Helpful Betting Guidelines

For NFL and College Football

by Chris Hastings (Twitter @mush_master)

For the last 15 years, I have made thousands of bets.  Some were great (like a large 3 team parlay paying 40 plus units that hit while I watched the USA soccer team win a game) and some were heart breaking (like watching Lane Kiffin let his punter take a safety even though the game was over, which changed the winning side of the spread on the game, causing me to lose a bet that I thought was in the bag).  Feeling like you want to puke after a bad beat is priceless. Feeling like you are the smartest man alive after a massive parlay hits is also priceless.

 

Bad beats happen, and for every bad beat that you may have there is someone on the other side of the bet that is screaming for victory and can’t figure out how they got so lucky.  I have some rules below that can help limit some of the bad beats and keep you from wanting to puke on a Saturday or Sunday night after football games have ended.

 

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Bankroll Management:

I am not going to deep in this category because it should be an article all by itself.  BetKarma refers to the use of Units when referring to betting. 1 unit is 1% of your Bankroll.

 

$1,000 Bankroll

1 unit = $10

 

$10000 Bankroll

1 unit = $100

 

Bankroll Management is the most important thing to understand in order to be successful sports better.  More to come on Bankroll Management in a future article.

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NFL Games:

• Don’t Bet against home team after bye week
• Don’t bet against a home team if they have a celebration at half-time for a legendary player or coach for the team. Bet on the team with celebration.
  1. Example: Bears bring back Mike Ditka to celebrate him at halftime.  Bears won 45-28 against the Cowboys.
• Don’t bet on a team with 2 or more injured offensive lineman
• Teasers work in the NFL, but tease point spreads not over/under, Most NFL games are decided by less than 2 TD’s.
• Bet against teams that are missing 2 or more offensive linemen.
• For week 2 of NFL season, bet on any team that lost week 1 and has a strong QB and you think will make playoffs.  These teams bounce back to win in week 2.

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College:

• Don’t tease college football games together.
• 1. Coaches need to run scores up for seeding purposes so games can get out of hand and then you are stuck praying for a backdoor cover on a team that isn’t very good
• Don’t bet against a home team in the 2^nd half
  1. Teams will not give up at home to be embarrassed on the home field.
• Don’t bet against the home team when they have homecoming
  1. Teams will be fired up for homecoming and play above their true talent level. I have found it is easier just to not play against the home team.
• Don’t bet on team that has a starting QB out.
  1. It is hard enough to find a back-up QB in the NFL, so stay off the team that has a back up QB even with a good team. Bet against teams with back up QB’s.
  2. If you followed this rule then you would have taken Clemson in the championship game and got great odds and an easy cash.
• Don’t bet on teams that have their starting center out for game.
  1. The center position in college is a pivotal position. Most of the coverages are set by the center for the play.  He reads what is going on and makes adjustments with the other linemen.
  2. If the center is out and QB is out, good time to bet against the team in this situation.

 

 

Hope these can help you with the upcoming season. If you want to know more about any aspect of betting, feel free to reach out to us on Twitter! (@Bet_Karma)