American Football Betting Sites for the UK
Last updated: by Leon Marshal
Our team have years of experience in betting, especially online, and we will share this knowledge in this guide to American football betting sites. We’ll help you find the best value bonuses, compare the odds from all the top bookies and explore the different types of bets you can place. Whether you are a seasoned American football betting fan or a total newbie, we have something for everyone.
Bookmaker | Sports Welcome Bonus | Highlights | Rating | Secure Link | T&C |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
🥇 YetiBet | Top Odds | Markets: 6, Bet Types: 28, Odds Levels: 96.78% | 5.0 out of 5 | www.yeticasino.com | Full T&Cs Apply! Please gamble responsibly. 18+ |
🥈 Betiton | £10 | Markets: 7, Bet Types: 32, Odds Levels: 96.32% | 4.9 out of 5 | www.betiton.com | Full T&Cs Apply! 18+, Welcome Bonus: New Players only, 1st Deposit, Min Deposit,: £10, max £10 free bet valid for 14 days, bets must be placed at odds of 1/1 or greater and be settled within 14 days of placement. System bets not eligible. Neteller,Skrill and Paypal not eligible. |
🥉 Grosvenor | x2 Odds | Markets: 6, Bet Types: 31, Odds Levels: 96.26% | 4.8 out of 5 | www.grosvenor.com | Full T&Cs Apply! Offer applies to Sport bets only. Maximum total stake is £10. Each way bets are a maximum of £5 each way (£10 total stake). Exclusive to new members. 18+ |
⭐ NetBet | Bet £10 | Markets: 6, Bet Types: 31, Odds Levels: 96.16% | 4.7 out of 5 | www.netbet.com | Full T&Cs Apply! min odds 3/1 (4.00) / min 3 selections / free bet valid 7 days / T&C apply / 18+ / Begambleaware. |
⭐ bet365 | £30 | Markets: 7, Bet Types: 32, Odds Levels: 95.86% | 4.6 out of 5 | www.bet365.com | Full T&Cs Apply! For new customers at bet365. Min deposit requirement. Free Bets are paid as Bet Credits and are available for use upon settlement of bets to value of qualifying deposit. Min odds, bet and payment method exclusions apply. Returns exclude Bet Credits stake. Time limits and T&Cs apply. Registration required. 18+ Begambleaware.org |
⭐ Ladbrokes | £20 | Markets: 7, Bet Types: 32, Odds Levels: 96.32% | 4.6 out of 5 | www.ladbrokes.com | Full T&Cs Apply! 18+ New UK+IRE customers only. PayPal and certain deposit types excluded. Min £5 bet within 14 days of account registration at min odds 1/2 = 4 x £5 free bets. Free bets valid for 4 days on sports, stake not returned, restrictions apply. |
⭐ mr.play | £10 | Markets: 7, Bet Types: 29, Odds Levels: 96.78% | 4.6 out of 5 | www.mrplay.com | Full T&Cs Apply! 18+, Welcome Bonus: New Players only, 1st Deposit, Min Deposit: £10, max £15 free bet valid for 14 days, bets must be placed at odds of 1/1 or greater and be settled within 14 days of placement. System bets not eligible. |
⭐ William Hill | £30 | Markets: 7, Bet Types: 33, Odds Levels: 96.78% | 4.6 out of 5 | www.williamhill.com | Full T&Cs Apply! New online customers only, min £10/€10 stake, win only, min odds 1/2, free bets paid as 3 X £10/€10, 30 day expiry, free bet/payment method/player/country restrictions apply. |
As all bookmakers we feature on this page and all other pages are fully licensed and regulated by the Gambling Commission, whoever you choose, you’ll be safe and secure while betting. Our five recommended American football betting sites are names you are likely to be familiar with, all household names with many years of providing excellent customer experiences.
When choosing our recommended American football online betting sites, we look at the bookies through the eyes of a sports fan who loves a wager. Is the account easy to set up? If we have a problem, is it easy to contact customer support? Minimum and maximum deposit amounts, value to the customer are just a few of our ranking criteria.
