Get to the Point

By Jimmy Harris

Jimmy loves to help the masses, and with the NFL season on the horizon, what better way to throw the average bettor a lifeline than with some tips on how to beat the NFL point spread.

Jimmy has three pieces of advice to share, with the first being to search out the best lines. If you examine the NFL lines closely you'll find a lot of 3's and 4's every week. There are live NFL odds here at PointSpread.com to give you the latest NFL line moves.

These are the games that give bettors the most trouble, because one score can mean the difference between getting paid and getting a piece taken out of your bankroll. If the team you think is going to win a certain game is favored by three then you should jump on it right away because it's highly unlikely any kind of line change will be in your favor.

Even if your team only wins by three points at least you'll get a push and you won't lose any money. However, if you wait on the line and it rises to 3.5 and they win by three then you've lost your bet. The opposite is true for spreads of 3.5 or four.

You can afford to wait and see if these games change, because even if they go up a point you still need your team to win by at least two scores. But, if the line falls and you can grab it at three you're in a lot better shape.

Tip two is all about taking a close look at the matchup reports. How teams match up against one another can give you real insight into who might perform, and who might falter, on game day.

You may want to look for high-scoring offenses against defenses that couldn't stop a Peewee league team from scoring, or vice-versa, a low-scoring loser against a smash-mouth defense. Don't forget to single out players as well - big time receivers versus a team whose top corner is injured, or the league's best rusher versus the league's worst team against the run.

If you can find matchups such as that, they can help you beat the spread.

The final tip is to make good use of the handicapping databases available at PointSpread.com. The databases can give you a ton of useful information about games from earlier in the season, or from previous years.

Information such as how a team does coming off a bye week, their record at home, or away, or even on turf and/or grass, can help you more easily beat the spread. The information is out there, so make sure you use it.