The NFL betting season is one of the busiest times for sportsbooks as there are millions of dollars exchanging hands every single week of the season. If you’re getting tired of wagering on just the games and you would like to mix up your bets this year then you should take a look at halftime bets. The reason I would like to recommend betting on the halftime of a football game is because there is a huge opportunity to make some money without doing much research.
During the NFL season there are always multiple games at 1PM and 4PM EST on Sundays which means that there are often multiple games going into halftime at the same time or nearly the same time. This means that the sportsbooks only have a short period of time to post up the second half odds and if you’re smart you’ll be able to make some money. A lot of the online sportsbooks will favour the favourite during the second half because most of the public is going to bet on the favourite which is what the bookie wants you do.
You want to find lines that seem out of place based on the lines that you seen at the start of the game. For instance, if you see the Bills and Dolphins playing and the nfl odds for the game were -220 for the Bills and +170 for the Dolphins, but the second half odds were -150 Bills and +100 Dolphins because the Dolphins won the first half you need to consider why. The bookie wants action on the Bills for the second half at this point in the game and is willing to make it look like juicy odds. Most of the public is going to bet on the Bills since they believe the Bills will catch up as the favourite team, but in the NFL this won’t always happen and in fact the underdog will win the game a lot of the time after winning the first half.
Apart from line movement you also want to consider how the first half of the game was played between the two teams. Generally you’re going to want to have watched the game because often the halftime highlights aren’t going to give you an honest view of how the game has been played. If you pick up on a team playing horribly then you’re going to want to bet against them in the second half. Often things don’t change much after the first half when a team is having a horrible game because most players just give up until the following week.
It’s been noted that the second half of NFL games receive more action then the first half of games because the public prefers watching the first half of the game first. You can use the second half to hedge bets as well or to try and hit both ends of a bet. For instance, if you bet on the Bills to win by -7 for the game and they’re winning by 4 at half time and the second half odds are posted at -4 for the Bills then you could win both bets. You could bet on the Bills at -4 for the second half which would mean if that wins your -7 for the game bet would also win. Always try and find odds like this when playing football because often these are the games that will hit.