Wagering Strategy
For wagering on the NFL games, here's the format I've been using. I use Bookmaker to place my wagers (use bonus code: SPIKE to get a bonus on your initial deposit).My strategy consists of picking the games, then betting them on parlay cards in various combinations of 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 teams. As you get more bets correct, your winnings increase.
Step 1: print out the list of all the games for that weekend. For each game, decide who your winner will be and notate it. You can base this upon the point spread....or, if you have a good feeling about an underdog, you can bet that they'll win outright and get a higher return if you're correct.
Step 2: pick the one game which you're completely, absolutely sure of. If you HAD to bet your house and car on any of the 16 games, this is the one it would be. This one will be your lock.
Step 3: pick another five games which you feel ALMOST as confident about. These, and the lock, will make up what I refer to as the first "slate" or "card."
On Bookmaker, make sure you're under the Sportsbook tab, click on Parlay (by default, you're on the Straight tab), then click on NFL. Choose the lock and the other five picks. Then, click on "Continue to Step 3".
You'll see something which looks like this:
| Enter amount for this Parlay Wager: | $ | Combinations:
| |
You'll want to enter your amount... I start the season with $1 and if I do well, then I'll increase the bet the next week because I'm playing with the house's money....just as I would if I were playing blackjack or craps in Vegas.
Then choose the 1 parlay of 6 teams and "Continue to Step 4." The next page will summarize your bet, and will tell you how much you can potentially win. Click on "Confirm your bet!" when done double-checking this.
At the bottom, you'll have the option to do another parlay using the same choices. Go back and choose the "6 parlays of 5 teams," the "15 parlays of 4 teams," etc. (Note that when I did this a few times, the option to reuse the team choices started giving me a message that the choices had expired, or something to that effect. To counter this, I just use the browser's "back" button to get back to the screen with my choices.)
Next, repeat the steps, taking the next five games on your list, plus the "lock" again. The lock will be included in each slate. Bet the 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 team cards as you did in the first step. Repeat this for the final five games on the list as well.
If there's a bye week with only 15 or 14 games, just leave off the lock and bet 5 teams per slate, or adjust your strategy accordingly.
Good luck!