Football Handicapper

This information guide to being a football handicapper will teach you how to win you fantasy football league by showing you the principles of the football handicapping profession.

We will go into details about on how to use and create your own handicapping tactics that are used by top football handicappers like:

• Football Betting Systems
• using Football Betting Trends
• Power Ranking

If used properly, these tactics will greatly improve your odds of picking the correct winner of an NFL or college matchup game.

A football handicapper is a person who handicaps football games by setting the point spread, money line and over/under for a football matchup. The information set by the football handicapper is then used by bookies and punters for betting purposes.

Another definition of a football handicapper is a person who uses his football handicapping skils and sell his picks to the general public.

Many football handicappers use football betting systems and some may even solely rely on them.

A football betting system is basically a compilation of historical data that is then compared to each other and used in determining the outcome of a match up.

The benefits of using a football betting system is that the historical references take any bias out of the selection like public opinion, media perception or personal team preference.

one of the most popular football betting system is the Dudley Method which uses the last four games each team has played and using that information you use it to create a point spread on the game which is done by creating an average of a teams yardage and total scores.

This information will then give you the basic information on how many points the team will score and how yards they will gain.

This method is simple enough to use but to truly determine the outcome of a game, more information is needed.

Many amateur sports bettors believe that a football handicapping system and football betting trends are the same.  This is far from the truth and is what differentiates the professional from the amateur football handicapper.

While they are many similarities, the difference is that "football betting trends" apply to a specific team while the football handicapping system is not team specific.

An example of a a football betting trend is:

Atlanta Flacons are 6-3-1 ATS against non-conference opponents and refers to the tea's record against the point spread.

On the other hand, a football handicapping system example would be:

NFL Teams are 41-17 ATS in the regular season after four or more Overs against an opponent off an Under.

Note that this football betting system is not team specific, and instead is relevant to any NFL team in this situation.

This handicapping system is considered a general ranking system based on the football handicapper's personal point of view and is then measured against the actual point spread to find the line value.  For example, Kevin Steel theprofessional football handicapper is famous for using this kind of system in his football picks.

To create your own power ranking, you must first assign a numberical value to every NFL team where the better teams will have a higher number.  Keep in mind that you are not ranking each team a 1 to 32 value.  You are giving each one a rating so the New Orleans Saints for example would have a rating of 10 while the Denver Broncos would have a rating of 5.

Once the power ranking is assigned to each team, the next step is to figure out a neutral field power line for each game where the home team receives a 3 point rating field advantage.  This of course will vary according to the handicapper's preferences.

Combine these two together and you have your very own football power ranking!