By Ryan Bologna
The NFL Playoffs have changed in recent years, and there are some aspects to take into account when betting on the games.
Before the 2021 season, it used to be that six teams in each conference made the playoffs. That is no longer the case. Now, there are seven teams in each conference that make the playoffs, and instead of the one and two seeds getting bye weeks, only the one seed does.
There are three rounds of the playoffs before the Super Bowl. The first is wild card weekend, where there are six games on the weekend, three for each conference. In 2022, the NFL is introducing a Monday Night Football playoff game. That will be a yearly occurrence now. That could play into the way you bet the divisional round games, because the winner of that game will likely have less rest than normal.
The divisional round has four games, two in each conference. Two played on Saturday and two played on Sunday. Then, the conference championship weekend has two games, both on Sunday. The winner of those two games match up in the Super Bowl two weeks later, with the Pro Bowl taking place the week between. So all in all, that gives you 13 playoff games to bet on.
Like with regular season NFL games, you can bet on the point spread and the moneyline. The higher seed is usually the favorite, as they get to play the game at home. That isn’t always the case though. Sometimes there are really weak division winners, like the 2010 Seahawks or the 2020 Washington Football Team, both of whom finished 7-9. Neither of those teams were expected to win their playoff matchup. The Seahawks did against the Saints, but the Washington Football Team lost to the Buccaneers, who went on to win the Super Bowl.
For the moneyline, the underdog will have a bigger payout. For you to win your bet, that team simply has to win. If you bet the underdog with the point spread, they can lose the game and you can still win your bet. For instance, if the underdog is given +7, if they lose the game by four points, you win your bet. If you bet the favorite at -7, that team has to win by more than seven points for you to win your bet.
The total is calculated the same as with NFL regular season games. The over/under is set at a certain number, and if both teams combine to score more than that number, the over is the winning bet. If not, then under is the winning bet.
Props are pretty much the same as the regular season as well. You can bet on how many touchdowns a specific player will score, or the amount of sacks. But you can also bet on things for the whole playoffs, like the amount of extra points missed.
The NFL playoffs is probably one of the worst times to place futures bets, however. Even though there are cases of underdogs making runs and winning the whole thing, like the New York Giants did in 2007 and 2011, it is not the norm. Betting on one of the favorites before the season will pay out much better than it would if you bet on them at the start of the playoffs, simply because everyone is still in contention at that point. That is one of the key differences to understand when betting on the NFL playoffs.
One more key difference in betting during the NFL playoffs and betting during the regular season is that there likely will be a lot more promos available during the playoffs. So you can look for things like odds boosts during this time. If you only bet with one sportsbook, maybe this is the time to find a promo code and create an account with another. You could give yourself much better odds that way.
Photo: Alena Veasey
