As legal sports betting rolls out across the US, the biggest slice of the market is betting on the NFL.

Yes, it is legal to wager on NFL games, as well as their postseason odds, and bettors inside of the USA can do so at a domestic sportsbook or with a legitimate offshore betting site. If visiting a brick-and-mortar book is not reasonable, then an offshore sportsbook is a legal option in almost all regions in the United States.

Pro football is the most-watched sport in America, and that translates to it being the most bet-on sport as well.

Jun 24, 2020 Where Is It Legal to Bet on the NFL Online? Online sports betting is currently legal in a number of US states and the list is constantly being expanded as legislation changes. States like New Jersey, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Illinois State already have a number of licensed online sportsbooks accepting wagers on NFL games fully legally. The majority of legal NFL betting sites available to US residents are online, offshore sportsbooks. You may also be able to bet on NFL games at online sportsbooks that are regulated by the state where you reside. The law that most impacts online gambling in the US is the Wire Act of 1961.

NFL Odds: Point Spreads, Moneylines, Totals

Below see live NFL odds currently posted at legal US online sportsbooks. Use the drop-down menus to change your betting state or toggle between spread, moneyline and totals (over/under) odds. Click on any odds to go directly to the sportsbook and open a new account.

NFL betting sites

Read on for more information about betting on the NFL in 2021 and the market for it in the US.

Where you can legally bet on the NFL in the US

There are more than a dozen states where you can legally bet on NFL football games currently. Here is the list of states where sports betting is legal, or where it has been legalized pending launch (click through to learn more about betting options in any of these states:

Online betting is currently live in these states, which should be the largest markets for sports wagering in short order:

NFL betting in New Jersey

The second biggest market for betting on the NFL is New Jersey, and it will likely surpass Nevada in the near future — possibly in 2020 or 2021.

That’s for several reasons:

• It’s a more open market for online betting — you can register online from anywhere in the state
• New Jersey is also interesting in that it has access to the New York City market; NY only has a few physical sportsbooks upstate. But New Yorkers can cross the river into New Jersey and bet easily.
• Betting on the Giants, Jets and Eagles is popular among New Jersey residents.

There are no shortage of apps in the state:

• BetAmerica
• Hard Rock
• Bet365

NFL betting in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania is the biggest state that has legal sports betting apps. Population centers and football-crazy cities Philadelphia and Pittsburgh create a good starting based for legal sports gambling.

There are only a handful of apps in the state as of September 2019, but more are on the way.

• Parx Sportsbook

NFL betting in Illinois

Illinois is the sixth most populous state in the US, while Chicago is the single largest metropolitan area with legal online sports betting. Sportsbooks are also keen to acquire customers now, while in-person registration is suspended.

There are already a handful of live apps in the state, including:

NFL betting in Colorado

Despite only launching in May, the Colorado market already has a wide range of sportsbooks for betting NFL.

The CO apps live today include:

• BetMonarch
• Circa Sports
• ELITE Sportsbook
• Smarkets
• Sky Ute

NFL betting in West Virginia

West Virginia has two of the major players in online sports betting: DraftKings Sportsbook and FanDuel Sportsbook.

There are also a trio of physical sportsbooks. While betting on West Virginia University is huge, expect a lot of betting on the NFL teams in surrounding states as well.

NFL betting in Nevada

Sports betting has been around for decades in Nevada, and it’s the biggest market for NFL betting right now. Hundreds of millions are wagered on NFL games in Las Vegas and beyond.

While there are more than 100 physical sportsbooks, nearly all of them also have a sports betting app. While the tech in Nevada lags behind other markets, and you have to sign up in person for an app, they are still a good option.

Mobile betting accounts for more than half of all betting — NFL and otherwise — in Nevada.

NFL betting in Iowa

Iowa went live with sports betting in the summer of 2019, rolling out physical sportsbooks and online sports betting apps almost in parallel.

There are already more than a dozen sportsbooks in the state, along with apps that you have to register for at a casino and racetrack.

Legal NFL betting apps vs. illegal offshore apps

If you’re not in one of the states mentioned above, you are not betting at a site that operates legally in the US or in your state.