When 81,176 paying customers surged into Wembley to watch the New York Giants take on the Miami Dolphins in 2007, any notion that there wasn’t an appetite for American football on these shores was quickly dismissed. The NFL London Games have seen all-bar-one of the top American football teams play in the capital. As interest in the sport grows, so does the number of people looking for American football betting sites.
Criteria for Judging American Football Betting Sites
In the following sections, we will go over the criteria we used to rank the american football betting sites listed here. These include but are not limited to the following points:
- Odds
- Markets
- Bonuses
- In-play features
Betting Odds Levels
Who doesn’t like to think they are getting a good deal when betting online, we certainly do! However, the simple fact is that we Brits are terrible at shopping around, even if it can make us more money or save money by doing so. We often find a company we like and stick with them. With this in mind, we’ve checked the odds available for selected American football events and compared them to see if there is much difference between them.
Average Payout Level For Top American Football Events | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Event | YetiBet | Betiton | Grosvenor | NetBet | bet365 |
Super Bowl | 94.13% | 96.98% | 95.05% | 94.32% | 90.31% |
London Series | 91.01% | 96.32% | 92.42% | 92.01% | 89.23% |
NCAA National Championship | 93.34% | 92.99% | 92.44% | 90.31% | 93.34% |
Monday Night Football | 93.32% | 92.92% | 89.96% | 89.23% | 93.32% |
In the table above you can see the return to player figures for the games we analysed. Picked at random, we chose four games and compiled all the odds available at our recommended American football betting sites. The data shows us that all the companies offer good value for your money with very little variance between the odds offered, meaning that whichever company you choose, you are getting a good deal.
Markets on Offer
Fans of American Football are a passionate bunch with many living and breathing the sport, much like football (soccer) fans here, many people have supported their team all their life. Supporters of the bigger teams such as the New England Patriots, Pittsburgh Steelers or the Green Bay Packers will have no difficulties backing their team. If however, you follow a team in an obscure league you will find minimal, if any, betting markets on offer.
Markets For Top American Football Sites | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Event | YetiBet | Betiton | Grosvenor | NetBet | bet365 |
NFL Fixture | 42 | 40 | 42 | 41 | 42 |
London Series | 55 | 57 | 55 | 56 | 56 |
XFL Fixture | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 |
Super Bowl | 62 | 66 | 64 | 66 | 62 |
For the table above, we checked how many different markets were available for American football betting sites at our five recommended operators. We found that every major game was covered, while you can also bet on the entire season including a wide range of team specials. There was a big concentration on who will win the Super Bowl. Other markets included division winner, who would score most rushing yards and many more. Away from the NFL betting, the American football options also include NCAA and CFL.
Bonuses and Promotions for the Sport
During the normal season, you’ll not find many bookmakers offering promotions aimed directly at the American football betting market, except Price Boosts. The situation changes dramatically during the Super Bowl, though, with almost all the top bookmakers offering either enhanced odds or some very attractive new customer deals. One example was the Paddy Power promotion the company ran last Superbowl, if you opened a new account, you received a £20 no-risk bet.
While Super Bowl season might be the best time to open a new bookie account to take advantage of special deals, you don’t need to wait till January/February to do so. Competition is fierce at online sports sites, meaning great deals, whatever the time of year. We have a dedicated bonus page if you’d like to know more.
Live American Football Betting Arena
We are yet to review a sport in which live betting doesn’t enhance the experience. Reading match previews and assessing team news is one thing, but it just can’t compete with watching the action in real-time, assessing the plays and making an informed decision on who is likely to win. If things are going to plan, you can back your instincts in real-time.
The bonus with betting on a game in real-time is the ability to keep up with the action as it happens. If your life is half as chaotic as ours, sometimes those pesky shopping trips clash with a big game. However, you don’t have to miss a second of the action as all the top online American football betting sites have a console that keeps you informed of all the important events. Live betting, also often referred to as In-play betting, is available at all good American football online betting sites and is simple to use. Log in to your bookmaker as normal and in most cases, you will already see a list of events taking place. If so, click on the game you are interested in, and the live console will load. If not, just click on the live events icon. You can find out more about live betting at our dedicated live betting page.
