Xfl Sports Betting
Betting on teaser picks is a safer play when betting on XFL games. The spread is reduced to increase the chances of winning when combining more than one team into one bet. For example in a 2-team 6 point. The XFL absolutely embraces sports betting. They have deals with various sports betting entities and feature a healthy dialogue about sports wagering throughout their broadcasts. From prop bets to traditional betting lines, the XFL is blazing a trail in how other professional sports leagues can feature sports betting.
Betting On The XFL. The XFL shut down their season due to the COVID-19 pandemic just like all other sports leagues. During the seasons shut down, there have been different rumors swirling on whether. However, what makes the XFL unique is its in-house connection to the sports betting world. League founder Vince McMahon is a minority stakeholder in DraftKings and the league has expressed an interest in running their fantasy football and betting. According to the XFL, the season last 79 days and was created for the love of the game. We intend to keep you updated on the XFL betting news as it happens and provide odds each week. Our experts will make football picks and predictions for you to consider for XFL betting.
The XFL is embracing sports betting more than any other U.S. professional or collegiate league ever has.
While the NFL and other leagues spent years fighting in court to stop the spread of sports betting, the XFL kicked off its reboot by consulting with bookmakers on new rules and encouraging media partners to infuse gambling into broadcasts. The XFL may be just starting, but it appears it is already ahead of the gambling game. Now, we'll see if it pays off.
For decades, the traditional leagues in the U.S. kept their distance from sports betting, concerned gambling would tarnish the integrity of the games. At the same time, even though commissioners and owners may have been reluctant to admit it, they benefited from fantasy sports and bettors participating in the massive underground and offshore sports betting industries. Former baseball commissioner Bud Selig once testified that sports betting is 'evil, creates doubt and destroys your sport.'
Times have changed. Legal bookmakers now operate in more than a dozen states, and, at least to this point, sports have survived. The NBA, the NHL and MLB each have official betting partners, and the NFL is moving in that direction. None of them, however, are as all-in on betting as the newest league on the block, the XFL, which, instead of shying away from the gambling industry, is determined to 'embrace the spread.'
'This notion of embracing the spread,' XFL president Jeffrey Pollack said, 'means that our mission, our design and our business infrastructure are all geared to the sports betting future that's coming fast.
'We see a lot of pros to leaning into the sports betting world,' he added. 'It's what our fans want. We don't see cons, we see opportunity.'
Keeping the spread in play
When creating its rules and scoring system, the XFL kept the bettor in mind and even bounced ideas off Las Vegas sportsbook operators to see what worked and what didn't.
'I thought it was very interesting,' John Murray, executive director of the SuperBook at Westgate Las Vegas, said of the informal calls with the XFL. 'It was cool just to talk to the guys who were starting a new football league and see what kind of ideas they had.'
The XFL landed on rules aimed at condensing the game. They wanted to increase the pace of play, eliminate virtually automatic plays like kicking extra points and enhance timing rules to improve comeback opportunities and keep the spread in play longer.
• The XFL's play clock is 25 seconds (it's 40 seconds in the NFL), and the game clock stops only briefly, except for the final two minutes of each half, called 'comeback periods.' The goal was to deliver a similar number of plays per game as the NFL but in less than three hours. NFL games during the 2019 regular season averaged 126.8 offensive snaps and 45.6 points per game. The first four XFL games averaged 124 offensive plays and 38.5 points.
• After touchdowns, teams choose between going for one point from the 2-yard line, two points from the 5-yard line or three points from the 10-yard line. 'This enhances a team's ability to make a comeback,' XFL senior vice president strategy and business development John Scheler said. 'Your bet's in play longer because the team potentially has the ability to come back and cover the spread.'
• Overtime is decided by a pseudo-shootout, with teams alternating single plays from the 5-yard line. Each score is worth two points.
The rule tweaks to timing and scoring were a challenge for oddsmakers. Not knowing how coaches would handle the new options after touchdowns and their success rate on those attempts reduced the value of the traditional key numbers -- most notably three and seven -- that bettors are accustomed to in the NFL and college football. Out of the 19 touchdowns scored in the four games over the weekend, coaches elected for the 1-point option 11 times and the 2-point option eight times. They were successful on four 1-point chances and three 2-point chances.
Creating a point spread, though, was not the toughest task for oddmakers in Week 1. Setting the over/under was.
Circa Sports, a new bookmaking operation in downtown Las Vegas, was the first sportsbook to put up totals on the four Week 1 games. They admitted the process of setting the totals was not sophisticated.
'For me, it was a huge guess,' Circa sportsbook manager Chris Bennett said with a chuckle.
