NFL Sportsbook News: Analyzing NFL Sportsbook Numbers. As you get ready to bet the NFL at the sportsbook you may want to glance back at last season’s numbers. There are some things to be learned that can help you as you make your sportsbook online NFL wagers this season. Last year home teams won just over 57% of the time straight up. You might think when you see that number that you should just bet home teams but home teams were only 47% against the spread.
There are similar numbers when you think about favorites and underdogs. The favored team won almost 69% of the time last season but against the spread they were about 49%. The public loves to bet home teams and favorites but history has shown that you don’t make any money doing that. It was proven again last year.
Favorites on the road won 67% of the time straight up while home favorites won about 70% of the time. Home underdogs won just 33% of the time straight up. When you look at the against the spread numbers they are a little bit different. Home favorites covered the spread just over 46% of the time. That means if you took road underdogs you would have made money last season. The one area that favorites broke about even was the road favorites. They went 48-43 last year against the point spread which is 52.75%.
Everyone loves to bet the favorites and they also like to bet games over the total. We already showed that betting favorites is not the way to go. What about the total. Last season, more than 52% of the games went under the total. If you take out overtime games, that percentage goes up to almost 54% for unders.
Historically the way to go when betting NFL games is to take the underdog and the road teams. That was proven again last season. You can almost blindly go that way and make money but if you do a little handicapping you should be able to improve those numbers. You may also want to look at betting games under the total. Many people bet the over when it comes to NFL games but the value is definitely with taking games to go under the total in the NFL.