September presses on with the first few weeks of the new football season dominating the US sports betting scene. The college season heads into Week 4 while the NFL gears up for its third week of games. The final few weeks of the MLB regular season is still attracting some baseball betting action, especially on games in the tight NL Central Division title race.
One of the stronger betting tendencies in the NFL is overreactions to the early results. Teams like New England and Kansas City in the AFC and Dallas and the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC have been dominant in their first two games. However, the overall results have been highly favorable to bookies with underdogs covering at a much higher rate.
The ability to quickly move betting lines with your quality pay per head service while making changes to your betting board is vital in the early weeks of the football season given the knee-jerk reaction of bettors this time of the year.
Season-to-Date Football Betting Results
Through the first three weeks of games, college football favorites have won 87.2 percent of the time straight-up to add some higher value on betting moneylines. Factoring in the closing spread, things even out with favorites covering in 52.2 percent of the games.
One trend really benefitting bookies is the tight winning percentages against the spread for home teams (49.5%) vs. road teams (50.5%). The closing total line slightly favors the UNDER at 52.2%.
Turning to the betting trends through the first two weeks of the NFL season, the favorites have only won 64.5 percent of the time SU. The home team’s winning percentage stands at 45.2%.
Betting road dogs ATS continues to be the strongest play with a winning rate of 72.2 percent in 19 games. In contrast, home dogs have only covered 38.5 percent of the time through 13 games.
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Underdogs in general have covered 58.1 percent of the time. Betting the UNDER on the total line has been a profitable play with a winning rate of 62.5%.
Turning to last week’s results in Westgate’s NFL SuperContest, players were all over Cleveland with 2053 picks to easily top the list. Dallas and Pittsburgh were second on the list at 966 picks with Cincinnati (804) and the Los Angeles Rams (785) rounding out the Top 5 teams.
Early NFL Week 3 Consensus Picks
The early betting consensus for Week 3 NFL games heavily leans towards the Rams as three-point road favorites against Cleveland for Sunday Night Football’s featured matchup. Also high on the list is New England as a 22.5-point home favorite against the New York Jets.
Bettors are also jumping on Dallas as a 21.5-point home favorite against the Miami Dolphins. The Arizona Cardinals are attracting quite a bit of action as slight 2.5-point home underdogs against Carolina with Panthers’ quarterback Cam Newton still questionable for Sunday’s contest.
This Weekend’s Big Betting Games
The Big Ten is in the spotlight on this Saturday’s college football slate with No. 11 Michigan on the road against No. 13 Wisconsin in a huge inter-division showdown. The Badgers are favored by 3.5 points at home and they have covered ATS in their last five home games against the Wolverines. The total for this 12 p.m. kickoff on FOX is set at 44 points.
One of the top matchups on Sunday’s NFL slate pits the 2-0 Baltimore Ravens on the road against the 2-0 Kansas City Chiefs in a 1 p.m. start on CBS. The Chiefs are favored by 6.5 points with the total set at 52.5 points. The Ravens have a slight 4-2 edge ATS in their last six games against Kansas City.
MLB bettors can look forward to a huge NL Central showdown between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs in an extended four-game series starting on Thursday night at Wrigley Field.
