The glitz and glamour of the National Football League (NFL) made its loud and brash return last weekend with the start of the new American Football season. Though not a sport that has traditionally caught the attention of the UK audience in the past, it really is becoming more and more popular every year.
Each time a new season gets underway, there are plenty of casual fans that promise this is the year they will follow the team they randomly picked out of a hat. It is often the case that they lose interest two weeks in and then just tune in to the Superbowl at the end of the season, but there are many fans in the UK that stay interested throughout. A lot of these fans can use their existing knowledge of each team, their players and staff to their advantage when placing a bet. When matched betting though, we do not need to be knowledgeable at all in order to make a profit, which makes things even easier.
In order to keep punters interested, some bookmakers have decided to offer special promotions for the new NFL season. In this article, we will take a look at some of the best offers that are up so far.
Betfred and Totesport – Double The Odds
If you place a bet on the First Touchdown Scorer in any NFL match and the player you have backed scores the first touchdown and then scores again in the match, you will receive double the odds on your winnings. This offer comes on the back of a similar successful offer that both bookmakers have offered for a while, which is the Double Delight on Football for when a player scores first and then scores again.
On occasion this offer can give you good value, though you will need to make sure that the odds are in your favour. For this particular offer, some knowledge of American Football will help you, as it will be easier to pick out and select a player that is likely to not only score once, but go on to score again too. If you know nothing about the players involved then do not worry, you will be able to use the odds to your advantage here. Simply go to the First Touchdown Scorer market and have a quick look at the odds for each player. The shorter the odds are, the more likely they are to score. Therefore, it is best to select a player with short odds here.
The strategy for completing the offer is pretty simple. You will need to place a back bet on either Betfred or Totesport on the First Touchdown Scorer market and then head to a betting exchange such as www Betfair.com or Smarkets where you will need to place a lay bet. If you have not come across the term before, a lay bet is essentially placing a bet on a selection NOT to win. Therefore, say we backed Antonio Gates to score the first touchdown in a match with the bookmaker, we would need to place a lay bet against him getting the first touchdown on the exchange. If he does score first, our bookmaker bet will win and if he doesn’t the exchange bet will win. If he scores first and then scores again, we are given double the odds for our win.
Therefore, we have covered both outcomes. As the lay odds are likely to be slightly higher, this will mean we will have lost a few pence in qualifying for the offer. However, if you were able to find as close of a match as possible between the bookmaker odds and those on the exchange, you can keep qualifying losses to a minimum. With minimal losses, you will be able to attempt this offer multiple times for very little risk.
LeoVegas – 20% Boost
LeoVegas often come up with unique promotions that you can’t find on other bookmaker sites, and this one is no exception. They are offering a 20% boost on winnings each week on any in-play NFL markets. Placing in-play bets can be a bit more difficult as odds can fluctuate, but there are plenty of breaks in play in American Football matches so it should not be too big of an issue. You will need to make sure that your back stake is at least £10, as that is the minimum stake for this offer.
As this promotion is weekly, you will need to decide how to use your boost within each time period. For clarity, LeoVegas list a gameweek as beginning on Wednesday at 23:01 and ending the following Tuesday at 22:59. You will also need to make sure that the extra winnings on your bet will not exceed £100, as this is the limit for the offer. The way you can make money from this offer is through finding a selection with as close back and lay odds as possible. Thus, qualifying losses will be minimal, meaning that you can attempt the offer each week for next to no risk.
If you have found a selection that you wish to use your price boost on, simply add the selection to the betslip and then select ‘Price Boost’, which can be selected from the Bonus Offers section at the bottom of the slip. Our profit will come if the bookmaker bet wins, as the 20% boost means the winnings from the back bet will surpass the qualifying loss. For example, say we placed a £20 bet on the Seattle Seahawks to win a match with back odds of 2.00 and lay odds of 2.05. If they went on to win the game, our winnings would be £20 (as well as the original £20 stake being returned). As 20% of 20 is 4, we will make an extra £4 thanks to the 20% winnings boost. As the loss from our matched bet at the normal price was £1, which is worked out by a matched betting calculator, our overall profit from the offer is £3. As this can be repeated each week, it can be a very valuable addition to our matched betting offers.
Paddy Power – 14 Up
Paddy Power are well known for listing many special promotions. Their 2 Up football offer has been a massive success since they introduced it, and they have decided to capitalise on the start of the new NFL season by introducing ’14 Up’.
To qualify, you will need to place a pre-match bet on a team to win in any NFL game shown live on Sky Sports and if the team you have backed leads by 14 points or more at any point during the game, you will be paid out as a winner regardless of whether they actually go on to win.
The strategy here is to find a close match and hope that your team goes 14 points up. If they don’t, you will have kept qualifying losses to a minimum so there won’t be too much risk there. If they do go 14 points up and then don’t win the match, you would win both your back bet and your lay bet meaning you would could come out with an excellent win.