Gridiron North Meets the Spirit of CFL Football
Introduction to CFL Betting
In the middle of the summer, there is not much action happening in the Canadian Football League (CFL) betting community. Aside from baseball and the occasional leisure sport, there are no major sports that are happening in America. RIght up above the border, it is football season in Canada!
Just like every major sport, they pump out weekly CFL odds and update the CFL Futures bets. If you are looking for a new sport to bet on in the heat of summer, then the CFL is something you should take an interest in.
CFL Relevant History
The CFL began in 1958 and has been mostly exclusive North of the border. In the history of Canadian football, there have been a total of 12 cities that have had the absolute honor of hoisting the Grey Cup, with Toronto having the most wins.
Canadian football, as it stands today, has nine total clubs in the league left. Those teams are spread out across the great white north. Spanning for the East of Montreal all the way out West to British Columbia, along with every major metropolitan area in between.
CFL Conferences
With the league being as small as it is, there are two divisions. Unlike most leagues, they are actually geographically correct. The East division holds teams on the side of the country such as Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, and Hamilton. The West division hosts teams in the western part of Canada, such as Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan.
CFL Odds
The CFL odds are very similar to regular sports betting. With every matchup, there will be a moneyline, a point spread, and a point total to bet on.
When talking about CFL odds, the moneyline is a fancy term for who will win outright. If their odds are negative, that means they are the “favorite” and are likely to win the matchup. If their odds are positive, that means they are the underdogs and are less likely to win the game. For example, if the odds are listed as “The Montreal Alouettes (-145) are scheduled to play the Toronto Argonauts (+115)”, it is fancy for the “Alouettes are favored to win against the Argonauts.”
CFL odds also feature a point spread. A point spread is the number of points a team is expected to win by. If the odds read something along the lines of “Hamilton vs. Winnipeg (-7.5)”, that means that Winnipeg is favored to win by more than seven points.
The least popular CFL odds to bet on is the point total. That is when you predicted the ballpark point total of the match. For example, “Saskatchewan vs BC (O/U 49.5) means that you can either bet the point total of the match is more or less than 49.
CFL Picks
CFL predictions are truly easy to find anywhere. Insiders Betting Digest posts a CFL Prediction weekly. Whether it is “best bets” or individual games, we have always got you covered. The CFL main website may not give you betting previews but still provide some CFL predictions.
How to bet on CFL
Betting on the CFL is very easy. CFL odds are posted on most major sportsbooks worldwide. Bookies feature weekly CFL odds on the moneyline, spread, and point total. As long as gambling is legal in your region, you are able to find CFL odds on most major bookies.
If you reside in Canada, the games are broadcasted weekly on TSN and RDS. If you live outside of Canada, you are able to watch most games on ESPN2 or ESPN News. All games are broadcasted on ESPN+.
There are very few noticeable changes between the Canadian and American games. These sports are still a version of football but not the same. The first and most noticeable one is that the CFL is three-down football. Before every offensive play, there is a procedure that must be followed, like slot backs running towards the line of scrimmage prior to the ball being snapped. The football is a different size. The CFL field is larger than an NFL field. Those are the biggest regulation differences.
For the most part, the games are played on three separate days. Those being Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. One of those days, usually Saturdays, will be a doubleheader where two teams play back to back. Games played on the East coast tend to be played around 7:00 PM Eastern and games on the West Coast are played around 10:00 PM Eastern.