Last Thursday, Circa opened at 40.5 for each game. The first wave of bets came in, all on the over in each game. In less than three hours, the totals on each game climbed into the 50s.
Three of the four Week 1 games went under the total.
Odds-infused broadcasts
For years, play-by-play announcers like Brent Musburger and Al Michaels slyly worked gambling references into broadcasts. 'Some baskets are more meaningful than others,' Musburger might say in regards to a basket that affected the spread. Michaels is known to describe a late score that pushes the game over the total as 'overwhelming.'
There were no veiled references, though, in the weekend's XFL games. Instead, announcers were overt, and the odds were front and center.
Point spreads and over/unders were displayed alongside the scores on the XFL broadcasts on ESPN and Fox, and advertisements for the sponsoring sportsbooks like Caesars and FoxBet popped up from time to time.
In the fourth quarter of the Seattle Dragons-D.C. Defenders game Saturday, ESPN color man Greg McElroy joked about the disappointment fans who bet the over must have felt when the Dragons elected to take points off the board after a running into the kicker penalty, only to squander the ensuing scoring opportunity by fumbling deep inside D.C. territory.
For many sports betting proponents, the odds-infused broadcasts were what they envisioned when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a federal statute in 2018, allowing states to decide whether to regulate gambling.
Joe Favorito, a longtime sports marketing consultant in New Jersey, was watching the St. Louis-Dallas game Sunday with his 21-year-old son, who asked what the 'O/U 52.5' meant on the scoreboard on the bottom of the screen.
'[He] was casually following XFL and had no idea of the floating betting lines,' Favorito told ESPN. 'He assumed it was another deep dive into stats, not gambling. He figured it was similar to when 'SOG' appeared on a hockey scoreboard for shots on goal or when MLB suddenly added 'MV' for mound visits and 'PC' for pitch count to scoreboards. ... He became more engaged immediately.'
Betting interest
At Caesars Sportsbook in Nevada, less than $10,000 total was bet on the point spread for the opening game between the Dragons and Defenders. It might not sound like a lot -- and compared to the hundreds of thousands of dollars normally bet on NFL games, it's not -- but it was notable and was more than the amount bet on many of Saturday's college basketball games and even some NBA games.
'I think there's an interest, but it's just not something I think people have confidence to bet on yet, on the public side of things,' Caesars senior oddsmaker Alan Berg said.
In New Jersey, sportsbook FanDuel said '20 times' as much money was bet on the first XFL game as was bet on the first game of the now defunct Alliance of American Football League. XFL betting increased from Saturday to Sunday by 55%, according to FanDuel.
The XFL believes it's only the beginning of the league's relationship to the sports betting industry, which unlike its predecessors, it has decided to embrace from the opening kickoff. The XFL has announced multiple betting partners, launched a new free-play gaming app (PlayXFL) and hired sports data company Genius Sports to provide integrity services.
'The XFL should be applauded for its proactive stance in engaging with the sports betting industry,' Chris Dougan, spokesman for Genius Sports, said. 'From its inception, the league has embraced best practices with operators and built strong relationships with the state regulators. By requiring all XFL players, coaches and officials to participate in our online integrity program, the league has made education a key pillar in preventing threats of betting corruption.'
The two XFL games broadcast on ABC and ESPN averaged to 2.9 viewers. There was buzz on social media and at sportsbooks. The XFL is determined to make it last by, in part, being the most betting-friendly league in the U.S.
'For a lot of our fans,' Pollack, the XFL's president said, 'free-to-play gaming, fantasy and legal sports betting have become [as] essential to the football experience as the helmet, ball and jersey.'
The XFL news is coming out fast. The season begins on February 8, 2020 and is being run by WWE promoter Vince McMahon and his crew of people. Eight cities across the United States were selected to host a team an they are almost ready to go. According to the XFL, the season last 79 days and was created for the love of the game.
We intend to keep you updated on the XFL betting news as it happens and provide odds each week. Our experts will make football picks and predictions for you to consider for XFL betting success.
XFL Betting
Odds To Win The 2020 XFL Championship
Dallas Renegades +300
New York Guardians +400
Los Angeles Wildcats +500
Tampa Bay Vipers +500
Houston Roughnecks +750
D.C. Defenders +800
St. Louis BattleHawks +900
Seattle Dragons +1000
Rules for XFL
There will be no PAT’s. Each scoring team has the option to run a play from different spots to add to their score. A two yard successful play is worth one point, a five yard play gains them two points and a successful 10 yard play garners three points.
Each team gets two timeouts per half in order to speed the game and there will be no coaches challenges. There will be a sky judge that looks at every play and can change the call within a 25 second time frame.
