Bill Nevin, head of sports at Bet USA, looks at NFL pre-season betting.

For your information, here’s the pre-season record (Against the Bet USA Spread) of all the NFL coaches:

Team/Coach/Record/2003/2004/2005

• ARZ Dennis Green 4-4* X 1-3 3-1

• ATL Jim Mora Jr. 6-3 X 2-2 4-1

• BAL Brian Billick 17-10 1-3 3-1 2-2 

• BUF Dick Jauron 7-13 1-3 X X 

• CAR John Fox 11-5 4-0 4-0 2-2 

• CHI Lovie Smith 5-4 X 2-2 3-2 

• CIN Marvin Lewis 5-7 1-3 2-2 2-2 

• CLE Romeo Crennel 3-1 X X 3-1 

• DAL Bill Parcells 18-6* 2-2 3-1 3-1 

• DEN Mike Shanahan 34-14* 3-1 2-3 4-0 

• DET Rod Marinelli 0-0 X X X 

• GB Mike McCarthy 0-0 X X X 

• HOU Gary Kubiak 0-0 X X X 

• IND Tony Dungy 7-10* 3-1 2-2 0-5 

• JAX Jack Del Rio 8-4 3-1 3-1 2-2 

• KC Herman Edwards 15-6 3-2 3-1 3-1 

• MIA Nick Saban 1-4 X X 1-4 

• MIN Brad Childress 0-0 X X X 

• NE Bill Belichick 16-9* 4-0 1-3 2-2 

• NO Sean Payton 0-0 X X X 

• NYG Tom Coughlin 4-4* X 1-3 3-1 

• NYJ Eric Mangini 0-0 X X X 

• OAK Art Shell 14-10* X X X 

• PHI Andy Reid 10-18 2-2 1-3 2-2 

• PIT Bill Cowher 28-27 1-3 2-2 3-1 

• SD Marty Schottenheimer 9-11* 2-2 2-2 2-2 

• SEA Mike Holmgren 13-15* 2-2 3-1 2-2 

• SF Mike Nolan 2-2 X X 2-2 

• STL Scott Linehan 0-0 X X X 

• TB Jon Gruden 23-11 4-1 3-1 2-2 

• TEN Jeff Fisher 20-16* 4-0 3-1 1-3 

• WAS Joe Gibbs 4-5* X 3-2 1-3 

There are many bettors who will not even consider having a wager on the pre-season NFL games. We see about 3% of the action on a typical pre-season match up as we would on the same game if played in the regular season. But for those prepared to do a bit of research, betting on pre-season games can be the most profitable time of the year.

As a linesmaker, we find it very difficult to set the lines on this game. So much of the pre-season training will have gone on in private and we have no idea how much or little preparation the teams will have got in before they play exhibition matches. Some teams will not be fully fit as the coach will prefer to slowly wind up his squad until they are all ready to fire on all cylinders in Week One, while some want to get the feeling that their team is a well prepared unit that knows what they are doing weeks before the season starts. The well prepared bettor can certainly beat us on these games.

The hardest problem to solve is to know when the teams will take off their starters and give other, less important, players a start. The key thing for all teams in pre-season is to avoid any serious injuries to their star players. Having your starting quarterback taken out for the season in a largely meaningless contest is not a good idea and coaches will do everything to avoid this scenario.

The players who win big from us on pre-season spend a good amount of time studying the coaches’ previous pre-season patterns and working out which coaches will be going for a morale boosting win and which coaches really don’t care. Some coaches obviously care – either about winning or simply covering the spread to keep the fans happy – and some obviously don’t care. 

Shrewd bettors will also be spending time looking all the way down the squad to see whether there are players who are currently the second and third choices for their position but who, with a good display in training and the pre-season games, could make their mark and take over the starting position. Where there are two or three players who might impress enough to take over the starting position there is a good chance the side will be motivated to play through to the final down and therefore will be a good bet against-the-spread.