The new football season has just begun and despite a number of stunning performances, there are still plenty of questions to be answered surrounding specific teams and players. If you want to put your knowledge to the test one of the best places to do so is online with a sports bookmaker.
Getting the better of the NFL odds is a notoriously tricky task though, but could it be made easier by playing fantasy football? Read on to find out.
What is fantasy football?
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the majority of your life, you’ll be aware to some extent of fantasy football. For a quick refresher though, fantasy football players take part in fantasy drafts to build their own team of NFL players at the beginning of each season.
As the season progresses they are awarded points for the real-life performances of their players. Due to the financial aspect often associated with fantasy football there is a real appetite amongst players to put in the necessary research to improve their chances of winning prizes.
Below are some of the key aspects of successful fantasy players along with an explanation of how they can boost your chances of winning your NFL bets.
Knowledge
You might like to think that you’re a fairly knowledgeable football fan. Your decades of watching the game and sound tactical understanding might separate you from your friends, but in comparison to a good fantasy football player your knowledge will be severely lacking.
To win fantasy leagues and scoop big prizes, fantasy players need to have a supreme knowledge of the game. They need to know the desired qualities in every position and how to interpret statistics. All of this knowledge helps them to spot trends and make informed predictions, which unsurprisingly are two key qualities that are needed of successful sports betters.
Team News
At the beginning of the week when you look through the upcoming fixtures and pick out the teams for your parlay bet it can be easy to be drawn to the names. You might see the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and instinctively back them, no matter who they are playing.
But is that a wise move when Tom Brady is sitting out the game with a wrist injury? What about the 4 defensive players that are sitting out the game because of Covid? With all of this in mind, is your decision to back Tampa really an astute one?
If you’re a regular fantasy football player you will already be abreast of this injury news and know beforehand that the smart move is to bet against Tampa.
Trend Spotting
The best fantasy football players don’t pick their team on reputation or stats alone. Rather they look at the whole picture which includes finding out what fans think of their team and star players by reading through forums and blogs.
The quarterback that looks superb in the most recent stats could be the next best thing, but they could also just be getting lucky. Fans of a team on a 5-game winning streak could be lamenting the performances during that period and speculating as to when their luck will run out.
If you dig down into things like this you can spot trends that will be beneficial to your fantasy football team but also to your betting.
MVP Betting
If you play fantasy football regularly you should be able to make easy money betting on the MVP futures. Your day to day experience as a fantasy coach involves trawling through the statistics to find the best players to suit your budget.
Or, if you’re an unsuccessful manager it involves looking through your friends teams and lamenting your decision not to draft that hot streak running back. When the MVP voting comes around a fantasy player should be able to predict quite comfortably who will win.
(Aaron Rodger’s winning the MVP award last season came as no surprise to fantasy football fans.)
Intangibles
One of the main reasons why we all love top level sports is its ability to consistently shock us and throw up unexpected results. Our logical brain tells us that the best team should win almost all of their games and consistently battle it out for major honours.
History however tells us that this does not always happen, sometimes a team of older heads roll back the years and take the NFL by storm. Fantasy football players are more aware of these overarching narratives at play in football.
Their research and experience playing fantasy sports gives them a good feeling about certain teams and players prospects. It can also help them to spot intangible things such as the team that always struggles at a certain ground or a team that historically folds under pressure.
In short, fantasy football players are better at predicting the seemingly unpredictable which as a sports better, is a great quality to have.
In Summary
If you want to do more than make up the numbers fantasy football is not for the light-hearted. It is a game that will require from you time and effort, but that does come with its own benefits. The better you get at fantasy football, the better you should get at NFL betting.
Which means you can turn your love of football into profits by winning more bets and maybe winning fantasy leagues.
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