While many people believe that sports betting became widely legal in 2018, all that happened was the repeal of a federal ban allowing states to legalize sports betting.

So if you want to bet on the NFL, keep in mind where you’re betting. While individual bettors are unlikely to get in trouble for betting at a site that operates outside of the constraints of US law, the sites themselves do run afoul of federal and state law. Despite the fact that these sportsbooks will tell you they are operating legally, that is far from the truth.

If you’re in Nevada, New Jersey and other states that have betting laws, you have a number of regulated choices to choose from. Unfortunately for much of the country, there is no legal option. That includes large states like California and Florida. In New York, you can bet at some upstate sportsbooks but only in-person.

How much do Americans bet on the NFL?

Despite the fact that the NFL has the fewest games of any pro team sport, it’s by far the most popular to bet on.

With a handful of preseason games, 16 in the regular season and then a win-to-advance playoff system, there’s a premium on every game. That dynamic makes the NFL the most popular sport to watch on TV; the Super Bowl every year is the most-watched program on TV in the US.

All of that interest creates a robust market for betting on the NFL in the US, despite the fact that single-game wagering has only been legal in Nevada before 2018. People still find myriad ways of having a monetary interest on the outcome of games, from fantasy sports, to betting against friends, to using illegal offshore sportsbooks.

Gauging how much is bet on the NFL by Americans is tricky because of all that. The American Gaming Association says that 38 million adults will bet on the NFL in 2019.

If you include fantasy and social betting, the number is certainly in the hundreds of millions. If limited to offshore books, the number has been estimated from the tens of billions to $150 billion.

The advent of legal sports betting outside of Nevada will increase all of these figures even more. The NFL, as the country’s most popular sport, will drive betting handle in most states.

When is NFL betting the biggest?

The interest in betting on the NFL usually follows a rhythm, starting out strong before hitting a crescendo in the postseason:

• The first few weeks of the NFL season are usually the biggest in the regular season, outside of weeks that feature several top teams facing off and/or divisional rivalries. Everyone is excited to bet on the NFL when it returns, and that honeymoon usually lasts several weeks.
• Thanksgiving is now a big time to bet on games. With the unidivided attention of NFL fans — at least before dinner is served — there are three games that take place on the holiday every year.
• The end of the season is often a bit slower for betting on the NFL, from attrition of bettors to lack of interest as some teams fall out of the playoff hunt. But that resets as the playoffs begin, with huge numbers of bettors wanting to have action on wild-card games, divisional games and conference championships.
• The Super Bowl is usually the single biggest day for betting at any sportsbook. Tens of millions of people will watch, and many of them have action on the game some way, whether through a sportsbook, a squares competition or a wager with a friend. But as sports betting rolls out in more and more states, expect there to be a lot of betting on the NFL.

Sports betting apps vs. physical sportsbooks for NFL

NFL fans love to watch games at sportsbooks. Nevada has long cashed in on the intersection of betting and lots of TVs, packing sportsbooks in Las Vegas and elsewhere with fans on NFL Sundays.

It is usually a good experience, except it can be difficult to get your bet down in-person on a busy Sunday. The lines to place bets in states with legal sports betting are usually extremely long; in states where online betting is legal, it’s far more convenient.

Here’s a bit of a breakdown:

Sports betting app advantages

• Multiple ways to deposit and withdraw funds
• Easier to place bets
• Live betting options — betting while games are going on — is far more robust.
• Convenient to bet from nearly anywhere (as long as you are located in a state where it is legal).
• Deposit bonuses and odds boosts

Physical sportsbook advantages

• Personal contact with a ticket writer
• Can watch nearly every game at a sportsbook
• Free drink tickets are sometimes given at sportsbooks

More about NFL betting odds and lines

If you are betting on the NFL, there are a variety of ways to do so. Here is a quick look at some of the ways:

