NFL Betting in Michigan

With legal sports betting now live in Michigan, NFL betting is set to explode in the Great Lakes State.

Licensed retail sportsbooks across Michigan are now offering futures, moneylines, point spreads, over/unders, parlays, and props for the most popular and most bet on sport in the United States, plus mobile sports betting apps will soon be joining them.

Michigan sportsbooks are prepared to allow NFL betting of all kinds, starting in the off-season and running all the way through to the Super Bowl.

Across the US there is more money bet on the NFL than anything else in sports. Things should be no different in Michigan, home to the Detroit Lions.

Find out all about betting on the NFL in Michigan, including everything from the best bets to make and where to make them.

How to bet on the NFL in Michigan

With legal sports betting having already launched at retail sportsbooks, you can now bet on the NFL in Michigan.

Michigan lawmakers also passed legislation that will allow licensed operators to launch online and mobile sportsbooks available statewide. The Michigan Gaming Control Board (MGCB) is still working on the rules to govern online gambling in Michigan and a process for licensing potential providers.

The board has said if certain aspects of the rule-making process can be expedited, Michigan mobile sports betting apps and websites could launch by October 2020. However, it could also be early 2021 before the first of the platforms gets off the ground.

Once they do, you’ll find a look at the best Michigan NFL betting apps right here in this space.

In the meantime, Detroit’s three commercial casinos all launched retail sportsbooks in March 2020 where you can bet on the NFL and other sports:

Greektown Casino Hotel

The Greektown Casino Hotel and operator Penn National Gaming opened a temporary sportsbook in March 2020. The operation’s sports betting tech supplier is Kambi.

The pair also plan to build a permanent Barstool Sports-branded sportsbook in the middle of the casino floor. Plus, there are plans to launch a Barstool Sports-branded Michigan mobile sports betting app in late 2020 or early 2021.

MGM Grand Detroit

The BetMGM Sportsbook launched inside MGM Grand Detroit in March 2020.

United Kingdom-based GVC is MGM’s online gambling partner in the US. The pair operate the BetMGM online gambling and sports betting brands around the country under its joint venture, Roar Digital. An integrated BetMGM online sportsbook and online casino could launch as early as November 2020.

MotorCity Casino Hotel

MotorCity Casino Hotel launched a retail FanDuel Sportsbook on the property in March 2020. Detroit Lions legend Barry Sanders placed the first bet. FanDuel Sportsbook will go online across Michigan as soon as it can, which is projected to be late 2020 or early 2021.

Tribal casino sportsbooks

Several of the state’s 23 tribal casinos will have sportsbooks and Michigan’s 12 federally recognized tribes are making partnerships with online gambling companies.

In June 2020, the state’s first tribal casino sportsbook opened when FireKeepers Casino in Battle Creek launched Dacey’s Sportsbook, powered by Scientific Games.

Four Winds Casinos added sportsbooks at its three southwest Michigan locations; Little River Casino Resort in Manistee opened the River Rock Sportsbook & Grill; and Island Resort & Casino in Harris opened the BetAmerica Sportsbook, a first in the Upper Peninsula, in September.

More are expected in 2020.

Top NFL betting apps in Michigan

Ultimately, you will be able to bet on the NFL wherever you are in Michigan state lines with access to the internet using your mobile device or computer thanks to a number of upcoming Michigan online sportsbooks.

Betting on the NFL online in Michigan will be a simple three-step process requiring you to:

• Register for an account
• Make a deposit
• Fill out a bet slip

Of course, the process will differ slightly between the different betting apps and websites. However, the three basic steps will be the same:

Register for an account

You won’t be able to make NFL bets online in Michigan until you register for an account with a licensed sportsbook. The good news is that the sportsbooks will make this easier than you can imagine.

Just follow these simple steps:

• Find the ‘REGISTER’ tab on the Michigan online and mobile sportsbook homepage
• Fill out the required personal and account information fields with things like your name, email, date of birth and last four digits of your SSN
• Enter the exclusive promo code you find on our website for the sportsbook of your choice to make sure you get the best bonus
• Check the boxes accepting all terms and conditions and submit the information

The sportsbook will verify your age and location.

