It is in one's best interest to know all your options before making a bet. The straight bet is more of a long haul type of bet. You are not going to rack up the big dough right away but over time, it will add up. The parlay bet is more of hope for bigger payouts quicker. These are more of a weekly bet. The teaser bet can be used in several ways. You won't make a ton on teasers because the payouts are lower but they are a good way of "hedging" your bet. "Hedging" will be explained in more detail later. Finally, the round robin bet is a mix of straight bet payouts and parlay payouts. They can keep you in it for the long haul or can be a real quick payout. The following explanations should help you make the right choice and hopefully you will find a betting option you really enjoy.

The first and easiest football betting option is the straight bet. Let me rephrase that, making the bet is simple, picking which bet you like is even simpler if you have the right picks or knowledge. The straight bet is exactly like it sounds...straight. You find a team or an over/under you like and you just bet that. It's a one-team bet.

For example, you like the Bengals -5 over the Texans. You would go down to the casino or make an Internet bet and tell the Sports book you would like 50 units on the Bengals. If they cover, you will receive you original bet back plus another 45.5 units. Same thing goes if you like an over/under. Say you like the over in the Chief's game, which is 50. You would make the same bet as you would have with the Bengal's game and the payout is the exact same. The straight bet is a betting option where you are in it for the whole season.

This isn't the biggest moneymaker bet books have to offer. This is a bet where if you stay in it for the long haul, the profit will eventually start to show. Most handicappers choose this betting option.

The money line betting option is a lot like the straight bet with just a little twist. When you bet a football game on the money line, this involves a simple bet on the true winner of the game without a point spread. Lets go back to the example we used in the straight bet. In the straight bet, we liked the Bengals ?5 over the Texans. With the money line bet, we could make two choices. We could bet that the Bengals are going win the game or the Texans are going to win the game. No point spreads, just win the game!

That is called the money line bet. There is a difference between the two choices though. If you decide to bet on the favorite, you must bet more than you stand to win. The reason for this is you are taking away the point spread and making it easier to win the bet. If on the other hand, you decide to choose the underdog, you are saying the underdog is going to win the game not just cover the spread. In this case, you stand to win more than you bet.

The next betting option is the parlay. Easy to do, a little harder to win. The parlay is a way to bet multiple games with the hope of a big payout at the end if all of the games win. The point spreads for the games are just the same as the straight bets so nothing changes there. For example, say you like the Dolphins +2 against the Eagles and the over in the game at 37. You would go to the sports book and tell them parlay and the Dolphins and the over for 50 units. If both bets cover you will receive your 50 units back plus an additional 180 units. A much bigger payout than the standard straight bet but again, a little harder to win. If just one game doesn't win or draw you lose the whole bet, that's why it's considered a little harder.

With a parlay, you can bet more than two bets. Two bets is the minimum and depending on the casino the maximum amount of bets will range from 5 to 8. Of course with the more teams you bet, the higher the payout. Here are a few of the payouts. For a three-team parlay, the payout is 6 to 1 plus you original bet.

That means if you put 50 units on three different teams or over/under you would get back 300 units plus your original 50. For a four-team parlay, the payout is 10-1 plus your original bet. For a five-team parlay, the payout is 20-1 plus your original bet. Of course, the more teams you add the harder it is to win. The parlay is a quick way to a big payout if you have the right knowledge and picks.

After the parlays, the next football betting option would be the teasers. Teasers are just like parlays since you choose multiple games and have to win them all. Teasers are bet the same way as parlays except you will get more points for your bet. There are a couple types of betting options for teasers with football. Usually, depending on the casino, there are 6-point teasers and 7-point teasers.

You may be thinking to yourself if these are any good. You will get two separate responses for this. For college football, people don't believe they are any good because the games are usually blowouts and an extra 7 points won't do me any good. For pro football, people seem to enjoy the teasers and the extra points they receive because pro games tend to be a bit closer.

ere is an example of a teaser bet: Say you like the Raiders to win this week over the Bills but you don't think they would cover the spread of ?7. So, you would like to do a 7 point teaser and now you have the Raiders as a Pick em'. Of course you would have to add at least two more teams to make the bet. Again, a teaser is bet the same way as a parlay, you need more than one team to make the bet. Another thing to remember with a teaser is you can bet both the favorite and the underdog of the same game.