Utilising Cash Out at American Football Bookies
The history of the NFL is full of incredible comebacks; it’s what makes the sport so exciting and unpredictable. Imagine having a bet on the Atlanta Falcons during Super Bowl LI, the New England Patriots defying the odds to clinch a comeback victory in 2017. The league is no different, San Francisco 49ers – From 28 points behind to win in 1980, Cleveland Browns – From 25 points behind to win in 2014 and the year before, the Buffalo Bills came from 32 points behind to win.
A common theme in all these fightbacks is that the average fan at least expected these collapses to happen. But at the time, there was nothing the punter could do about it! This situation has now changed and at the best online American football betting sites, you can cash out early on a bet. Use an American Football app to do this. This could be for a loss if things are going downhill, or for a profit, if things are going well. We’ve all had suspicions that the game is unlikely to finish as it stands, sometimes it is better to take a loss but have some bankroll for another day.
Betting Types Available for American Football
The number and types of bets you can place at online American football betting sites depends heavily on the popularity and the prestige of the event you want to bet on. For example, if we look at the betting opportunities in the XFL, in a recent clash between Dallas Renegades and Dallas Renegades, there were only three markets you can back. These are match result, handicap betting and total points. For more important fixtures, there can be over a hundred bets you can place. Let’s take a look at some of the most popular bets punters place.
Team to Win Market
One of the most popular and easiest bets to place and understand is the team to win bet. Available to be placed on all games that feature at American football betting sites, you are predicting which team will be successful at the end of the game. In American football, there can only be three outcomes. Team A will win, team B will win, or the game will go into sudden-death overtime.
Team to win betting is available for both pre-match betting as well as in-play betting. It’s worth noting that many bookmakers who offer live American football betting do not offer the option for a tie, in these circumstances a draw would count as a losing bet.
Correct Score Market
If you want more of a challenge than simply picking the winner out of two teams, then the correct score betting market could prove enticing for you. Due to the wide range of scorelines in American football, predicting the exact score is a tricky task but one that is profitable when successful.
A firm favourite with stat fans, punters will often spend hours comparing the head-to-head records of the two teams to identify patterns or a probable scoreline. An interesting stat is that the scoreline of 23-20 is the most common in NFL games. In a decade, that scoreline occurred 57 times, representing 2.14% of games.
Over/Under Betting
The biggest downside about correct score betting is the lack of wriggle room. A last-second touch-down can destroy your bet, which can be highly frustrating, especially when it’s in the sport’s infamous “garbage time”. Garbage time is the period at the end of games where more scoring won’t have any effect on the winner of the game, as one team is sufficiently ahead with little time left. If you prefer a degree of flexibility, the Over/Under market offers that and is a very popular bet with fans of American football betting. The bet is easy to place and understand.
The bookmaker will set a total points tally, for example, 55.5 and you are betting whether the combined points total will be higher or lower than the target score. If a score is a whole number, and the final total is exactly that number, you’ll simply be returned your initial stake. However, you’ll frequently see it listed with a half-point, meaning your ticket will be graded no matter what.
Emerging Features in American Football Betting
Studying form has always been an important part of any American football betting strategy, and the best betting sites give you access to a treasure-trove of statistical data which can help you gain an advantage. At 888sport for example, once you click on a fixture, a click on the icon that represents a bar-chart will reveal plenty of information about the two teams.
Even for obscure league matches such as XFL, the level of detail available to you is great and provides all the information you need. A form rating percentage is clearly shown, allowing you to see at a glance if a team is enjoying a winning streak or if they are inconsistent. Both team’s recent matches are also shown, allowing you to gauge what scorelines are most probable.
