The NFL season is now at the halfway point of the regular season for 
many teams and the sport is undergoing a resurgence in popularity in the UK. With plenty of coverage on Sky Sports and the four-match London Series event proving to be a huge hit with UK Gridiron fans, it’s not surprising that not only are more and more people tuning in to watch the games, but a large number of new punters are looking to bet on them too.
However, if you are a punter that is more familiar with betting on British football, then the types of betting typically enjoyed on the NFL can look a little confusing. What do those minus numbers in brackets mean on some of the bets? What’s the difference between a Money Line bet and a Spread Bet? What is the Total Points bet?
So if you have ever fancied a flutter on the NFL but have been a bit confused as to what each of the available markets has to offer, then this article is for you as we will go through the major markets offered by Coral Sport and explain exactly what each of them means.
Let’s begin though by explaining a little about how American Football betting is offered in some states in the United States and why this has been adopted in the UK for the sport, rather than simply following the types of bets that we’d make on soccer matches or similar.
A potted history of American Football betting
The tradition of American Football has always been that the sport is based on equality and fairness and in a way, those qualities have been evident in how betting has been offered on the sport in the US initially, but latterly across the UK and other parts of the world.
Rather than offering standard odds on the two teams competing in a match, most American Football betting is a Spread bet. Essentially this means that one of the teams competing is given a handicap of some sort, with the aim of the handicap to offer the punter as near to a 50/50 choice between the two as possible.
The handicap is expressed in game points. So, for example the Detroit Lions facing the Green Bay Packers have a (-2.0) handicap. This then means that for a bet on the Detroit Lions to win this game, Detroit must win by three points or more for the bet to win. As if the handicap is applied and Detroit have won by just one or two points, then the result of the game would not be a Detroit win.
The more unequally matched two teams are viewed to be, then the greater the handicap that will be applied. Handicap’s of 10 points for games between top teams and lesser teams are relatively common.  Handicaps can be expressed as plus points for weaker teams, or minus points for stronger, Coral tend to use the minus points for stronger teams as the basis for their Spread betting on the NFL.
This form of betting is hugely popular in the US and has been adopted as one of the primary forms of betting on the NFL across many top UK sports betting sites.
Money Line betting
We have already looked at the main Spread betting markets on the NFL available with Coral and how that uses a handicap to offer punters as near to a 50/50 choice between the teams. However, there are other markets available on the sport. One that may appeal to many UK punters is the Money Line bet.
The Money Line bet is simply the standard odds bet between the two teams with no handicap applied. It is the NFL equivalent of the Match Result bet in Association Football. However, there is one key difference between the two bets and that is in American Football, the odds of a game finishing in a tie are very small compared to football.
This is why companies tend not to offer odds on a tie in American Football betting, unless a punter is looking at a particular type of bet that would include the tie as an option.
Total Points betting
Total Points betting on the NFL is a bet on how many points both teams will score in a match. It is a two-option bet expressed as an Over/Under format bet. It is very similar to the Over/Under 2.5 goal bets and their ilk that you will find in Association Football betting.
Of course, the number of points scored in American Football matches far outnumbers the number of goals scored in a standard football match, hence the Over/Under point amounts are considerably higher. Most games have between 40 to 50 points scored in them, hence most matches have an Over/Under amount somewhere between these two figures.
That may change if two teams are involved that are both strong defensively and weak offensively so the likelihood is fewer points will be scored, similarly, if two very attack minded teams play each other and lots of points are on the card, then the Over/Under point for that match may be set more highly than for others.
There are no handicaps to worry about with this bet, simply bet on whether you think there will be more than the stated number of points scored in the game in total between both teams, and if you pick the right number, your bet will win.
Remember too, it is the total number of points scored that matters, it does not matter which team scores the most points or how the points are divided up or which teams that wins the game. The only factor to worry about is that the points have been scored.
Match Specials
Coral also offers its customers a number of Match Specials bets particularly on matches that are being shown live on the UK (usually on Sky Sports, but also occasionally on other terrestrial channels).
These Match Specials often include bets on specific players achieving one or more milestones in the game. For example, on tonight’s game between the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers, Coral are offering the following bet:
Matthew Stafford to have 300+ passing yards, Ameer Abdullah to have 1+ rushing touchdown and Golden Tate to have 1+ receiving Touchdown. 11/1.
For each live game the bets in this section of the site will change to reflect the teams and personnel playing and you can pick up some excellent value NFL bets with Coral here.
TD Scorer
These are bets on players scoring the First, Last or a touchdown at any time during the game. This is similar choice to the First/Last or Anytime Goalscorer bets you find on football. Again, the options available here depend on the games being contested and the players available for each of the teams competing in the game.
Winning Margin
This is a bet on what the winning margin will be in a game. In this bet you need to select which of the two teams will win the game and then by how many points from a selection of offerings. This is one of the few markets in American Football where you can bet on a tie with Coral.
Handicap Win With Tie
This is a similar bet to the Spread bet only with these bets, only full number handicaps are applied to teams and that means that it is possible when a handicap is applied to a team, that the match will finish in a tie. As such, you can also bet on this outcome as well as which of the two teams will win for this bet.
The same match may attract different handicaps here which will influence the size of the odds for your bet.
More Bets
An extensive range of other NFL themed bets are available in the More Bets section of the site including bets on each of the four quarters in a game, betting on Field goals and much more.
Coral offers an extensive NFL betting package and as such, if you love watching the action unfold in America each week, make Coral Sport your first choice for all your NFL betting.
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