American football is played in downs. The side with the ball gets four attempts to move it ten yards, and if it manages that it gets another four. Most sides use the fourth to kick the ball away rather than risk it, because a failed attempt hands possession to the other team wherever the drive stopped.
A drive is the string of downs a team gets before it has to hand the ball over, by scoring, by kicking it away, or by failing to make the ten yards. That is why a stop on third down draws more noise than some touchdowns do.
The game runs four fifteen-minute quarters. A touchdown is six points, the kick after it one, the two-point try two, a field goal three, a safety two. The NFL and the college game are priced here, pre-match and in-play, and the CFL has a card of its own.
Money line, spread and total points do most of the work.
The competitions
Three leagues carry the cards, and they keep different hours. Autumn is the crowded part of the year, when all three are running at once.
- NFL. The regular season runs through the autumn into early winter, the playoffs follow in the new year, and the Super Bowl closes it in February. Two conferences, four divisions each, which is the shape of the outright board. Our NFL betting guide goes further into that league on its own.
- NCAA Football. College football starts in late summer and runs to November, and the College Football Playoff carries a bowl season on into January. It is a far bigger field than the NFL, and the gap between the best programmes and the rest is wide enough to see inside a quarter.
- CFL. The Canadian season runs from late spring into November and finishes with the Grey Cup. The CFL card opens that league in the sportsbook.
The markets
Money line
Pick the team that wins the game, overtime included. A game level after sixty minutes goes to the extra period and settles on whatever happens there. Beside it sits a three-way version with the tie priced as its own selection, because the extra period does not always find a winner.
The spread
The points handicap, which nobody calls the points handicap. One team's score is adjusted by a line before the two are compared, so a seven-point favourite has to win the game and then win it again on the line.
Whole numbers can tie. Give 7 and win by exactly seven and the bet pushes, stake back. Give 7.5 and a seven-point win pays nothing at all.
Total points
Add both teams' points together and bet them over or under a line. Touchdowns arrive in sixes and sevens and field goals in threes, so the line is a forecast of how often each side reaches the red zone, the last twenty yards where a drive either scores or settles for three. Totals push on the number too.
Halves and quarters
Take the same markets and scope them to one half or one named quarter: a winner, a handicap or a total on that piece alone. Useful if you think a side starts slowly, or fades in the fourth. A pre-match second-half or fourth-quarter bet includes overtime unless the market says otherwise.
Player props
Back a named player to reach a mark on the stat sheet. They have to take at least one down for the bet to stand, so a player who never gets on the field returns your stake rather than losing it.
Which names and which marks are on offer depends on the game in front of you. Most weeks there are more than you'll ever get round to having a view on.
Outrights
Season-long prices run on the Super Bowl, on either of the NFL's two conferences, and on each of the eight divisions the conferences are split into. They stand for as long as the season takes, whatever the schedule does in between.
The two conference winners are the two teams that reach the Super Bowl, whatever the seedings, the rankings that set a team's path through the playoffs, said.
NFL match markets and pre-game props settle on the official game statistics published on the day. A correction the following week does not reopen a bet that has already been paid.
In-play
American football is priced while it is played, and the numbers are re-cut as it goes. A score moves them. A turnover moves them further, because the ball and the field position change hands in the same second.
Where the drive starts. A drive that begins on the opponent's forty is not the drive that begins on your own ten, and the price knows the difference before the ball is snapped to start the play.
What the clock is doing. A first down inside the closing two minutes of a half is worth more than the same first down in the first quarter, because it buys time as well as yards. With a lead, the clock is worth more than the points already on the board.
A game that stops early has to reach the last five minutes of scheduled time for bets to have action, unless the result was already settled by then.
What to look at before you bet
- The quarterback. Nothing else on the field moves a price as much. A starter ruled out shifts a spread further than any other name on the injury report, which is why you read the report before you look at the price.
- Home field and travel. Crowd noise is a handicap on an away offence trying to hear its own snap count, and a side crossing three time zones for an early kick-off is playing before its body clock has woken up.
- Weather. Wind is the condition that shows up in the scoreline. A kicker aiming at posts forty yards away in a crosswind is not the kicker you watched indoors last week. Cold and wet push the ball back onto the ground and shrink a total with it.
- Pace. Some sides are built to grind the clock down on the ground, others throw on any down they fancy. Both habits are already priced into the total, so the question is which side gets forced out of its habit first.
- College mismatches. The gap between the strongest and weakest college programmes is far wider than anything the NFL allows, which is why college spreads reach numbers that would look absurd in the professional game, and why college totals swing so far week to week.
- The CFL's shape. Canadian rules give the offence three downs instead of four, on a longer and wider field, with twelve players a side. Possessions turn over quicker, the ball spends more time in the air, and a typical scoreline is a different shape to price.
The American football quick guide
- Read the line before the record. Three points and ten points describe two different games.
- Find where the points come from. Field goals and touchdowns build different totals out of the same yardage.
- Check the quarterback. One change there rewrites a number the rest of the roster barely moves.
- Split the game up. A half or a quarter is a bet in itself, with its own finish.
- Let a drive finish before you price it. One that ends in a punt hands the ball straight back, and the number with it.
The cards open the NFL, the college game and the CFL. All three settle under one American football heading in the Sports Betting Rules.
