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Most Consistent NFL Betting Trends for 2025

Most Consistent NFL Betting Trends for 2025

If you ever feel like you are one step behind the sportsbooks, we understand you. Over the last two seasons, teams getting more than 60% of the public’s bets in the first four weeks of the season went a dismal 22-46-1 against the spread (ATS). That is a cover rate of just 32%. It was the worst start for the public in over 20 years, proving that following the crowd is usually a direct path to an empty wallet.

While media hype and last week’s highlights can sway the masses, the sharpest bettors build their strategies on a foundation of data. They hunt for repeatable patterns and market inefficiencies that offer a genuine edge. 

In this guide, NXTbets brings you the most consistent, data-backed betting trends that have stood the test of time. Stay tuned!

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Early-Season Underdogs Still Deliver Value

If there is one time of year when the playing field is truly level, it is the first few weeks of the NFL season. Before the contenders and pretenders have revealed themselves, oddsmakers and the public rely on last year’s results and offseason reports. This information vacuum creates a value opportunity for anyone willing to back the underdogs.

Week 1 Underdog Performance

The opening week is the wild west of the NFL season, and the data shows that underdogs thrive in the chaos. Since 2000, underdogs have covered the spread at a profitable 53% clip in Week 1 games. That is a two-decade pattern of the market overvaluing favorites before a meaningful snap has been played.

The edge gets even sharper when you zero in on specific situations:

  • Divisional Dogs Bite Hard: When division rivals face off in Week 1, the perceived talent gap often shrinks. Since 2014, divisional underdogs have gone an incredible 37–15–1 ATS, covering the spread an astonishing 71% of the time. This is one of the most reliable and robust trends in all of sports betting.
  • Small Dogs Win Big: When the spread is a field goal or less, the underdog is often just as likely to win the game outright. Since 2015, underdogs of 3 points or fewer have gone 36–26–5 ATS and a nearly even 34–32–1 straight up (SU). 

Big Underdogs in Weeks 1-3

The value doesn’t stop after Week 1. The early part of the season is ripe with market overreactions, leading to some wildly inflated point spreads. In the first three weeks of the 2024 season, for example, underdogs of 5.5 points or more went an unbelievable 13–2 ATS.

And they weren’t just covering – they were winning. Those same big underdogs won 9 of those 15 games outright, busting survivor pools and delivering massive moneyline payouts across the board. This is an excellent reminder that the gap between the NFL’s elite and its bottom-feeders is rarely as wide as the public believes, especially when teams are still finding their footing.

Why This Trend Persists

The early-season underdog advantage is rooted in three crucial factors:

  1. Early Season Volatility: Teams are still working out twists in their schemes, building chemistry, and adjusting to new players and coaches. Preseason performance is a notoriously poor predictor of regular-season success. This uncertainty benefits the underdog, as the favorite’s perceived dominance is purely theoretical.
  2. Unpredictable Team Form: No one truly knows how a team will perform until they take the field. Will the rookie quarterback live up to the hype? Did the defense really fix its issues from last year? The market often prices teams based on previous season’s finish, ignoring natural regression and roster turnover.
  3. Public Bias Toward Favorites: The public loves to bet on popular teams and last year’s champions. This casual money inflates the lines on favorites, creating a built-in mathematical edge for anyone willing to take the points with the less-popular team.

Public Betting Often Loses, Especially Early

One of the oldest adages in sports betting is to “fade the public,” and for good reason. The general betting public tends to be driven by emotion, media hype, and gut feelings – not data. While the crowd isn’t wrong 100% of the time, their predictable biases create some of the most consistent and profitable contrarian betting opportunities in the NFL.

Public Bettor Underperformance

The numbers don’t lie: the public is terrible at betting on the NFL early in the season. As mentioned, teams receiving 60% or more of the betting tickets recently posted a miserable 22–38–2 ATS record through the first four weeks of the season. That is a 36.7% cover rate. If you had simply bet against the most popular public sides, you would have won at a 63.3% clip.

This pattern exists because casual bettors gravitate toward the same things: big-name teams, high-powered offenses, and reigning champions. They love betting on favorites and overs because it is more fun to root for a winner and a high-scoring game. This herd mentality creates predictable market inefficiencies that sharp bettors exploit week after week.

Missed Opportunities by Chasing Favorites

When the public piles onto one side of a game, sportsbooks are forced to adjust the line to mitigate their risk and encourage action on the other side. For example, if the Kansas City Chiefs open as 6-point favorites and 85% of the early money comes in on them, the book might move the line to -6.5 or -7.

This movement is a gift to contrarian bettors. You now get an extra point of value on the underdog, not because the teams have changed, but simply because of public perception. Fading the public isn’t just about betting on the less popular team; it is about capitalizing on the better number you get as a result of the public’s bias.

