Handicapping the Early NFL Season

First and foremost, forget about handicapping or betting NFL pre-season contests. NFL coaches basically use these games to fill out the remaining roster spots. It is not about preparing seasoned vets for the upcoming season. The starting positions are largely set and the primary objective is to avoid injuries to key players. Like it or not, preseason football is all about generating additional money from the season ticket holders and television contracts for the league and teams. AND unscrupulous handicappers who claim they know how to pick winners in the preseason.

Regardless of what some self-proclaimed experts may want you to believe, there is no magical inside information that will predict the outcome of an NFL pre-season tilt. Even if the starters play well into the third period which usually occurs in each team’s third pre-season game, the games are still being finished out by a host of reserves where anything can happen to affect the outcome.

Why risk hard earned money on a 50-50 proposition where you are subject to the vigorish? This is surely a long term losing formula. I liken betting on NFL pre-season games to shooting craps, except you have to shoot 6 instead of 7. It’s a crapshoot with bad odds because of the vig and the handicapping information is worthless.

Matchup Handicapping begins making selections week 3 of the NFL season as Matchup Handicapping bases its ratings on at least three real games during the season. This means that the first two weeks are used only for data collection purposes.