Betting on NFL Games

Betting on NFL games at sportsbooks is very popular with gamblers around the world. It is so popular that many sportsbooks have their bottom lines for the year determined by NFL betting. How do sportsbooks make their money during the NFL season? Betting on NFL games is done not only by gamblers but also by the sportsbooks. If you think that most of the money made on NFL betting is by sportsbooks taking an equal amount of money on both sides of the game you would be wrong.  Sportsbooks make most of their money not from posting football odds that attract equal amounts of NFL betting action on both sides, but rather from odds that attract a lopsided amount of activity on one side. That side is of course the losing side for gamblers games. Sportsbooks try and achieve a profit that is better than what is called the theoretical hold percentage by posting NFL betting odds that attract losing money. The sportsbooks will often think like wise guys and handicap a game in a way in which they believe the average gambler that is betting on NFL action will go. The sportsbooks will try and set the line so that they will draw in a disproportionate amount of public money on the side of the game that they believe is less likely to win.  That is how the sportsbooks make the big money and is what they look for.