American football before kick-off: how the site settles, how each league breaks a tie and when the seasons run
American football is a team sport in which the side holding the ball tries to carry or throw it into the opponent's end zone, moving down a field measured in yards through a sequence of plays known as downs; a touchdown is the main way to score, and a field goal is the kicked alternative. Every league covered in this section plays 60 minutes split into four 15-minute quarters: the NFL's 2026 playing rules, the NCAA's 2026 rule book and the Canadian Football League's 2026 rules agree on that much, then part ways over what happens when the scores are level at the end.
When each league is in the line
The section is seasonal, and the three leagues keep three different calendars.
NFL fixtures priced before kick-off run through an 18-week, 272-game regular season from September to early January; the playoffs fill January, and Super Bowl LXI is scheduled for 14 February 2027 in Los Angeles.
College games listed under NCAA start in late August, with Week Zero of 2026 on 27 August, and continue into early December; the 12-team College Football Playoff follows with first-round games on 18 and 19 December 2026, one quarter-final at the Fiesta Bowl on 30 December and three more on 1 January at the Rose Bowl, the Cotton Bowl Classic and the Peach Bowl, an Orange Bowl semi-final on 14 January 2027 and a Sugar Bowl semi-final the day after, then the national championship game in Las Vegas on 25 January 2027.
The CFL plays from June to November: the 2026 regular season opened on 4 June and ends on 24 October, the Division Semi-Finals fall on 31 October, the Division Finals on 7 November, and the 113th Grey Cup is played on 15 November 2026 in Calgary.
The NFL and NCAA groups keep the same address from one season to the next. The CFL group behaves differently: with no regular-season games between the Grey Cup and the June opener, it has so far been seen in the section only around its fixtures, so this page names it rather than linking to it.
Section 10.2: what the site counts and what it refunds
The site's betting rules give American football its own section, 10.2, and the general rules cover the rest. Read together, they settle the following situations:
Situation | Settlement | Where it is written |
|---|---|---|
The game goes to overtime | Bets are accepted on regular time including overtime, unless otherwise stated, so the overtime score counts by default | 10.2, item 1 |
The game starts but is stopped early, under 55 minutes played, outcome still open | Settled at odds of 1.00 | 10.2, item 2 |
The game is stopped after at least 55 minutes of play | The game counts as played and bets are settled on the actual score | 10.2, item 2 |
The game is stopped early, but the outcome of the bet is already clearly determined | The bet stands on that outcome | 10.2, item 2 |
The game, overtime included, ends in a draw | W1 and W2 are refunded at odds of 1.00, while totals and handicaps follow the final score | 10.2, item 7 |
The total lands exactly on the quoted line | Over and Under are both settled at odds of 1 | General rules, chapter 11 |
The handicap produces a level score once applied | Settled at odds of 1 | General rules, chapter 11 |
The draw clause bites only where a tie after overtime can exist, and under current league rules that means the NFL regular season alone. A half-point handicap line never produces a level score, so the refund in the last row concerns whole-number lines.
What a match page shows depends on the fixture. An NFL page carries "Team Wins" with W1 and W2 as its only two outcomes, "Total" with Over and Under, "Handicap", "First Half / Full-time" and "Will There Be Overtime" with Yes or No. Depending on the game, an NCAA page may also carry groups such as "Each Team Will Score A Certain Number Of Points" or "Team To Score In Both Halves" next to the winner, total and handicap. Beyond these, the rule book also describes markets built around the quarter or half with the most points, around touchdowns scored by a named player, around how a drive ends and around whether it produces a first down.
How a tied game ends in the NFL, the NCAA and the CFL
Because the site settles on the score including overtime, the overtime format of each league decides whether a winner bet can ever be refunded.
NFL, Rule 16 of the 2026 rules: in the regular season a single extra period of 10 minutes is played, both teams get the chance to possess the ball, and if the score is still level when the period ends the game is a tie. In the postseason the extra periods last 15 minutes and are repeated, however many it takes, until a winner is declared. The alignment of the two formats, with both teams possessing regardless of the first possession's outcome, was adopted in the 2025 rule changes.
NCAA, Rule 3-1-3 of the 2026 rules: the extra period gives each side one possession, both of them snapped from the opponent's 25-yard line; once a second extra period begins, any touchdown has to be converted with a two-point try, and from the third onwards each possession shrinks to a single play for two points from the 3-yard line. A college game cannot end in a tie.
CFL, Section 8 of the 2026 rules: a tied game goes to an overtime mini-game from the opponent's 35-yard line, where a touchdown must be followed by a 2-point convert from the 3-yard line, then a second mini-game at the other end. Playoff and Grey Cup games add mini-games until a winner emerges; in the regular season, from 2026, a series of 2-point converts settles it instead, a change the league introduced to eliminate tie games.
Canadian football by the numbers
The Canadian code puts 12 players a side on the field and gives the offence three downs to gain 10 yards. In the 2026 season the field measures 110 yards by 65 with 20-yard goal areas; a touchdown is worth 6 points, a field goal 3, a convert 1 point by kick or 2 by run or pass, and a single point, or rouge, 1. The league has announced that from 2027 the field shrinks to 100 yards with 15-yard end zones and goalposts moved to the back of the end zone, while 2026 already brought a modified rouge and a 35-second play clock.
Pre-match, in-play and an account in dinars
This page sits inside the pre-match line for every sport, where each American football game is listed with its markets ahead of kick-off.
Once a game is under way, betting continues in the in-play American football section, which picks up the fixtures in progress.
A player registering from Algeria holds an account in Algerian dinars; registering on the site is the step that precedes the first bet slip.