There are a lot more rule changes but the others have little impact on XFL betting.
Team News Links
Rest of the Schedule
Week 1 Schedule
(odds coming soon)
Saturday, February 8:
Seattle Dragons vs. DC Defenders: 2 p.m. ET on ABC
Los Angeles Wildcats vs. Houston Roughnecks: 5 p.m. ET on FOX
Sunday, February 9:
Tampa Bay Vipers vs. New York Guardians: 2 p.m. ET on FOX
St. Louis Battlehawks vs. Dallas Renegades: 5 p.m. ET on ESPN
Week 2
Saturday, Feb. 15
New York Guardians at D.C. Defenders 2 p.m. ET ABC
Tampa Bay Vipers at Seattle Dragons 5 p.m. ET Fox
Sunday, Feb. 16
Dallas Renegades at Los Angeles Wildcats 3 p.m. ET ABC
St. Louis BattleHawks at Houston Roughnecks 6 p.m. ET FS1
Week 3
Saturday, Feb. 22
Houston Roughnecks at Tampa Bay Vipers 2 p.m. ET ABC
Dallas Renegades at Seattle Dragons 5 p.m. ET Fox
Sunday, Feb. 23
New York Guardians at St. Louis BattleHawks 3 p.m. ET ESPN
D.C. Defenders at Los Angeles Wildcats 6 p.m. ET FS1
Week 4
Saturday, Feb. 29
Los Angeles Wildcats at New York Guardians 2 p.m. ET ABC
Seattle Dragons at St. Louis BattleHawks 5 p.m. ET Fox
Sunday, March 1
Houston Roughnecks at Dallas Renegades 4 p.m. ET FS1
D.C. Defenders at Tampa Bay Vipers 7 p.m. ET ESPN2
Week 5
Saturday, March 7
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Seattle Dragons at Houston Roughnecks 2 p.m. ET ABC
New York Guardians at Dallas Renegades 5 p.m. ET Fox
Sunday, March 8
St. Louis BattleHawks at D.C. Defenders 3 p.m. ET FS1
Tampa Bay Vipers at Los Angeles Wildcats 9 p.m. ET ESPN
Week 6
Saturday, March 14
Houston Roughnecks at New York Guardians 2 p.m. ET ABC
St. Louis BattleHawks at Tampa Bay Vipers 5 p.m. ET FS2
Sunday, March 15
Dallas Renegades at D.C. Defenders 4 p.m. ET FS1
Los Angeles Wildcats at Seattle Dragons 7 p.m. ET ESPN
Week 7
Saturday, March 21Dallas Renegades at Tampa Bay Vipers 2 p.m. ET ABC
Los Angeles Wildcats at St. Louis BattleHawks 5 p.m. ET Fox
Sunday, March 22
New York Guardians at Seattle Dragons 3 p.m. ET ABC
D.C. Defenders at Houston Roughnecks 6 p.m. ET FS1
Week 8
Saturday, March 28
Tampa Bay Vipers at D.C. Defenders 2 p.m. ET ABC
St. Louis BattleHawks at New York Guardians 5 p.m. ET Fox
Sunday, March 29
Houston Roughnecks at Los Angeles Wildcats 3 p.m. ET ABC
Seattle Dragons at Dallas Renegades 6 p.m. ET FS1
Week 9
Thursday, April 2
Dallas Renegades at Houston Roughnecks 8 p.m. ET Fox
Saturday, April 4
Nfl Sports Betting Predictions
D.C. Defenders at New York Guardians 2 p.m. ET ABC
Sunday, April 5
Tampa Bay Vipers at St. Louis BattleHawks 12 p.m. ET ESPN
Seattle Dragons at Los Angeles Wildcats 6 p.m. ET FS1
Week 10
Thursday, April 9
Los Angeles Wildcats at Dallas Renegades 8 p.m. ET Fox
Saturday, April 10
Houston Roughnecks at Seattle Dragons 2 p.m. ET ABC
Sunday, April 12
D.C Defenders at St. Louis BattleHawks TBD ABC
New York Guardians at Tampa Bay Vipers TBD FS1
XFL playoffs schedule 2020
The first-place team in each division will host its respective division final
East and West Finals
Saturday, April 18
East No. 2 at East No. 1 3 p.m. ET Fox
Sunday, April 19
Xfl Sports Betting Line
West No. 2 at West No. 1 3 p.m. ET ESPN
Nfl Sports Betting Tips
Championship
Sunday, April 26
Nfl Sports Betting
East vs. West 3 p.m. ET ESPN