This is how professional bettors attack NFL playoff betting.
Key Points
– We can learn a lot from how professional bettors approach NFL playoff betting.
– View the NFL playoffs as a new season and you will be better prepared to wager.
How Professional Bettors Attack NFL Playoff Betting
There are numerous ways to turn a profit betting on sports. In picking winners, every successful bettor uses a variety of strategies to get the best results.
At the core of it all though, there are a few practices that the best in the business stick to. The average bettor can learn a lot from professional bettors and their strategies. One of those strategies involves the NFL playoffs.
Since there are so few games each week during the NFL playoffs, it is especially important to avoid costly errors if you are looking to make money. In NFL playoff betting, professionals handle things a certain way. Here are five fundamentals that all successful NFL playoff bettors use in some way.
Exercise Patience
On NFL playoff weekends, there are fewer games. That can be both a good and a bad thing. Oddsmakers have fewer games to worry about which means they can fine tune the odds on each playoff game. Playoff odds and lines are usually sharper than those of the regular season.
NFL playoff player prop betting markets are still open and there may be some value there. If there are any errors made, they will quickly be bet out during the postseason. That means the NFL playoff bettor needs to exercise patience. There is no need to place a bet earlier than necessary. The only way a bettor would wager early on an NFL playoff game is if they are participating in the initial adjustment (which is unlikely).
As a week wears on during the playoffs, handicappers and oddsmakers alike receive more information. It is highly unlikely for a bettor to get a better number on a Monday than he would just before game day. In NFL playoff betting, the pros are patient. You should be too.
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Avoid Every Game When NFL Playoff Betting
Do not feel like you have to place a bet on every single playoff game. Bettors that are used to betting on five or six games during a typical week in the NFL might be tempted to wager on every playoff game.
Think about it this way. During the regular season, if you wagered on five of 16 games in a week, that means you bet on roughly 30 percent of all games. Why would you not be as selective when NFL playoff betting?
During the postseason, there are times when there are two games on a given day. It is highly likely that bettors may not find value in either game. That means you don’t bet. Don’t place a bet for the sake of placing a bet. Most often, those are losers.
Even though it may seem like fun, sitting out a few games when NFL playoff betting can be the best bet of all. It beats losing money.
Don’t Overvalue Things Like Home Field Advantage
Do not be misled by factors like home field advantage. Less seasoned football bettors can become blinded by factors like home field advantage, favorites, and more.
How to approach betting underdogs, for example, is always a hot topic come playoff time. Do not fall for the home underdog fallacy.
Generally speaking – especially during the NFL playoffs – those factors aren’t nearly as important as you might think. For instance, home teams are barely over .500 in terms of wins over the last few years’ worth of wild card games.
Favorites also hover right around .500 against the spread in those same games. All of this implies that there are no easy ways to win more NFL playoff bets. The key is to handicap each football game independently rather than rely on generalizations and popular assumptions.
Forget What Happened Last Week
Ignore what occurred before the playoffs. Sports bettors shouldn’t ignore everything that occurred, of course. However, bettors can usually ignore how a team finished a season.
There will always be a lot of hype about momentum leading up to the NFL postseason. Ignore it. Most often, momentum doesn’t mean anything when NFL playoff betting. Over a recent four-year stretch involving 16 total wild card teams, more than half of them entered the playoffs having not covered their final regular season game.
In fact, 10 of the 16 teams came into the playoffs on a losing streak. More than one of those teams had lost its last four games of the regular season. NFL teams typically raise their level of play in the playoffs.
During the 2021 NFL postseason, both No. 1 seeds lost their first playoff game. Keep that in mind when NFL playoff betting.
NFL Playoff Betting Budget
Bettors that lose frequently are those that treat NFL playoff betting like any other weekend of games. That is the wrong approach.
The postseason should be viewed and played as a completely separate season. Professional bettors approach NFL playoff betting that way. The postseason requires you to prepare for betting football again. That is one of the reasons why pros are successful.
Smart bettors will decide on playoff goals and lay out their bankroll and money management strategy for the postseason. It’s just as if they were starting the NFL season all over again. That’s because, in a way, they are.
Establishing your betting unit size and your strategy for betting the playoffs is where it should all start. If you have a plan, stick to it, make any adjustments, and enjoy betting on the NFL playoffs.