Football is one of the United States' favorite pastimes, and almost as old as the game itself is the practice of betting on the outcome of a game. If you love football, and you want to make the games a little more exciting (as well as potentially earn a bit of cash in the process), then betting on football can be a great way to do so. However, if you simply leap in without doing any research in the process, you are likely to lose a lot more than you win. Researching your football picks beforehand is important if you want the hobby to be more fun than expensive, and here we'll go over a little bit of basic information regarding football betting.

With football picks, there are two main types of bets that are conducted: straight bets and money line bets. Straight bets are designed to provide gamblers with an even chance of winning a bet regardless of which team they bet on. This is done by placing extra requirements on the outcome of a game. Suppose, for example, that one team is favored over another (making it the "favorite"). This team might have to win by at least a certain number of points, while the other team (the "underdog"), will still pay out bets placed on it as long as it does not lose by that number of points. Straight bets are often done with half points, to remove any confusion. So a team favored with an 8.5 point positive spread must win by at least nine points, while the underdog can lose by up to eight.

Money line bets provide different odds and different payouts that correspond to those odds for each team. A team that is more likely to win will pay out less on a winning bet, while a team that is less likely to win will pay out more. If the odds are heavily for or heavily against a team, this can dramatically change the amount of money paid out for the given football picks.

Doing a bit of research into football picks before you jump into the betting process is important, because it can give you some insight into which team you want to bet on. Simply betting on your favorite team can be fun, but sometimes it might be smart to refrain from doing so if you want to keep your money.