The Decline of the Bye Week Advantage

For decades, betting on teams coming off a bye week was a cornerstone of many NFL handicapping strategies. The logic was simple: an extra week to rest, heal, and prepare gave that team a significant edge. However, one of the most essential skills for a bettor is knowing when a trend has died. 

Historical Edge Gone Flat

Research has shown that before 2011, teams coming off a bye week gained a statistical advantage worth about 2.2 points per game

However, since the 2011 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) was adopted, that advantage has completely evaporated. In the years following the CBA, the bye week advantage has plummeted to just 0.3 points per game – a statistically insignificant number. The reason for this shift is simple: the 2011 CBA mandated that players receive four mandatory days off during the bye week, severely cutting into the extra practice and preparation time that was the source of the advantage. 

Strategic Implication – Fade the Bye?

This reversal turns the old strategy on its head. If the market has not fully adjusted to this new reality, there is now potential value in betting against teams coming off a bye. The public may still be operating under the old assumption that the bye week is a significant benefit, creating inflated lines on the rested team. This provides a perfect opportunity for an opposite play, where you can capitalize on the market’s outdated perception.

Surge in Favorite Betting Impacting Payouts

While this guide has heavily focused on finding value with underdogs and opposite plays, the NFL market keeps evolving. Recent seasons have shown a powerful and costly trend for sportsbooks: dominant favorites are winning and covering at an unusually high rate. Ignoring this shift would be a mistake for any punter in 2025.

Favored Teams Raking in Wins

The 2024 season was a great example of this trend – it finished as one of the most profitable seasons for favorite-backers in recent memory. Overall, favorites won straight up 71.7% of the time, the third-highest mark since 1980. This dominance led to some brutal Sundays for the sportsbooks, with industry insiders calling certain weeks a “bloodbath” and the “worst day of the season”.

When popular favorites like the Lions, Chiefs, and Vikings all cover the spread on the same day, the cumulative effect of parlay and teaser payouts is devastating for the books. One report noted that a single bad quarter, fueled by favorites winning, cost FanDuel $370 million. This is a market-moving trend that signals a potential shift in the league’s competitive balance.

Betting Strategy Adjustments

So, what does this mean for your betting strategy? It does not mean you should abandon underdogs entirely. However, it does require an adjustment. The NFL might be entering an era of reduced parity, where a handful of elite teams are consistently separating themselves from the pack.

This suggests a more nuanced approach is needed:

  • Be More Selective: Instead of impulsively betting on underdogs, focus on situations where they have a clear matchup advantage or where the line has been heavily inflated by public money.
  • Consider Favorite Parlays: In weeks with several large favorites playing weaker opponents, a moneyline parlay can offer a safer path to profit than hunting for a longshot upset.
  • Watch for Overcorrections: After a few weeks of favorites dominating, oddsmakers may start setting excessively high spreads. This market over-adjustment can create the perfect opportunity to pivot back and find massive value on underdogs.

The key is to remain flexible and let the real-time data guide your decisions, rather than sticking to a rigid strategy.

Living Trends – Real-Time Tracking Is Key

The most successful betting trends are living data points that shift with market sentiment, team performance, and public perception. To gain an edge, you need to move beyond historical stats and embrace the power of real-time tracking. This is how you turn a general trend into an actionable wager each week.

Real Time Public Betting Feeds

To effectively fade the public, you need to know what the public is doing right now. This is where real-time betting feeds are indispensable. Platforms like SportsBettingDime offer constantly updated dashboards showing the percentage of bets (tickets) and the percentage of money (handle) on the spread, moneyline, and total for every game.

Your weekly process should involve monitoring these feeds. Look for games where the bet and money percentages are wildly different. For instance, if you see the Giants getting 78% of the moneyline bets but only 9% of the money, it is a massive red flag that the public is backing them with small wagers while a few big-money players are hammering the other side. This is the kind of actionable data that separates casual guessing from informed betting.

Leveraging Team ATS & O/U Data

You also need to understand a team’s specific betting identity. How do they perform in certain situations? This is where deep data resources like Covers and StatSharp become your best friends. These platforms provide filterable trend data on every team.

Want to know how the Eagles have performed ATS in their last 10 road games as a favorite? Or the Chiefs’ Over/Under record in divisional matchups? This data is at your fingertips. For example, you might discover a powerful micro-trend, like the fact that all nine of the Houston Texans’ road games went ‘Under’ the first-half total last season. Combining these specific team trends with broader market trends (like public betting splits) creates a powerful analytical approach.

