Spooky Express

Football bets can be placed all the way up to the opening kickoff of a contest. But some bettors prefer to place their bets well before the start of a contest with the use of look ahead bets. In this look at look ahead betting in football, we detail what look ahead betting is and what to think about when placing these wagers.

Look ahead bets are wagers that are placed ahead of time, whether that is before the start of the season or a week before a game starts. Most bettors only think to bet on the games that are coming up within the next day or two. But with look ahead bets, bettors are able to find additional value in the betting markets before the betting public thinks to bet on that game.

The reason there is additional value in the look ahead markets is that the markets have not had time to adjust to the betting action from bettors yet. With look ahead betting, bettors have the ability to jump on any lines that are off before sportsbooks have seen enough action to justify adjusting their lines. While this doesn’t guarantee a victory when betting on football, it can enhance a bettor’s chances.

The most important thing to consider when placing look ahead bets in football is that there is a time and place for this type of wager. As is the case with any betting market, there isn’t guaranteed to be value every week in the football schedule. Bettors should only use look ahead lines when their research indicates that those betting lines are off compared to the score predictions the bettor has made.

Also worth thinking about when betting look ahead lines is how the market will react to a game closer to game time. For example, if a team is regularly backed by the public, a bettor might be able to get a better number backing their opponent in the days before kickoff rather than in the look ahead markets. In sports betting, timing is everything, and this is no exception.

When betting on look ahead lines, the biggest positive is that bettors can get better lines than they might be able to get right before the start of a game. Sports betting is all about getting the best possible number in the point spread and totals markets. And the look ahead lines can often help a bettor do exactly that by betting on football games well ahead of time.

On the flip side, bettors may run into situations where their look ahead bets age poorly in some cases. If a player gets injured between the time, they place their look ahead bet and the time the game takes place, the point spread could shift away from what a bettor locked in in the early betting window. Or if a team plays above or below expectations in the time between a look ahead wager, the betting lines could shift for that reason as well.