Sunday's 15-game NFL Week 1 slate of games gets underway in a few short hours.
NFL Week 1 gets underway with Cowboys vs. Buccaneers on Thursday night, meaning it's time to start breaking down all 16 season-opening matchups.
While handicapping for value and edges is certainly important when it comes to NFL betting, there are other key factors to consider ahead of the slate of Week 1 matchups.
With this in mind, I pulled together four of my favorite, and extremely easy, tips that NFL bettors can leverage to win more bets this season, starting in Week 1.
So without further ado, let's examine four easy ways to win more NFL Week 1 bets.
4 Tips to Win More NFL Week 1 Bets
1. Target Last Season's Worst Teams
Since Super Bowl 50 in February, think of how much has changed on NFL rosters, like trades, the NFL Draft, free agency, old coaches fired and new coaches hired, etc.
Still, bettors will overwhelmingly lean on last season's results when placing NFL wagers early in the season, and oddsmakers know this.
Therefore, it's been quite profitable historically to back the worst teams from a previous season no matter how difficult that may be.
According to our Bet Labs software, teams that won six or fewer games the year prior are a whopping 68-46-2 (59.6%) against the spread (ATS) in Week 1 since 2005, covering the spread by an average margin of 2.72 points.
For the record, I also also removed matches in which two teams that won six or fewer games are playing each other in Week 1 as that would always result in a 1-1 ATS record.
2. Take Advantage of 'Free Money'
Legalized sports betting is sweeping the United States, with more than two dozen states offering some form of wagering.
And for those lucky enough to live in one of the many states offering mobile sports betting, you're in luck!
Sportsbooks are competing for your business and in order to get it are giving away plenty of essentially "free money" offers, including deposit bonuses, risk-free bets, easy winners and more.
Want to win more money this NFL season, starting in Week 1?
Take advantage of as many of these offers as possible and fatten up that bankroll for the season ahead.
Click here to see the best sportsbook offers for NFL Week 1.
3. Shop for the Best Line
This may be the easiest NFL betting tip when it comes to quickly improving your bottom line.
Maybe it doesn't sound like much, but why would you bet under 43.5 for Dolphins vs. Patriots on Sunday when DraftKings has 44?
And even if the spread or total is the same, why would you opt to lay a vig of -115 if there are -110s available?
This surely isn't the sexiest tip to win more NFL bets this week, but turning losses into pushes, pushes into wins and making winning wagers more profitable will make a difference, and all it takes is a quick visit to our NFL Live Odds Page to see the latest (and most beneficial to you) Week 1 lines, spreads and over/unders. The bet highlighted in green is the best available line for whatever you want to wager on.
If you're planning on being away from the computer this weekend, go ahead and download The Action Network's mobile app and access live NFL odds, free picks, analysis, bet tracking and more directly from your device.
4. Don't Bet Parlays
A big part of winning more is also losing less by having the discipline to not make bad bets, including parlays.
If you want to carve out a portion of your bankroll and throw in that Hail Mary, six-teamer on Sunday for fun, then by all means do it.
But the point of this article is to explain how to win more money, and parlays are not a way to get your there over the long haul.
According to a study by the UNLV Study for Gaming, from 1992 to 2015 Nevada sportsbooks enjoyed almost a 30% hold on parlays.
The hold is essentially the portion of money a sportsbook or casino keeps after paying out all winning bets.
To put this in perspective, the hold for every other major sport was less than 5% when not including parlays.
Again, these are your bets and your money and you're free to disperse them however you please. And you may even be one of the lucky ones to cash in on that big parlay payday.
However, if you're simply trying to grind your way to the most profitable NFL season as possible, leaking units on home-run parlays isn't the most likely way to achieve that.