Practical Mode Integration

The best bettors don’t just collect trends; they build a system. This means integrating these dynamic data streams into a repeatable weekly process. Think of it as building a case for each bet. Your strongest plays will be those where multiple factors align:

  1. A Historical Trend: The game fits a long-term, profitable angle (e.g., “Week 1 divisional underdog”).
  2. A Real-Time Signal: The public betting splits confirm a contrarian opportunity (e.g., “The public is hammering the favorite, but sharp money is on our underdog”).
  3. A Fundamental Edge: Your own analysis of the matchup reveals an advantage (e.g., “The underdog’s pass rush matches up perfectly against the favorite’s weak offensive line”).

System-Based Angles That Still Perform

While many trends evolve, some system-based betting angles have shown remarkable staying power. These are often rooted in the psychological aspects of the game or structural elements of the NFL schedule. However, it is crucial to know which of these old trends still hold water and which have become betting myths.

Super Bowl Runner-up Week 1 Fade

This is one of the most reliable and long-standing trends in the NFL. Betting against the team that lost the Super Bowl in their opening game the following season has been consistently profitable. Over the last 25 seasons, these teams have gone a dismal 6–15 ATS in Week 1, covering the spread just 28.6% of the time.

The reasons are both psychological and practical. The “Super Bowl hangover” is real – a crushing loss on the biggest stage can linger. Furthermore, these teams have a shorter offseason for rest and recovery, and they often lose key players and coaches who cash in after a successful season. This combination of factors makes them consistently overvalued by the market in Week 1.

Fading Defunct Trends

This is just as important as knowing which trends work is knowing which ones have stopped working. A perfect example is the old strategy of “fading the champ.” While it might seem logical to bet against the defending Super Bowl winner due to potential complacency, the data shows the exact opposite.

Since 2000, defending champions are an impressive 21–4 SU and a profitable 14–9–2 ATS in their Week 1 games. In the modern NFL, factors like elite quarterback play, coaching stability, and a winning culture have proven far more powerful than any supposed “championship hangover.”

This tale of two trends – one that works (fading the runner-up) and one that doesn’t (fading the champ) – offers a vital lesson. A trend’s longevity depends on the strength of its underlying logic. The runner-up trend is rooted in repeatable psychological and scheduling factors, while the “fade the champ” narrative has been disproven by the reality of sustained excellence in the league.

Filtering Trends Contextually

The NFL is a constantly evolving league. Rule changes, strategic innovations, and shifts in player evaluation can render a once-profitable system useless. Before you bet on any historical trend, you must do your due diligence.

Use data-driven tools to check its recent performance. How has this trend performed over the last three seasons? What about last season? A system that was golden from 2005-2015 might be a money pit today. 

NXTbets: Turn Proven Trends into Predictable Wins

For the 2025 season, the data points to several powerful edges: the consistent value of early-season underdogs (especially in divisional games), the strategic power of fading public opinion, the new reality of betting against teams off a bye, and the need to respect the recent dominance of top-tier favorites.

But information alone doesn’t guarantee wins. Success in sports betting comes from transforming raw data into a repeatable strategy. That is where NXTbets thrives. Our platform is designed to help you bridge that gap. With real-time public betting analysis, customizable trend filters, and integrated analytics, we give you the tools to turn these powerful insights into a structured betting process. 

Subscribe to our newsletter and we’ll help you stop chasing hype and start making data-driven decisions.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Looking only at the percentage of bets can be misleading because it treats a $10 bet the same as a $10,000 bet. The key is to compare the percentage of bets to the percentage of money wagered.

No. Trends should be used to identify potentially valuable betting opportunities, but they should not be followed recklessly. The most successful bettors combine trend analysis with fundamental handicapping, including matchup analysis, injury reports, weather, and real-time market data like public betting splits.

Absolutely. Sportsbooks are constantly adjusting their models to eliminate any edge bettors find. As a trend becomes more popular, the lines will get sharper, and the value will diminish. This is why it is crucial to stay ahead of the market by tracking trends in real-time and being ready to adapt your strategy as the market evolves.

A "trap game" is a matchup where a strong favorite is playing a supposedly weaker opponent, but the context sets them up for a potential upset. The "trap" is the betting line, which looks too good to be true, luring the public to bet heavily on the favorite.

These games often happen when the favored team is looking ahead to a huge rivalry game next week or is coming off a massive emotional win and might be unfocused. To avoid the trap, always analyze the context. Is the favorite in a "letdown" or "look-ahead" spot? Is the line suspiciously low? If it feels like an easy win, it might be a trap set by the oddsmakers.

Yes, they absolutely do. International games introduce unique variables like long travel, time zone adjustments, and unfamiliar field conditions, which tend to suppress scoring. As a result, the "Under" on the total points line has been a historically profitable trend in these games. Despite the neutral site, favorites have also performed very well, winning outright over 70% of the time and covering the spread in over 60% of international matchups.