There is no shortage of American football betting sites laying odds on every NFL and college football match out there. Below you will find the best sportsbooks where you can bet on the American football markets.
How We Choose the Best American Football Betting Sites
We thoroughly review every bookmaker that appears on our website, and this is how we’ve chosen the best American football betting sites that tick all the necessary boxes as good all-round sportsbooks, but also shine when it comes to American Football in particular.
Welcome Offer and Other Bonuses
These days, a welcome offer tends to be in the form of a matched deposit or a free bet that you may get as soon as you make your first deposit, or after placing a qualifying bet. A typical example is that placing a $10 bet gives you a $20 or $30 free bet.
You can usually choose which sports to bet on from all those available on the site when it comes to using your welcome bonus, which of course includes American Football betting online, if you wish.
But we want to see the best American football betting sites provide further offers down the line, such as more free bets, acca insurance, Odds Boosts and cashback offers. And not just around sports betting in general, but NFL betting in particular.
User Experience
It’s important that everything on the site is well-organised, easy to find and displayed in a logical way. That applies to the mobile app (or mobile browser if they don’t have an app) as well as the website.
Good on-site content like helpful FAQS, in-market stats, a blog and other useful info is seen as a big bonus. Customer support should be available 24/7 and ready to assist with any issue.
Competitive Odds
Another thing we like to point out in our sportsbook reviews is that the quality of the odds is the single most important factor when choosing the best betting sites for American Football.
Consistently getting prices that are 5% or so bigger than at other sportsbooks makes a world of difference, as the payouts on all winning bets certainly add up over time.
And whereas one-off Odds Boosts on particular selections certainly help the cause, it’s more about offering good odds across the board in general, rather than just on special occasions.
The Variety of Options for Betting on American Football
As has happened with other sports like football and cricket, the number of betting markets available at the best betting sites for American Football seems to be growing by the week. Here’s a summary of the most popular markets for NFL betting, with a few more niche ones in there, as well.
Moneyline
Fans of other sports like tennis or snooker are more likely to know this market as the Winner market.
The market only has two outcomes: Team/Player A or Team/Player B, because in all cases, there isn’t a draw that can occur in any of those sports, including American football.
There will always be an eventual winner, as opposed to sports like football or rugby, where the game can end in a draw.
One team will always be the (odds-on) favourite because they’re the ones that the best online American football betting sites decide have the best chance of winning. The other team, the outsider, will be available at odds against. And if they win, you’ll win more than you risked, the exact amount obviously depending on the odds.
Very, very occasionally, the two teams are exactly the same price to win, generally at odds of around 1.9, depending on the house edge in question, in what is called a ‘pick’em’ game.
Points Spread
In an attempt to make any NFL match a choice affair (something approaching a 50/50 game) rather than one with a big favourite and a big outsider, bookies create artificial lines, called spreads.
They might make the Chiefs -9.5 point favourites, with the Jets the +9.5-point outsiders, with both teams typically priced up at around 1.83 in decimal odds (-120 in US odds), taking into account the spread, also known as the handicap. At the end of the match, the spread is then applied to the actual final score.
Total Points
If you’re less concerned about which team will score the most points and how many compared to the opposition, then the total points market might be up your street.
The bookie will decide on a total points line for an American football match, for example, 61.5 points, and then it’s up to you to decide whether you think the match will have 62 points or more, or 61 points or less.
Like with the spread, both options are normally available at around the 1.83-1.85 mark in terms of odds.
Outrights
Not all American football betting is done solely on what might happen over the course of one match.
Some NFL punters would rather take more long-term views and try to predict before or during the season what will happen at the end of the season. These markets are known as Outrights, or sometimes as Futures, at American football betting sites.
They include: Who will win the Super Bowl? Who will be voted the Regular Season MVP? Or who will be voted Coach of the Year? Or whether a particular team will just make the Super Bowl, as opposed to actually winning it.
Biggest American Football Events to Bet On
It’s worth explaining that American football is a very different beast from football or cricket. American Football doesn’t have an international competition like the Euros or the World Cup. With a few notable exceptions like Canada, the UK and Germany, it’s not played at a particularly professional or serious level in many countries outside the US.
So when it comes to American football betting, it pretty much comes to competitions played on US soil.
College Football
It may seem ridiculous for us Europeans to think that a sport played at University/college level is the third most popular in any country, but in the case of US college football, it is, with only the NFL itself and professional baseball (the MLB) more popular in the US.
Organised by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), just about every US University in the country will have an American football team competing across three Divisions: I, II and III.
College football is big business for the college itself and the local community and an obvious passport for the best young American football players to get a multi-million contract in the NFL if they’re lucky enough to get drafted.
All of this explains why there are eight college stadiums in the US with a capacity for over 100,000 spectators, and they’re very often completely packed.
College football’s popularity reaches its peak during January when the winners of the two College Football Playoffs play in early January and then meet in the third week of January for the winner-takes-all National Championship match, which in 2025 was won by the Ohio State Buckeyes, who beat Notre Dame.
The National Football League (NFL) and the Super Bowl
In addition to being the world’s most valuable sports league by revenue bar none, it’s also the most popular sports league in the US and the sports league with the highest average attendance in the world.
The NFL is divided into two (geographically-based) divisions: the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC).
Running from early September to early January with each team from each division playing 17 matches, the Top 7 from each division then advance to the Play-Offs, where it’s a knockout format all the way to the famous big final - the Super Bowl - which is played in early February.
Tips and Strategies for American Football Betting
And let’s round things off with some valuable tips for when you want to take your first steps into NFL betting.
Keep an Eye on Those Early Spreads
Let’s say you think the Green Bay Packers can overcome the handicap, which most bookies are making -7.5 points, against the Atlanta Falcons.
But then you notice that at the same odds, the vast majority of other bookies are laying, you can back the Packers at -6.5 with one particular Sportsbook.
That one point could make all the difference between a winning and a losing bet, so take advantage of the better spread while you can.
Have Accounts With at Least Three Bookies
Being able to back a more favourable spread with Bookie X is just one of several reasons why it pays to have multiple accounts.
Others are that you’ll have access to a greater number of betting markets, odds may be higher on some of those markets, and you’ll have access to more bonuses.
Back the Super Bowl-winning QB, Not the Team
This is one of the oldest tricks in the book, but it still often works!
The Quarterback is so integral to a team’s success that very often, they pretty much only need to show up to win the MVP Award, as long as their team wins. For example, five of the last six Super Bowl MVP Awards have been won by the Quarterback of the winning team rather than a player in any other position.
The exception was wide receiver Cooper Kupp of the Los Angeles Rams, who got it rather than his QB Matthew Stafford, in 2022.
But most of the time it’s the QB who walks away with it, and you can often get odds of at least 4.0 on both quarterbacks rather than 1.7 and 2.1 or so on each of the teams just to win.