• Point spread: This is the most common way to bet on NFL games, and is generally the type of bet that sportsbooks see the most of. Here, the sportsbook sets a line that team X will win a game by Y points; for instance, New England could be a three-point favorite at home against the Philadelphia Eagles. If you bet New England at minus-3, you are betting that New England will win by four or more points. If you bet on the Eagles, you are betting that Philly will either win, tie or lose by two or one points.
• Moneyline: This simplest type of bet, a bettor is just picking who will win the game. The confusing part for bettors not used to looking at moneyline odds. Here, a favorite will usually be assigned a negative number, and the underdog a positive number. New England could be a -148 favorite, meaning you need to bet $148 to win $100. Philly could be a +128 underdog, meaning you bet $100 to win $128. Favorites, therefore, return less money than underdogs.
• Totals: Betting on how many points will be scored in an NFL game is another very common bet. Here, the sportsbook sets a line, and you bet whether the two teams will combine to score more or fewer points than that total.
• Futures: There are a variety of ways to bet on future events for the NFL. The most common is to bet on the winner of the Super Bowl. You can also bet on conference champions, division champions, and regular-season win totals among other things.
• Prop betting: Here, a bettor is betting on whether something will or won’t happen in a game. Will Tom Brady pass for 300 yards or more? Will Antonio Brown score two touchdowns? You’re betting on whether the number set by the book.
• Parlays: A bet where you connect more than one outcome into a single bet. For instance, you could combine three point spreads into a single bet that would result in longer odds and an increased payout if the bettor picks all three correctly. These are generally profitable bets for sportsbooks because of the degree of difficulty for the bettor.
• Live betting: Betting on a game while it is in progress is an increasingly popular way to wager. Most of the methods of wagering above are available while games are going on, including spreads based on the current score and time, what players will do during the game, etc.
• Teasers: This is essentially a two-leg parlay that lets you move the point spread or total six points in your favour. For example you could tease two 8.5 point favourites down to -2.5. You normally pay -110 to -120 on a two-team teaser.

Note that all of these types of winning bets will include vigorish or a commission that the sportsbook charges on winning bets. More on sports betting terms can be found here. And that’s not an exhaustive list of bet types either.

A website from the NFL and the children’s TV network Nickelodeon appears to expose kids to sports betting-like products and prediction games.

ViacomCBS will run a kid-centric production of an NFL Wild Card game on Nickelodeon Jan. 10 at 4:30 p.m. The programming will have everything you’d expect from a Nickelodeon sports broadcast: stars from the network, a Spongebob Squarepants-themed countdown show and, of course, slime.

The network also launched NFLNickPlay.com, which includes more kids-themed cartoons, NFL trivia and a Pick’em contest.

Both the NFL and ViacomCBS provided brief statements when contacted by LSR:

“We have worked (and will continue to) with CBS/Viacom on the elements in and around this game and there is nothing gambling-related or intended,” said Alex Riethmiller, VP of communications for NFL Media.

“We have no other details to announce surrounding the game at this time, but you can keep an eye on https://www.nflnickplay.com in the coming weeks,” said Bailey Knecht, communications coordinator for ViacomCBS.

Nickelodeon site includes sports betting terminology, feel

There are multiple areas of the website that feature elements of free-to-play prediction games or gambling in general:

• Users are encouraged to “Smash Your Pick” on who will win games. The site also shows how your pick compares to the public. Users can “smash” their picks as much as they like and get points for each selection.
• A printable Weekly Pick’em card, which very closely resembles Pick’em and parlay cards offered by legal US sports betting operators.
• Along with a points system for interacting with just about everything on the website, there are also rewards for returning every week.
• There will be live, in-game content accessible on the website during the game. ViacomCBS didn’t explain what that will be when asked. But if the Nickelodeon website is comfortable with sports betting-like topics such as picking a winner, asking users to pick who might score the first touchdown or run for the most yards during the game seems possible.

Brianne Doura-Schawohl is the VP of US policy and strategic development at EPIC Risk Management. She didn’t think there’s any malice behind the website but did take issue with it.

“Obviously someone is well versed in sports betting to have the offerings the way that they are,” Doura-Schawohl said. “I just think because they don’t feel there’s any money being exchanged that it negates the harm.”

“I do think there’s a grooming or habituation aspect to this, so it is a little bit of a concern,” added Keith Whyte, executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling.

Nickelodeon and prediction game combination ‘jarring’

Whyte was unaware of NFLNickPlay.com, which was a surprise considering the league is a member of the NCPG.

Whyte called Nickelodeon a brand that parents trust and called the combination of the brand and prediction games jarring.

