How does online football betting work?

There are two things you need to know about when it comes down to football betting online:

1. What are Football betting odds/ football betting lines and how do football odds work.
2. Football betting options (the different types of football bets)

What are football betting odds and how do odds work in football?

The football betting odds you see on an online sportsbook like Unibet, tells you two things:

1. What are the odds of the outcome according to the betting site.
2.  How much do you stand to gain if you win the bet.

Odds can be confusing for someone who is new football betting.
We’re going to help demystify football betting odds for you.
Let’s say there is a game between the Jets and the Dolphins and you see the following odds on Unibet

Odds come in three formats.
The odds you see above you are presented in the American format. the minus sign is always for the favorites, while the plus sign is next to the underdogs.
In games where there is no clear favorite, both the teams can have a - sign.
These types of football odds are also called moneyline football odds.

How to read moneyline odds in football

The +340 odds for the Jets means that if you bet $100, you’ll get $340 plus your stake of $100 for a total of $440.

The -455 for the Dolphins means you need to bet $455 to win $100.So, if you bet $455 on the Dolhpins and the Dolphins won, you’d win $100 plus your bet amount of $455.

Moneylines also work in exactly the same way in college football betting.

At Unibet you have the option to use other odds formats for football betting like the Fractional odds format and the decimal odds format.

Different football betting sites offer different odds.
At Unibet we're crazy about the odds.
So make sure you check us out the next time you're hunting for the best football betting lines and odds!

Different types of football bets and football betting options

Now that you’ve mastered how odds work, the next thing you need to understand are the different betting options for football.

There are a lot of different ways you can bet on football, which can get confusing.

But don’t worry. We’re going to try and break it down for you and get you up to speed in no time!

#1 Moneylines In Football Betting

You must have come across this word plenty of times and wondered “what’s a Moneyline bet?”
The Moneyline bet is probably the easiest bet in football.
All you need to do here is bet on which team you think will win the game.

🔥Hot Tip
Betting on the underdogs pays when it comes to moneylines in football.

#2 Spread betting In Football

What’s a point spread?
A point spread in football is a Moneyline bet where you bet on which team will win AND by how many points.
A points spread look something like this:

In the game between the Chiefs and the Steelers you can see based on the moneyline that the Chiefs are big favorites to win the game.

Now on to the point spreads.
The odds for the point spread are on the right (-112 for the Chiefs and -109 for the Steelers).
This tells you how much you stand to win for based on the spread bet you choose.

The point spread is the number next to each team (-12.5 for the Chiefs and +12.5 for the Steelers).
If you bet on the Chiefs, you are telling the sportsbook that you expect the Chiefs to win by a margin of 12.5 points.

Now, you might say “hold up for a sec, there’s no such thing as a half a point in football!”.
That’s obviously true!
That means in this case, the Chiefs need to win by a margin of 13 or more.
If the Chiefs win by a margin of 13 points or more, you win the spread bet.
If the Chiefs win by a margin of less than 13 points, tough luck, you lose your bet.
The same goes for the Chargers.

What do the plus and minus signs mean in point spreads in football betting?

There is an easy way to look at point spreads in football.
Think of the point spread as disadvantage or advantage.
In our example based on the moneyline we can see that the Steelers are the underdogs for the game (as they have moneyline odds of +510).

The oddsmakers decide the Steelers would need some help to win against the Chiefs.
So they give them a 12.5 point advantage or a +12.5 point spread advantage.

As the Chiefs are the favorites to win, they get a disadvantage of or a (-) minus on the spread (-12.5 in our example).

If the Chiefs manage to overcome this deficit and win, the Chiefs will have covered the spread.
This is what football bettors call "covering the spread".

One thing to keep in mind with points spreads in football is with the right sportsbook, you can alter the spread.

With Unibet’s sportsbook app, you can use the slider to set your own spread. Point spreads can be whole numbers like 3 or 4 as well.
If your point spread is a whole number and your team wins by that exact number, you get a “push” and your get your money back.

Sounds a bit confusing?
Let’s go back to our example.
Let’s say the spread for the Chiefs was -12. You bet $10 on Chiefs.
The chiefs win the game 32-20 (or by exactly 12 points).
It’s a push and you get back your $10.
For you to win, the Chiefs would need to win by more than 12 points.

#3 Totals (Over/Under) in Football 

Totals are also called over/under bets in football.
In totals you bet how many points will be scored during the football game.
Totals in football look something like this:

If you bet on over 52, your betting that the total points scored will be over 52 and if you bet on under 52 you’re saying that you think the total points scored will be under 52.

At Unibet you have the freedom to set your totals!
These are called teaser bets.
If you want to change the totals score all you need to do is move the slider.
That means you can bet on over/under 39 or over/under 56.

#4 Prop Bets in football

These are also called proposition bets.
An easy way to look at prop bets in football is whether something will or will not happen during the game.
Will your team score first?
Will the final point be scored by a field goal?
Will your team win both halves?
These are just some examples of prop bets.
Check out betting sites for more football betting props!

Player bets in football

Player bets in football are very popular and common prop bets, especially when your betting on NFL games.
These are also called player props in football betting.
Who’s going to score the first touchdown of the game?
Who’s going to score the most touchdowns?
Who is going to cover the most yards with rushes?
With player bets you can bet on all of that.

#5 Football Parlays

Are you wondering what’s a parlay bet in football?
Parlays seem like pretty complicated bets but they are easy to understand.
When you make a parlay bet , you’re combining at least two different bets.
The number of football bets you combine are called legs.

Let’s say you want to bet on a game between the Packers and the Titans.
You think the Packers will win and you think over 50 points will be scored during this game.
You decide to place two bets:

• Bet 1: You place a moneyline bet on the Packers to win.
• Bet 2:You feel like there will be a lot of point scored in this one.
  You make a totals bet of over 56.
  Voila!
  You have a 2 leg parlay!

Let's say you're feeling lucky tonight.
You bet on Davante Adams to score a touchdown in the second half.

You combine your 3 bets.
You get a 3 leg parlay.
You see where we're going with this?

Altough single game football parlays are popular with bettors, you can also choose to build a parlay by betting on multiple games.

This would be a multi game parlay.

Parlays can be a lot of fun and they can be profitable because they give you better odds.
Better odds are riskier too, since you need to win every leg to win your parlay bet.

Boost your parlays with Unibet
At Unibet you can get a cash boost on your parlays by up to 50%!
You can choose to cash out your bets anytime during a parlay if you feel like you won't win the parlay.