Make a deposit

The next step is getting money into your account. Most sportsbooks will offer you a variety of different deposit methods, including everything from credit and debit cards to online payment processors and cash at various retail locations, including affiliated casinos and retail sportsbooks

To make a deposit into your account just follow these simple steps:

• Find the ‘DEPOSIT’ tab on the sportsbook homepage
• Choose the best method of deposit available
• Enter the amount you want to deposit and follow the prompts
• Confirm the transaction

With most deposit methods the funds will be immediately available.

Fill out a bet slip

Filling out a bet slip is the final step in betting on football in Michigan.

This is another simple process that can be completed by following these easy steps:

• Login
• Browse through the NFL betting lines
• Click on a line you want to bet on
• Verify the information contained on the instantly created bet slip
• Enter the amount you want to bet
• Verify the potential payout displayed
• Click the ‘Place Bet’ tab to confirm

Is it legal to bet on the NFL in Michigan?

Yes. It is legal to bet on the NFL in Michigan as long as you’re 21 years old or over, inside state lines, and placing the bet at a licensed Michigan sportsbook.

In May 2018, the United States Supreme Court opened the door for individual states to legalize sports betting by lifting a federal ban on the activity. Michigan walked through that door in December 2019 when Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a package of gambling expansion bills into law. These bills legalized online casinos, online poker, and sports betting.

Of course, not just anyone can decide to take bets on sports and open up a sportsbook. Only the three casinos in Detroit and 23 tribal casinos across the state have been given the right to apply for Michigan sports betting licenses.

These licenses, which come with a $50,000 application fee, $100,000 license fee, and $50,000 annual renewal fee, allow the casinos to offer sports betting at retail sportsbooks and online.

Licensees are also subject to an 8.4% tax on all sports betting revenue and Detroit casinos must pay an additional 3.25% tax on sports betting revenue to the city.

Detroit’s three casinos launched retail sportsbooks in March 2020. Michigan online and mobile wagering is expected to launch in late 2020 or early 2021.

NFL bet types in Michigan

Michigan sportsbooks offer the following basic ways to bet on the NFL:

• Moneyline: Pick a winner of a game. Then, book a moneyline bet at the currently posted odds. Favorites show a negative (-) number indicating how much you must bet to win $100, plus your bet back. Underdogs show a positive (+) number indicating how much you’ll earn for every $100 you bet. If the Detroit Lions moneyline is at -120, then every $120 bet on the Lions stands to win $100, plus your bet back. If the Lions moneyline is at +200, then every $100 bet on the Lions stands to win $200, plus your bet back.
• Point spread: Pick the winner of a game, but factor in the point spread set by oddsmakers into the final score to determine the betting winner.If the Lions point spread is -6.5 they will need to win by at least seven for point spread bets to pay. If the Lions point spread is at +6.5, not only does the bet cash if the Lions win, it cashes if they lose by fewer than seven points.
• Total: Pick whether the total points scored in a game or period of a game will be over or under a line set by oddsmakers.
• Props: Prop betting allows you to bet on whether certain things may or may not happen during a game, including players and teams reaching certain statistical milestones. Will the Lions score first? Will Lions QB Matthew Stafford throw more than three TD passes?
• Parlays: Combine two or more basic bets into a single bet. Get paid at ballooning odds, but only if every bet that’s part of the parlay wins.
• Futures: Pick a team to win the Super Bowl, MVP, conference, or division at opening odds.
• NFL live betting: NFL live or in-game betting is betting on games that have already started at odds that are adjusted based on what’s happening on the field. Live betting is offered at retail and online and mobile sportsbooks, but it’s much easier to manage online because of the speed at which the odds change.

A look at the 2020 NFL season

The league announced in May 2020 that the upcoming NFL season will go ahead pending further developments with the COVID-19 pandemic. Like always, there will be a training camp and short preseason, followed by a 17-week regular season where each team plays 16 games.

The NFL Playoffs will follow the regular season with an expanded 14-team single-elimination tournament to determine who plays in the Super Bowl. In a new wrinkle for 2020, the league added two playoff teams to each conference’s tournament.

The 2020 season kicked off Sept. 10, with the Super Bowl LIV champion Kansas City Chiefs hosting the Houston Texans. The season will wrap up with Super Bowl LV on Feb. 7, 2021, at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, FL.

