It’s always best to go into something with a plan or a strategy, and the same goes for CFL betting. To help make sure you get off on the right foot with your CFL bets, we’ve listed a few of our go-to betting strategies.
Historically there has always been a lot of turnover for players and coaches year over year in the CFL and that much uncertainty means underdogs are always a great play in the early weeks of the season. Since 2006, underdogs have hit at a ridiculous 61.7 clip over the first four weeks of the season, including going 10-5 during that first month in 2021.
While kickoff and punt returns are essentially getting legislated out of the NFL, they’re still a huge part of the CFL. Since teams only have two downs to get the yardage they need to keep a drive alive, punts are much more common. The CFL also doesn’t have a fair catch rule, with players on kick coverage required to give the returner a five yard bubble when they catch it. Special teams are much more important in the CFL, so consider which teams have stronger special teams units that could be x-factors in any given game.
It may not be as easy to do this for the CFL since there isn’t as much stat-keeping going on, but it’s not hard to do manually either. What you want to do is track how teams perform in different situations so that you can predict their performances moving forward. This includes team splits at home or away, or during the first half of the season versus the second half, or how they perform in the first half of games versus the second half of games.
As mentioned above, you’re doing yourself a disservice if you’re not shopping lines, so make sure to always check out a few different sportsbooks for each bet you place so that you know you’re always getting the most bang for your buck.
Singles Vs. Parlays
While single bets are much safer and far less risky, they don’t reward the bettor as much for a win. Meanwhile a parlay is much less safe and far more risky, but if the bettor wins, they usually win big-time. For example, if you set up a 7-bet parlay, you need every one of those seven bets to hit or else you win nothing.
If you go six for seven on a parlay, you win nothing just like if you’d gone zero for seven. Meanwhile, if you make seven single bets and hit five, you win those five that hit and only lose the two that didn’t. It all depends on how confident you are in your entire parlay and not just on a couple of your choices. If you really like just one market, go with a single, but if you have a strong feeling about several bets, go with the parlay. We’d recommend limiting your parlays to three to five picks max, because while anything more will result in enormous payouts, it also reduces the probability of your bet immensely.