New American Football Betting Sites
If you want to experience something new, plenty of new bookmakers enter the market each year. This increased choice also brings added benefits in the shape of the promotions they offer to new customers. Taking advantage of these one-time deals can really boost your bankroll. If you want to know more, we have a dedicated page, updated regularly, that lists the best of the new breed.
A surprisingly large number of new bookmakers do not offer betting markets for American football, concentrating instead on the most popular sports like association football. Karamba are worth considering but have limited markets. Therefore, Betiton are our pick for live American football betting, they even feature many Canadian games that you’ll struggle to find elsewhere.
American Football Betting by Leagues
Now you have a pretty good idea on how to bet on American football, in this section, we’ll take a quick look at the structure of the two major leagues and what events you can bet on. If you are a newcomer to American football betting, you may find this section useful, but hopefully, even seasoned pros will enjoy a bit of trivia.
National Football Conference
It doesn’t get any more serious or big-time than the National Football League. The highest professional level of American football globally, the NFL season lasts for 17-weeks between September and December. Split into two conferences, the National Football Conference and the American Football Conference. The top-six teams from each conference advance to the play-offs with the two teams left in the standing meeting in the Super Bowl.
No team has won more than two consecutive NFC championships, the Dallas Cowboys have managed two in a row three times, alongside the Minnesota Vikings, Washington Redskins, San Francisco 49ers, Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks who had won consecutive titles.
American Football Conference
Like the NFC, the American Football Conference has seen many changes to the format of the division. The current inception mirrors that of the NFC and has 16 teams, divided into four divisions (East, North, South and West) with four teams in each. At the end of the season, the four division winners and two wildcards (best regular-season record-holders) qualify for the play-offs. The final is the AFC Championship Game, and the winner gets the Lamar Hunt Trophy and of course a Superfinal Bowl spot.
Stats show it’s much harder for an AFC team to get to the Super Bowl. In 24 years only half the AFC teams have made it to the showcase finale. In comparison, 13 of the 16 NFC teams have reached the Super Bowl. This could be because the NFC are teams from the NFL, and AFC teams are from the historic AFL, which the NFL absorbed in the 1970s.
Super Bowl Betting
The Super Bowl is an institution in itself and is undoubtedly the showcase event in the American football calendar. It’s a spectacular event synonymous with pop culture, and the incredible half-time show has featured The Rolling Stones, Chubby Checker, New Kids on the Block as well as the infamous Janet Jackson performance when a “wardrobe malfunction” took the headlines.
First played in 1967, the Super Bowl pitted the National Football League (NFL) winner against the rival association, the American Football League (AFL) winner. The two leagues merged in 1970 with the competition now used to determine the NFL’s league champion.
FAQ
We have now reached the end of our guide to American football sports betting, and we hope you have found the information contained here both useful and informative. To ensure we have answered your questions, we will recap the most frequent questions that are asked about American football betting online.
What are the best American football betting sites?
American football betting is available at most but not all online sports betting sites. Major NFL events that are held annually in London has boosted the profile of the game in the UK, and we expect this trend to continue. To save you a potential frustrating search for a bookmaker to use, we've compiled a list of five of our favourites; you can read more here.
Is there American football live betting?
Yes, live betting, also called in-play betting, is one of the most popular ways to bet and is available for all major American football games. As the odds constantly change while live betting, many people use this feature to take advantage of a fluctuating market. If you know a team is a slow starter, you can delay placing a wager and take advantage of higher odds than you would have received pre-game. Timing is everything, exciting stuff! You can read more in our dedicated section on American football live betting.
Are American football bookies safe?
Absolutely. Your safety and security while sports betting is our number one priority, and we want your time spent American football betting online to be a fantastic experience. Therefore, we only review UKGC licensed bookmakers. Each of the best American football betting sites listed here are fully licensed and regulated by the UK regulator, the Gambling Commission.
What are the top American football competitions to bet on?
One of the great things about American football betting is that there are only a few leagues to keep track of. There is the NFL and the collegiate NCAA (though it has 124 teams in the top division), and that's pretty much it. You can see an overview of all the biggest American football leagues for a complete overview.