How to bet on the NFL preseason

The NFL preseason is just a tuneup for the regular season. Regular season starters get more rest than playing time and winning isn’t really the goal. Michigan sportsbooks will offer betting lines on preseason games, but your guess is as good as theirs as to who will actually win these meaningless contests.

Training camps are set to be held from late July through August.

However, in 2020, the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game between the Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers and the rest of the preseason slate was canceled because of COVID-19 concerns.

Betting on the NFL regular season

The NFL rewards winning and until teams have locked up playoff spots and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs, every team tries to win every game it can.

The league divides its 32 teams into two 16-team conferences: The AFC and NFC. Each team plays 16 regular-season games over a 17-week regular season and only the best seven teams in each conference make the playoffs.

Michigan sportsbooks will offer various betting markets for every regular-season game and futures markets on team performance, allowing you to bet on almost every aspect of the NFL regular season.

Betting on the NFL Playoffs

Only the best seven teams in each of the AFC and NFC make the NFL Playoffs. This includes the team with the top regular-season record in each division, seeded one through four in the conference.

In each conference, the teams with the fifth-, sixth-, and seventh-best records qualify for the playoffs as wild cards.

The NFL Playoffs are a single-elimination tournament to decide the NFL champion, so it goes without saying that teams are trying to win. Lines set by sportsbooks will be stunningly accurate because oddsmakers have fewer teams to focus on.

Wild Card Weekend starts things off with three division winners hosting three wild card teams in each conference. The top-seeded team in each conference gets a bye.

The three wild card winners move on to round two along with top seed in the Divisional Round. Then those winners meet in the AFC and NFC Championship games.

Betting on the Super Bowl

The AFC and NFC Conference champions face off in the Super Bowl to determine which team will hoist the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

Michigan sportsbooks will likely offer more props and betting markets for the Super Bowl than any other sporting event. The Super Bowl has become one of the single biggest days in sports and sports betting.

How to watch the NFL in Michigan

Live streams of certain games are available free on the NFL app. This includes some Detroit Lions games and nationally broadcast primetime games like ESPN’s Monday Night Football and NBC’s Sunday Night Football.

The Yahoo Sports app or an online streaming package is required if you want to stream NFL Network’s Thursday Night Football games. Your cable package is another option to access NFL Network.

If you want online access to the entire NFL schedule, you need to purchase an NFL Sunday Ticket or NFL Game Pass package that allows for live streaming of all games and online replays.

The NFL has granted FOX (NFC) and CBS (AFC) TV broadcast rights. This means you can watch regional NFL games on TV for free, so you’ll find most Detroit Lions or Green Bay Packers games on Fox affiliates in Michigan, including:

• Alpena: WBKB-DT2 11.2
• Cadillac (Traverse City): WFQX-TV 32
• Detroit: WJBK 2
• Flint: WSMH 66
• Grand Rapids: WXMI 17
• Lansing: WSYM-TV 47
• Marquette: WLUC-DT2 6.2
• Sault Marie: WWUP-DT2 10.2 (satellite of WFQX)
• Vanderbilt: WFUP-TV 45 (satellite of WFQX)

Road games against AFC opponents will be aired on CBS affiliates in Michigan, including:

• Alpena: WBKB-TV 11
• Bay City (Flint): WNEM-TV 5
• Cadillac (Traverse City): WWTV 9
• Detroit: WWJ-TV 62
• Kalamazoo (Grand Rapids): WWMT 3
• Lansing: WLNS-TV 6
• Sault Ste. Marie: WWUP-TV 10 (satellite of WWTV)

FOX and CBS affiliates also air national games and games of regional interest.

Michigan NFL teams and rivals

Detroit Lions

The Detroit Lions play in the NFC North Division. The Lions were originally the Portsmouth Spartans, who joined the NFL in 1930, moved to Detroit from southern Ohio in 1934, and were renamed.

The team is owned by Sheila Ford Hamp. She took over the team in June 2020 from her mother Martha Firestone Ford, the grandchild of the founders of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Co. and the widow of Henry Ford’s grandson. William Clay Ford bought the Lions in 1963 and passed controlling interest on to his widow when he died in March 2014, who then passed it to their second-oldest of four children.

