, you have to ask yourself, how often in football can you predict 15 outcomes correctly?

However ‘safe’ you feel your bets are, each time you lay a parlay (excuse the pun) you eat away at the probability of each of your bets coming off.

It might seem less fun, but you are often much better off placing individual bets. Parlay betting, in our opinion, is much more relevant for office pools and amongst friends.

A teaser bet is, like parlay betting, a collection of two or more bets, but with your line adjusted in your favour. To what extent depends on how many points your teaser has; there are three main NFL teasers 7, 6.5 and 6.

Sound complicated? Here is an example:

This type of bet is pretty straight forward. Here you will simply be betting on whether there will be more or fewer points scored than a predetermined amount in a football game.

The addition of decimals can seem confusing at first, but it’s simply there to eradicate a third possibility: the exact number of points being scored. Think of it like eradicating the 0 in a game of roulette.

Believe it or not, these are bets that will occur in the future!

They are often released just after an event has finished. So you will be able to place a future on who will win the 2022 Super Bowl right after the 2020 Super Bowl.

The NFL, had been the most resistant to change after the Supreme Court ruled the federal ban on sports betting unconstitutional compared to the NBA, NHL and MLB. However, eventually the lure of extra revenue pushed them over the line and this year they signed an official partnership with Caesars Entertainment.

The NFL had been reluctant to follow a similar path when the NBA, NHL and MLB signed with MGM Resorts. The NFL had argued that allowing sports betting on their league would threaten the integrity of the league. But the need to be seen as the wholesome all-American league was trumped by the lure of the big bucks.

Although they do not want to be openly seen as promoting sports betting, the partnership with a major betting company made it obvious that they had opened up the league to sports betting.

In February 2020 the NFL softened their approach to sports betting even further, when they announced that they would allow sportsbook operators to strike deals with NFL teams. This means that sportsbooks will be allowed to place lounges in the football stadiums as well as advertisements. NFL teams are not allowed to sell training facility naming rights, team controlled broadcast advertising and shoulder programming.