Betting Totals in Football Lines

Totals are a great way to find value on the football lines board since the majority of the public’s attention is focused on NFL football lines sides. Football lines can be bet in many different ways including on totals. This is when you are betting on whether the combined score in a game between two teams going will go over or under the football lines set by the odds makers. Totals are available on both college and NFL football lines.

Football lines in terms of totals used to be limited to just NFL and marquee college football games. That is no longer the case with more college games on TV. Some sportsbooks will even post football lines totals on every college game. You will also see totals on first half and halftime football lines. Let’s look at a football lines example. If you see a number such as “40” next to the Oakland Raiders and San Diego Chargers game it means that you can bet on the combined score between the Raiders and Chargers going over or under 40 in NFL football lines. If, for example, the Chargers beat the Raiders 23-16 the total combined score would be 39, making the game an under in NFL football lines.

If the Chargers beat the Raiders 23-22, however, the total combined score would be 45, making the game an over in lines. If the final score was Chargers 23, Raiders 17 the game would be considered a push with all gamblers getting their money back versus football lines. Keep in mind that it doesn’t matter who wins the game with over/under totals in football lines, all that matters is the combined score. Totals are available on most games but the majority of the public will only bet them on marquee games like the Sunday night or Monday night NFL games.

Many professionals actually prefer playing over/under totals to sides, because they can find better values and football lines. Just as is the case with pointspread side betting, public perception does have an affect on the over/under totals posted on the football lines boards.

 

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