“We’re talking to them intently about full-scale sports betting involvement with their teams and then we find out – from you guys – that they’re also pursuing prediction partnerships with Nickelodeon,” Whyte said. “It seems jarring. And again, [sports betting and prediction games] are not the same thing but they shouldn’t be unrelated.”

Youth gambling exposure can lead to future problems

The majority of people with a gambling disorder report earlier exposure to gambling than those without a disorder, Doura-Schawohl said.

“If we’re exposing kids to the terminology and the access and thrill, we’re setting them up for potential harm,” she added.

Jamie Salsburg, a former gambler who founded AfterGambling.com, sees some red flags for concern on the website. Even a seemingly harmless activity like picking weekly winners with no monetary compensation could create problems down the line, he said.

That’s especially true if a kid thinks he’s good at it, he added.

“You start to connect those dots at an early age saying ‘I’m good at this,'” Salsburg said. “And that’s a story that you’ll hear repeated from a lot of gamblers that get into problems is there was a belief, often at a very young age, that they had some sort of knack or skill for what they’re doing.”

Website is tracking data

The user first encounters a sweepstakes for a chance to win a signed game ball and more. Children aged 6 to 14 can enter with their first name, their email and a parent’s email.

The website remembers if a device has submitted a sweepstakes entry or not, which suggests it is tracking each user’s activity on the website. Nickelodeon confirms it does track data in the sweepstake confirmation email:

“That’s why we’ve set up a system by which parents can refuse to permit NFLNickPlay.com to collect personal information from your child and can request that NFLNickPlay.com deletes from our records the personal information we have collected. If you have any questions or concerns about Nickelodeon’s approach to children’s privacy, you want to access the data of your child collected on NFLNickPlay.com, or request the deletion of your child’s data collected on NFLNickPlay.com, please contact us at [email protected]”

So far, emails to that address questioning what data has or will be collected have not been returned.

Not the first time NFL tiptoed the line with kids

NFLNickPlay.com is the NFL’s latest attempt to interact with kids with gambling elements tied in, not the first.

The league launched NFL Rush Fantasy in 2014. The product included a fantasy sports game for 6 to 13 year-olds with weekly and season-long prizes.

The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood brought light to that issue and more in its 2015 “Out of Bounds: The NFL’s Intensive Campaign to Target Children.”

Nfl Betting Vegas

The National Council on Problem Gambling joined the fight in 2016. The NFL agreed to drop its fantasy football marketing to children later that year.

Legal Nfl Betting Sites

“The NFL appears to have learned a number of lessons from the discussions we had around NFL Fantasy Rush, so I think there’s a lot less risk in this current promotion,” Whyte said. “But that doesn’t mean there’s no risk.”

Nfl Betting Odds

Not all RG voices think NFLNickPlay.com is bad

While Doura-Schawohl and Salsburg saw issues with the website’s content, not all problem gambling experts agreed.

Seth Palansky recently joined GeoComply‘s Conscious Gaming as its VP of corporate social responsibility. He’s been on both sides of the issue before with previous stops at Caesars as well as the NFL.

Palansky likened the website to other youth engagement tactics the NFL has previously undertaken.

“The website is just a tool to build education for the most part,” Palansky said. “I didn’t find the Pick’em game as the central element there, yet I can see their heads spinning on ‘let’s find something weekly that they could do to follow along.'”

“I don’t think there’s any evil geniuses there trying to lead them to sports bet, that’s not the goal of the NFL or Viacom,” Palansky added. “It’s certainly to get you to tune into their product and be more aware of their product and that’s OK.”

Adding sports betting education could help

Talking points and education about sports betting and gambling on the website would be an improvement, the RG experts agreed.

“One thing we would suggest is if there is risk here and materials are similar to that of legal sports betting, there’s a great opportunity for some responsible play education,” Whyte said.

Education could be for more than just the kids, too.

Nfl Betting Paypal

“The biggest concern I have for the US when it comes to sports betting in general is partnerships with these free-to-play [games] or contests, whatever it is,” Doura-Schawohl said. “And when you have a household name like Nickelodeon engaging it’s really that red flag to me that we need to be doing much more in the country by educating both the operators and parents and children.”