The Detroit Lions have won four NFL championships, but the team’s last title came in 1957, winning one playoff game since then. The Lions have never been to the Super Bowl. The Lions have played home games at Ford Field in downtown Detroit since 2002.

2019-20  Detroit Lions

The 2019 Detroit Lions started the season with two wins and a tie. However, the team lost 12 of its last 13 games and did not make the NFL Playoffs.

Starting QB Matthew Stafford fractured bones in his back in Week 9 and backup QBs Jeff Driskel and David Blough did not win a single game in relief.

The Lions ended up posting with a 3-12-1 record.

However, Head Coach Matt Patricia is returning for a third season in 2020 and the Lions signed Pro Bowl corner Desmond Trufant to a two-year, $21-million deal heading into the season. Other high profile additions include tackle Halapoulivaati Vaitai (five years / $45 million) and linebacker Jamie Collins (three years / $30 million).

The Lions selected Ohio State cornerback Jeff Okudah with the third pick of the NFL Draft, adding Georgia running back D’Andre Swift in round two.

Lions rivals

The Detroit Lions’ two longest rivals are in the NFC North division and have been playing against the Lions since the team joined the NFL in 1930

Of course, the Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers have enjoyed much more success than the Lions have.

The Bears won eight NFL Championships prior to the AFL–NFL merger and Super Bowl XX in 1985. The Packers won 11 NFL Championships prior to the AFL–NFL merger and Super Bowl I, II, XXXI, and XLV.

Three of the best Detroit Lions of all time

1. Barry Sanders: Sanders played for the Lions for 10 seasons from 1989 to 1998. He led the league in rushing four times and was named NFL Offensive Player of the Year twice. Sanders was a Heisman Trophy winner at Oklahoma State and won NFL Rookie of the Year in his first NFL season. In 1997, he became just the third player ever to rush for over 2,000 yards and was named NFL Most Valuable Player. Sanders retired just 1,457 yards short of the NFL all-time rushing record and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2004.
2. Alex Karras: Karras played for the Lions from 1958 to 1970. He made the Pro Bowl four times. Karras went on to find another career as an actor starring in the 1974 Mel Brooks film Blazing Saddles and the ABC sitcom Webster from 1983 to 1989. Karras was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2020.
3. Charlie Sanders: Sanders played tight end for the Lions from 1968 to 1977. He was a seven-time Pro Bowl selection, three-time First-Team All-Pro and a member of the NFL 1970s All-Decade Team. Sanders was voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2007.

Basic NFL betting strategy

The best NFL betting strategies are all information-based. That means you have to watch NFL games and read and watch everything you can about the league to bet on the NFL successfully.

High-quality research is key. You need to pore over news reports on the internet and consume everything you can about the NFL from multiple sources with the goal of turning your guesses into informed and educated picks. You also need to watch NFL games as there is no substitute for seeing what teams and players are capable of with your own eyes.

Of course, you also need to learn how to be selective. You don’t have to bet on every game, just the ones where the information you’ve uncovered shows that one team has an edge.

Plus, you must learn to avoid the tease of multi-game parlays that promise big paydays but rarely come through.

Shop around

When you find a side you like, don’t forget to shop around for a price on it. Look at the line at every licensed Michigan sportsbook you can. Shop around for the best price on a bet because finding it is like putting money in your pocket, win or lose.

Fade the public

Lines might move because of injuries to key players and reports of bad weather. But when they move because of big bets or increased action on one side you should be ready to pounce.

When a line moves because the betting public is on one side or the other you can fade the public. These movements are artificial. There’s no on-the-field reason for the adjustment. Take advantage by sticking to oddsmakers’ initial predictions with a little extra leeway.

Don’t chase losses

Chasing losses with bigger and more bets is a quick way to go broke. Instead, manage your bankroll by betting the same amount most times. That way you’ll still have a bankroll when the inevitable winning streak comes around.

Avoid betting with your heart

Diehard Detroit Lions fans often make the mistake of betting with their hearts, not their heads. Use information, stats, and data to make picks instead.

Favorites for a reason

NFL longshots offer attractive paydays, but you’ll lose a lot more of these bets than you’ll win. Try mixing in a few favorites with your dogs for better overall results.