Lets go back to the Raiders example: Raiders -7 over the Bills. On a 7 point teaser, you could take the Raiders as a Pick em' and the Bills as a 14 point underdog. You could win both ways. People enjoy the teasers for other reasons as well such as "hedging a bet." Lets say you have a 100 unit 5 team parlay going into the Monday night game. You have already hit 4 teams and if the fifth team hits you are looking at a 2000 unit payout. But you want to make sure you win something. If that fifth team doesn't cover the spread, there will be no payout. So this is where you would "hedge your bet." You could also "hedge" with a straight bet as well but a teaser is a better way to go. "Hedging" means betting on the opposite team than your original team on your original bet. This way, you are insured of winning something no matter what.

The only time you would want to "hedge" is when it is with a parlay. Some people may find it strange to bet against your original bet, but the only difference between you and them is you will be walking out with units in your pocket using this betting option. The only draw back to a teaser off the board is you cannot do the over/under. You can do over/under teasers off a card but we will get to those later on in the article. You may think this is a great bet receiving extra points but the player ends up paying for these points in the end in the form of lower payouts than on the parlay. This is not a betting option where you want to make bad picks with a lower payout.

The round robin is a form of the parlay betting option. With the round robin you would bet just like a parlay only now you are combing all your teams. This can be confusing to someone one at first, but once you do it, it is one of the best betting options out there.

The reason this is a good football betting option is because you do not have to win all the games to win at least some of your money back. Of course you have to hit all the games to win a big payout but if you hit a few of the games, you could just win your money back or even a little profit. A round robin parlay consists of two to eight teams. When you pick the amount of teams you want to bet, they are broken down into two team parlays. Before all the confusion starts, let me explain: Lets say you want to bet a 3 team round robin. Your bet would consist of 3 teams. For this quick example, lets call the teams, team 1, team 2, and team 3. I'll get into a better example when we start talking betting units. A 3 team round robin is team 1 and team 2 (two team parlay), team 1 and 3(two team parlay), and team 2 and 3 (two team parlay).

Each team is parlayed with each other only once. Realize that each parlay is a bet. The more teams you bet, the more parlays you have and the more it is going to cost you.

Now, here is your full 3 team round robin betting option example:

Let's say you want to bet 100 units on a three-team parlay. That will come out to be 300 units because of the three different parlays.

Here are the teams you want to bet:

Panthers ?1
Rams ?10
Patriots ?2

If all three teams hit this is how your payout would look:

Panthers and Rams 100 unit bet to win 260
Panthers and Patriots 100 unit bet to win 260
Rams and Patriots 100 unit bet to win 260

Your total bet was 300 units and if all three win, you would win 480 units plus your original 300 for a total of 780.

Now lets say only two of the teams covered their spread:

Panthers and Rams 100 unit bet to win 260
Panthers and Patriots 100 unit bet no win
Rams and Patriots 100 unit bet no win

Your total bet is still 300 units and you'll cash out 260 total. So in actuality, you would only loose 40 units. That is the difference between a round robin and a regular parlay, that chance of hitting two out of three and just losing a little bit.

Now remember, the more teams you bet, the more parlays you will have. Another added feature of the round robin is you can do more than a two-team parlay. You could do two's and three's. What that means is you want to bet all two team parlays and three team parlays. Let's use our easy example of a 3 team round robin: Team 1,2,and 3. All the two team parlay bets stay the same: 1 and 2, 1 and 3, and 2 and 3. Now you are adding another bet to the round robin with threes: 1 and 2 and 3. Now depending on how much wager, you bet has increased by that amount. You now have 4 bets instead of 3.

More of a wager but if they all hit, your cash out increases as well. The round robin is just another betting option sport books give you.

There are so many betting options you can choose when it comes to betting football. Let's hope that these last few pages of information have helped you figure out what betting style fits you best or maybe you have found a new betting option you want to try. Whether you are in it for the long haul or a quick payoff, football betting is fun and exciting!

Leo Mendelsohn
Richard Peraldo
Thehooks http://www.thehooksfootballpicks.com