Even when you win 55% of your bets, you will come out consistently ahead. This is, on the other hand, easier said than done and involves more than a little bit reading and checking the injury reports. If Paul the octopus picked every winner within the recent soccer World Cup, picking winning football teams should be just as easy, right? Wrong. If it were that easy, a lot of people will be making money as well as the sports books could have to go out of business. If winning at football betting involves some knowledge, some strategy and, allow us to face it, a dash of luck, it is since the bookmakers set very tight lines for the games. Conversely, if you keep the following tips in your mind, it should enhance your probability of winning.

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

Focus on a couple of teams. Because knowledge is very important, if you concentrate on several teams, you can build up a large quantity of knowledge which you can use in making your bets. Also limit your betting to just several games every Sunday.

Avoid heavy favorites. The crowd loves favorites and will rush to bet on them. In contrast, they're not good choices if you want to maintain your 55% average in winning bets. Even when you need to do win a number of, the payouts will be small. The most effective 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 determined by predictions of good weather. In late season games, rain or snow sometimes affects the scoring as well as a heavy wind more often than not 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 and playing online casino also the defensive yards given away per play. Teams that gain more than they lose end up winning more games. The statistics are easily available and you can calculate the main difference with a positive difference being an advantage. The general guideline to calculate a points spread from the yardage differential is that every 0.15 yards will be worth one point. A differential of 0.60 yards between the 2 teams may be worth four points. As with all betting tools, use your other data and information to confirm your findings.

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

Pay attention to the injury reports. Read the injury reports carefully to find out what difference it is going to make to the performance of your chosen team. Don't just look at key players because all of the guys in the team have to perform at their peak.