Even if you win 55% of your bets, you will come out consistently ahead. This really is, however, easier said than done and involves more than just a little reading and checking the injury reports. If Paul the octopus picked every winner in the recent soccer World Cup, picking winning football teams should be just as easy, right? Wrong. If it were that easy, many people will be making money and also the sports books would have to go out of business. If winning at football betting involves some knowledge, some strategy and, let us face it, a dash of luck, it's because the bookmakers set very tight lines for great online casino the games. In contrast, if you keep the following tips in mind, it should enhance your prospects of winning.

Bet as early while you can. Many of the sports books post their lines as early as they can and some offshore books do this by Sunday afternoon for the following week's games. If you find a game and odds that you like make sure that you can find no serious injury problems for the team that you pick. Bookmakers are not perfect and can make mistakes in setting the line. Pounce early before heavy betting irons out the mistakes.

Concentrate on a couple of teams. Because knowledge is essential, if you concentrate on several teams, you may build up a tremendous quantity of knowledge which you can use in making your bets. Also limit your betting to just a number of games every Sunday.

Avoid heavy favorites. The crowd loves favorites and will rush to bet on them. Conversely, they are not good choices if you want to maintain your 55% average in winning bets. Even if you need to do win a couple of, the payouts will be small. The best strategy is to bet on short priced underdogs because, whenever you win, you generally make more than you've got bet.

Use totals judiciously. Totals set early within the week are generally based upon predictions of good weather. In late season games, rain or snow sometimes affects the scoring and a heavy wind almost always keeps scoring down. In these conditions, you would do well by betting the Under

Use yards per play ranking. One method of evaluating teams is to look at the offensive yards gained per play as well as the defensive yards given away per play. Teams that gain more than they lose wind up winning more games. The statistics are easily accessible and you can calculate the main difference with a positive difference being an advantage. The rule of thumb to calculate a points spread from the yardage differential is the fact that every 0.15 yards may be worth one point. A differential of 0.60 yards between the 2 teams will be worth four points. As with all betting tools, use your other data and information to confirm your findings.

Don't avoid teasers. There's a common perception that teasers are a rip-off and thus best avoided. Under certain circumstances, an NFL teaser which is a two-game parlay bet could make sense.

Pay focus on the injury reports. Read the injury reports carefully to find out what difference it really is going to make to the performance of your chosen team. Do not just look at key players because all of the guys within the team have to perform at their peak.