Three Best Things to Do Before Football Season Begins

There are a lot of ways to prepare for football season, including stocking up on chicken wings, Frank’s Red Hot, Bud Light, and buying a new 75 inch television. However, none of those will help you win any bets or improve your standing in a fantasy football league.

Explore Alternatives for Sports Betting and Daily Fantasy

As football season approaches, it’s important to explore options for wagering on games and entering fantasy contests. With the increase in legalized sports betting in the United States and the still increasing Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) market, even potential bettors in states that don’t yet have legal sportsbooks can find ways to play.

In most cases, it’s legal to place wagers in states that allow online sports betting as long as you are physically within the borders of the state as verified by geocoding technology. If you’re located within a short drive of a neighboring state that has legal sports betting, it’s a good idea to find out what the requirements are to be able to open accounts and place wagers.

There may be physical sportsbooks at casinos, online sportsbooks, or in some cases, both. After finding out what the options are, create a budget and open one or more accounts. You might even want to plan the times to make trips to casinos to be able to place wagers on important games.

Check Schedules for Key Games

There are 16 NFL and dozens of college football games every weekend, so it’s important to pick the important games that you want to wager on throughout the season, especially because very few people have unlimited wagering budgets. Planning the contests that are of most interest and warrant research and line shopping can be a very fruitful exercise.

Knowing what games are of most interest for betting can also drive out-of-state trips to casinos or at least to be in a state that allows online sports wagering. There are particular weekends that offer an inordinate number of compelling games, whether NFL, college, or both, that makes it worth the effort to take a road trip and invest in a hotel room to provide a base of operations to legally wager on football for a couple of days.

Set a Wagering Strategy and Budget

Sports betting has its share of ups and downs, so identifying a strategy and establishing a budget is important for a season that spans 18 weeks of the NFL regular season, three more for the playoffs, 14 weeks for college and bowl games, plus the Super Bowl. It doesn’t take long to burn through a serious amount of cash if you don’t set limits on how much to wager on each game or a total for the weekend.

A strategy involves not only the type and frequency of bets that are placed but the teams, divisions, or conferences that you want to focus on. Do you want to wager on spreads, moneylines, over/under, or prop bets?

Proceeding without a wagering plan, strategy, and budget is just a recipe for failure. Most importantly, don’t play with money you can’t afford to lose.