When it comes to American Football, the National Football League, or the NFL, is the top rank for all professional players of the sport. Boasting the best teams and players, it is therefore unsurprising that it has also licensed the bestselling NFL Madden video-game series. Here we’ll take a closer look at this, and the simulated matches that are shown online using its engine, along with how you can potentially turn a profit when betting on it.
First coming out in 1988 as John Madden Football, it would go on to release a new title each year, with it changing its name to Madden NFL in 1993. Developed and published by Electronic Arts, it’s gone on to become an annual fixture, replicating the highs and lows of the pitch immaculately. Evolving constantly, it would originally use the commentary of John Madden himself, before being updated to bring in all the latest players and teams. The technology behind the game would also advance, so it wasn’t just the graphics that pushed towards hyper-realism, but the player interaction was also extensively developed too.
This has all led to simulated American Football matches that are almost indistinguishable from the real thing, despite there being no human players involved. Betting on simulated games has also become hugely popular, but where do you start, and how can you make your money go even further?
Where To Bet NFL Madden 20 Simulations:
America:
Using Bovada is the ideal choice when betting on this in North America, as it covers the simulated match fairly extensively.
Canada:
Bodog is the best option for all those in Canada looking to bet on any licensed simulations, including NFL Madden 20.
Everywhere Else:
The best option is BetOnline as most sportsbooks outside of North America don’t offer video game sims. However BetOnline do and offer a good variety such as NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB.
What are NFL Madden Simulations?
Using the latest iteration of the game, Madden is state-of-the-art when it comes to simulating realistic American Football. Not just the official video-game tie-in using the legitimate branding of the NFL, it’s also an immersive game that’s constantly updated on an annual basis across multiple gaming platforms. This has led to equally realistic simulations using the game’s engine being broadcast on Twitch, and ultimately allowing you to take advantage of it betting wise.
The games themselves are run using the in-built Madden artificial intelligence, with the AI evolving at an increasingly rapid rate with each iteration of the game. As for the matches and simulations themselves, this is how they currently stand at this present time generally speaking:
- Match Length: Whilst a game of American Football runs for 3 hours and 12 minutes in real-time, the simulation cuts the excess leaving just the football, playing around one hour.
- Game Style: Using commentary and cutting edge graphics, each match plays as close as is possible to a real game of NFL.
- Bets Made: As with any traditional game of NFL or American Football, you have a wide range of bets, including predicting the overall winner, and handicaps and match lines.
Being able to watch most, if not all of the games through Twitch, with the twitch.tv/livefootballsims broadcasting them, you can keep up with the games on a regular basis. How do you best make this work for you, though, in regards to betting, and what should you look for when putting down any money?
Common NFL Madden 20 Simulations Questions:
How do they calculate the results?:With the computer ultimately playing against itself, the AI determines how each of the players interacts with one another. Using straightforward math to calculate the outcome of each simulated game, the results are based on the stats given prior to the match. The technology itself has become highly advanced, allowing it to manage thousands of differing outcomes within just a fraction of a second, giving the viewer a more fulfilling experience. This has led to the games becoming almost indistinguishable from the real-thing, despite human error and experience beforehand not having an impact, with it being a purely numbers based outcome.
What sort of bets are there here?:
Half the beauty of these games is that, not only do they play live at times more convenient for you, but they also play out not much different to their real-world counterpart. This means the bets are also extremely similar, providing all the wagers you’d expect from any real game, from overall winner bets, right down to the lines and margins. You can bet on which teams you think will win which simulated games, and you can also place handicaps on those with stronger odds, thus ensuring higher stakes. There’s also some props depending, and you can bet on the projected scores, including what they’ll be at half-time too.
How to Bet NFL Madden 20 Simulations:
At the top of the landing page is the ‘Sports’ option, after which you can choose ‘All Sports (A-Z)’, providing you with ‘Football’. Next you’ll want the roll-down menu with ‘All Football’ at the top, allowing you to choose ‘NFL 2020 Sims’, and then you can choose from the events and bets in the middle of the page. Now you can see the simulated match play through the twitch.tv/livefootballsims channel on Twitch, after having created your betting coupon.
Bodog:
This will typically be found through selecting ‘Sports’ at the top of the first page, followed by ‘Football’ from the drop-down menu under the ‘All Sports (A-Z)’ option on the next. In the roll-down menu labelled ‘All Football’, you can select ‘NFL 2020 Sims’ and this should give you all the events down the page now. With the odds and the upcoming matches, you can choose which teams you want, as it again uses twitch.tv/livefootballsims to display the games themselves.
Under “Sports Sims” in the sidebar look for “NFL Sims”. Click on that, and all available bets will come up.
NFL Madden 20 Simulations Betting Strategy:
Given that the NFL Madden game itself is readily available, you can potentially run your own simulated matches using similar stats and numbers. Whilst this will potentially provide you with some framework for betting in the future, it’s not always feasible, or even wholly necessary to do this. You can just look at the stats provided and, taking out the human element of the teams and players, do some good old fashioned number crunching.
Spreading your bets out is another useful approach, with the handicaps and margins balancing out your odds, and raising the stakes in the process. It may be an algorithm determining the outcome, but there’s no reason as to why you shouldn’t be able to prepare yourself for making a more informed betting decision.
Simulating the games yourself if you have a PS4 or XBox is a great idea too. While not 100% accurate you may notice some trends due to a lack of variance compared to real sports.