NFL Odds Calculator
One of the biggest hurdles for new NFL bettors is understanding the odds. At first glance, they can look like a jumble of plus and minus signs paired with random numbers — confusing enough to stop many people from betting altogether.
That’s why we created this guide: to make NFL betting odds simple. We’ll walk you through everything — from how to read the odds to calculating implied probability, potential profit, and more.
And to make things even easier, we’ve included our NFL betting calculator. This tool crunches the numbers for you so you can see exactly what’s at stake with any bet. Give it a try below.
How To Use NFL Betting Calculator?
For starters, how the heck do you even use this football odds calculator? Don’t sweat it, it’s super easy.
To use the football bet calculator, you’ll need to enter:
- Bet type — choose between a single bet or a parlay (multiple bets in one).
- Odds — enter the odds for your bet (or multiple sets of odds if it’s a parlay).
- Stake — input the amount of money you plan to wager.
Once all three are inputted football betting calculator, the machine will automatically tell you how much your total payout is IF you win, as well as the implied probability of your bet actually hitting. You’ll want to know both as we explain as this article goes on.
By the way, this calculator works for other sports beyond the NFL too. Sports betting on the NBA, NHL, or MLB also works the same. But since the NFL is the most popular sport to bet on, we’ll be focusing on it the rest of the way.
Benefits Of Using A NFL Betting Calculator?
Wells just go right out and say it: sports betting is hard, especially in mature markets like the NFL or college football. The last thing you want to do is “wing it.” Enter the NFL odds calculator that inserts strategy into the equation.
The first strategic point is knowing your implied probability off the bat. We have an entire section dedicated to this, but this figure tells you the chances of your bet actually hitting. As you can imagine, it’s easy to go broke if you’re constantly stacking the odds against yourself. Your probability will give you a sense of where to stand in that regard.
You should use the implied probably to assess risk. For instance, it probably wouldn’t be a smart idea to bet half your bankroll on a same game parlay with an implied probability of 16 percent right? Please say no. If you say yes, then you might have a gambling problem we can’t fix.
Knowing the amount of money you can potentially win also aids your strategy. Here’s a simple example based on “hedging” bets. Say you have a pregame moneyline bet on the Kansas City Chiefs to beat the San Francisco 49ers. The game kicks off, and by the third quarter the Chiefs are trailing. You now have the option to hedge by wagering on the 49ers through in-play betting. Our calculator can help you figure out what odds make sense for the hedge so you can stay “in the green” no matter which team ultimately wins.
Those are just a few examples, but the big takeaway about betting calculators is they give bettors more data points to make informed decisions. The keyword in the last sentence is informed. You see, oddsmakers are using endless amounts of data to make decisions on line-setting so you’d be smart as a bettor to do the same when choosing your own bets.
Why Are NFL Betting Odds Important?
Potential profits hinge on betting odds so that’s one major reason NFL betting odds are so dang important. We mean, we’re all in this to make money, right? It would help to know potential payouts off the bat and the betting lines allow us to do that. As a rule of thumb, the higher the odds, the higher the payout. Easy enough to remember, eh?
Odds also tell us who the betting favorite and underdog is. If there’s a minus (-) in front of the odd, that means the team is the favorite to win. The underdog, however, would have a plus (+) sign attached to their odds. This applies strictly to American odds, which we’ll explain more later.
Lastly, NFL betting odds are also probability indicators. Honestly, this is important so it deserves its own section, which we cover next.
What Is Implied Win Percentage?
We briefly mentioned implied probability before, but here’s a more thorough explanation of this important sports betting concept: it’s the likelihood of your bet winning — as expressed in a percentage.
Here’s the most common example revolving around the spread bet. In the NFL, many spreads are typically priced around –110 betting odds for both teams, though modern sportsbooks may adjust slightly (e.g., –105, –115, or –120) depending on the market. If you use our betting calculator, you’ll see –110 odds carry an implied probability of about 52.4 percent.
You’ll often hear that 52.4 percent is a key benchmark in sports betting. That figure represents the break-even win rate when consistently wagering on –110 spread bets. Many bettors mistakenly believe that winning just over half their bets (e.g., 51 percent) guarantees profitability, but that isn’t true once the sportsbook’s margin, or vig, is factored in. Keep in mind, though, that if the odds differ (say –105 or –120), the actual break-even percentage will change accordingly.
Different Types Of Football Bets
The calculator is broken up into two different types of bets — single bet and parlay. Let’s quickly break down each.
The single bet is exactly as the name hints. This is one bet and one bet only. Once you get the hang of sports betting, you probably won’t even need a betting calculator to assess these bets as it’ll come natural.
Parlay bets, however, those are more tricky. Parlays involve combining multiple NFL bets into one ticket. All need to hit for you to win as even one miss negates the whole parlay. Unless you’re a math savant, using a parlay calculator with parlays comes in handy here, especially the more you layer on bets. The more legs you add, the smaller your implied probability gets but the bigger the potential payout reaches too. It’s a double-edged sword.
Different Types Of Football Odds
This is another facet where bettors can get confused quickly and that’s odds format. It would be easy if only one odds format existed, but unfortunately, that’s not the case. There are actually three different odds formats. Any one can be inputted into our calculator, but let’s quickly cover the differences between each:
American Odds
American odds are the standard format in U.S. sportsbooks and on most sites that cater to American bettors. They’re shown as whole numbers with either a plus (+) or minus (–) sign, which we explained earlier. This format reflects either how much profit you’d earn on a $100 bet (for plus odds) or how much you need to wager to win $100 (for minus odds).
However, it helps to have an example. Let’s say the Dolphins are +150 to win an NFL game on the moneyline bet. They are underdogs because of that + sign. Moreover, you know that a $100 bet on them pays out $150 in profit.
Decimal Odds
Decimal odds are a staple of European betting, or honestly, the rest of the world. This odds format ditched the plus and minus signs entirely. All odds are expressed as a decimal rather than whole numbers too.
Using the same Dolphins example as before. Instead of +150 American odds, Miami would have 2.5 decimal odds. It’s the same thing — with the same probability and possible payout — just expressed in unique numbers.
Fractional Odds
For the most part, fractional odds are exclusive to the United Kingdom and Ireland. Fractional odds are, well, fractions, as hinted in the name. Those +150 Dolphins? Its fraction is 3/2.
Fractional betting is still heavily used in horse racing. You might hear something along the lines of “that horse was a 10-to-1 favorite to win.” That’s just 10/1 fractional in different terms (a long +1000 odds American).
Where To Bet On Football Odds?
If you’ve read this entire page, then you’re more than ready to start placing bets on the NFL (we have an FAQ if you’re still stuck). Last thing you need? A reliable sportsbook. But hey, we got you covered here too. If we were you, we’d start with one of the bookmakers listed below. All five rated highly in our newest sportsbook review section.
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At any of these sites, you’ll get a full assortment of NFL odds — moneyline, point spread, parlays, etc. This goes from the preseason in August to Super Bowl betting in February. Just be sure to run back and use our betting odds calculator to assess your NFL bets in an informed way.
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