Your Complete Guide To NFL Futures Betting!

The NFL regular season does not start until September. Up until then, there will be plenty of fans indulging in some NFL Futures betting!

For some it is picking the winner of the Super Bowl LVIII, each Conference or Divisional winners. For others, they prefer markets about player performances. Regardless, there’s plenty for punters to consider as teams get ready for the new season.

So, in this article, we are going to take a look at some of the different NFL futures markets available with bet365 Sport.

Let’s begin with the obvious question…

What is NFL Futures betting?

NFL Futures betting are markets that will not be resolved until later in, or at the end of, the forthcoming NFL season.

They are bets that include predicting:

• Who will win the Super Bowl
• Who will win the AFC or NFC Conference Championship
• Which team will win any of the eight divisions in the NFL
• Which player will be named NFL MVP
• Which player will be offensive or defensive Rookie of the Year
• Which team will have the best or worst season record – and many more besides.

Futures bets are bets placed that will not be finalised until much later on in the season. Or even, right at the end of the season. They are good examples of longer duration bets.

You can find the NFL Futures 2023/24 markets at bet365 Sport by clicking on the Futures tab under the main American Football menu.

What are the most popular NFL Futures betting markets?

If you’ve checked out the bet365 page for NFL Futures betting, you’ll know there’s a wide choice of bets to choose from.

So which are the most popular? The following bets all prove hugely popular with NFL Fans and bettors:

• To Win Outright (to win the Super Bowl)
• To Win Conference
• To Win Division
• To Make the Playoffs
• NFL MVP
• Offensive Rookie of the Year
• Defensive Rookie of the Year
• Offensive Player of the Year
• Defensive Player of the Year
• Coach of the Year
• Most Regular Season Passing Yards
• Most Regular Season Passing Touchdowns
• Most Regular Season Receiving Yards
• Most Regular Season Rushing Yards
• Best or Worst Regular Season Record
• Division Exact Order

These bets are the most popular with punters betting on futures markets for one simple reason. They are all genuine points of discussion and debate for fans. They are all markets that tally up with the hopes and predictions that fans like to discuss ahead of the season.

And of course, a fair few people like to put their money where their mouth is when it comes to NFL predictions!

Is there a way to make better-informed NFL Futures bets?

It may seem like making an NFL Futures bet is far more down to chance than anything else. Certainly, luck plays a part, but there are strategies you can use to help make better-judged NFL Futures bets.

What do we mean by that?

Well, let’s take a look at some of the most popular markets and explain how you can cut down the options for your NFL Futures bet.

For this example, we are going to use the To Win Division market.

• Example 1 – To Win Division Market

There are eight divisions in the NFL, four each in the AFC and NFC and each division has just four teams to pick from.

So, to start, you have a 1 in 4 chance of picking the winner in any given division, which are pretty decent odds as a starting point,

However, you can further enhance your chances of picking the winner in a division by doing the following:

1. Check out last season’s divisional performances – A good place to start is to check out how the four teams in your selected division performed last season. What were their individual records? How did they perform in the six games against teams in their division?
2. Checking if there has been key personnel changes since then. – NFL Free Agency often means teams can look very different from one season to the next. Which key players have the teams lost? Have they brought in top class replacements? Have they traded away top talent, or traded top talent into the roster? How well did the team do in the NFL Draft this year? Have they lost key coaching personnel, such as their head coach or offensive and defensive co-ordinators? What you are looking for here is to judge whether these changes are going to have a positive or negative impact on the team.
3. How do each team’s regular season schedule compare? – The NFL makes its schedule known for each team early in the pre-season. They even have a ‘strength of schedule’ rating to show how easy, or difficult, a team’s schedule for that season is based on their opponents.
4. Identify how the team is trending. Is it an improving team or a declining team? Is this team being built for a Super Bowl challenge, or on the decline and in need of a rebuild?

These four factors can help you make an educated decision on which team to back and for an example, let’s take one such team, the New York Jets and consider each of the four factors.

Should I back the New York Jets to win their division?

The Jets compete in the AFC East alongside the Buffalo Bills, New England Patriots and Miami Dolphins and this is how the AFC Finished last season.

Last Season’s AFC East Final Standings

1. Buffalo Bills – 13-3
2. Miami Dolphins – 9-8
3. New England Patriots – 8-9
4. New York Jets – 7-10

So on the negative side, the Jets finished bottom of the AFC East, but they won seven games and only had a net points score of -20, meaning that they were not heavily beaten in that division.

They also finished the season on a six-game losing streak, which saw them go from challenging for the Divisional title, to bottom of the table.

So the Buffalo Bills apart, who won the division comfortably, it looks like the Jets won’t need too much to turn them from bottom placed team into contending for a Wild Card spot at least.

Key Personnel Changes

The Jets have seen a massive upgrade at quarterback by signing Aaron Rodgers from Green Bay, one of the best quarterbacks of all time. They also signed two wide receivers who have good chemistry with Rodgers from their time in Green Bay – Allen Lazard and Randall Cobb.

Throughout the team, the Jets will benefit from their talented young players like Sauce Gardner (CB), Garrett Wilson (WR), Mekhi Becton (OT), Breece Hall (RB) and more from having a year’s experience behind them.

The Jets have also not lost any key personnel, although they did appoint a new offensive co-ordinator in January in Nathaniel Hackett.

With the changes in personnel made, the Jets certainly look like a team capable of taking a big step forward in the AFC East in the new season.

Season Schedule Comparison

One thing to note for the Jets is that they do have one of the tougher schedules in the NFL. The Jets schedule ranks sixth in terms of being the toughest in the NFL.

That sounds bad news for Jets fans, but in terms of the NFC East, the Dolphins have the 2^nd toughest schedule, the Patriots the joint third and the Bills the seventh, just 0.003 behind the Jets.

So while it is a tough schedule for the Jets, their opponents in the East have similarly tough, or even tougher, schedules this season.

How Is The Team Trending?

Seven straight defeats to end last season bottom of the AFC East suggests this is a Jets team in decline. However, that Jets team had a number of struggles:

• They had real problems at the QB position.
• Their first choice RB was injured and missed the 2^nd half of the season.
• Several other key personnel were injured and out for the season.

At one stage, the team was 7-4, which suggests when they had their personnel available, the Jets were a strong team.

Now, with Aaron Rodgers at QB, they have addressed that first issue by bringing in an NFL legend at the position.

Secondly RB Breece Hall is back from injury and will be able to start, as are the other key personnel that missed the end of the season.

So, while their results show a team in decline, the changes made this off-season mean that I feel this Jets team is on the up!

Should I Back the Jets to Win the AFC East?

It’s a tough call. The Jets are 12/5 second favourites with bet365 to win the division, behind the Buffalo Bills at 13/10.

The Bills are an elite NFL team and genuine Super Bowl contenders but with Aaron Rodgers at QB and one of the best defenses in the NFL, I believe the Jets will be their closest challengers this season.

Would I back them? Perhaps not, simply because of the strength of the Bills who would be my pick to win the AFC East.

But I would certainly back the Jets to make the playoffs (20/33 with bet365) and for Aaron Rodgers to throw over 28.5 touchdowns (10/13) both future bets available right now with bet365.