American Football is gracing the hallowed Wembley turf on Sunday, as we take a look at Tampa Bay Buccaneers v Chicago Bears betting. An NFL match at Wembley has been a staple annual diet for the past four years, and this year’s fifth showing of the glitz and glamour of sport, has maybe bigger implications than just to see who picks up the win abroad. The NFL is keen to grow the sport in Europe, and there have been talks about a British franchise hooking up with the NFL permanently. The chat, although informal about a franchise being opened in London is something that the sport’s executives seem to think will be a good thing. In the end it will be about the NFL expanding their wings and their profits. Sunday’s Wembley showcase has not been sold out this year because of a dispute by the player’s trade union which caused a lot of disruption and the game was only finally confirmed over a month ago, not giving ticket sales enough time to really flourish like they have done in the past. Last year we have the San Francisco 49’s beating the Denver Broncos in a great match up, and the 2011 showing will feature Tampa Bay for the second time in three years. Back in 2008, the Buccaneers crashed heavily against the New England Patriots in front of the London crowd. But any immediate excitement of having a British team in the NFL should be quelled because it is not something which is going to happen soon. Should it happen though, it could go either way, with the NFL perhaps spreading out in Europe on a bigger scale, or moving a US team to the London base. It is a little unlikely that the organization would look to expand to many more franchises, so a current US team relocating probably sounds like the most probable scenario. Of course there would be uproar and politics surrounding that, should it happen, but it is something which North American sports have encountered before.
Most recently the NHL’s Atlanta Thrashers franchise was relocated to Canada as the Winnipeg Jets, so teams do change. The NHL too have, over the past few years reached out in to Europe, playing their season openers at different locations around Europe before heading back to North America for the rest of the season. There will be logistical problems of working in a London team to the NHL. So now we can focus on the US teams who are here, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, owned by the Glazer family who invested so much in Manchester United are the first team to return to London. The Buccaneers have started their new NFL season strongly, with four wins and two defeats. Interestingly they are not one of the highest scoring teams in the NHL, and neither do they have the best defence. But they have rocked out a 3-1 home record for the season nonetheless and are just about getting the job done and are riding fourth in the NFC conference. They head to London on a one match winning stream and have a positive 2-0 record against Divisional opponent and are 3-2 in the ascendancy over fellow Conference teams. Their opponents on Sunday, the Chicago Bears have split their opening six matches with a 3-3 record, but have put more points on the board than the Buccaneers. The Chicago Bears hit London with a one match winning streak and with a 1-2 match record against divisional rivals. All of the Bears’ matches have come against fellow NFC teams so far . So on paper the two look pretty evenly matched, but let us look as some Tampa Bay v Chicago NFL betting.
Tampa Bay should be pretty confident after scoring a good win against the strong New Orleans Saints in their last match. They are not averaging as many points per match as Chicago though. The Buccaneers are averaging 18.8 points per match, while Chicago are running at 24.3 per game. Neither defence is really sparkling at the moment, with the Chicago Bears ranking 29th out of 32 franchises in the NHL at the moment, but Tampa Bay are only running at the 25th best team in overall defence. Tampa may just have the edge, but this should be a pretty close match up.
Tampa Bay v Chicago Bears NFL betting
Chicago Bears to win: 20/23 at Boylesports
Tampa Bay Buccaneers to win: 21/20 at SkyBet
Points Spread Betting
As this is American Football, we can take a look at points spreads, which is a handicap system. You basically back a team to beat a set points spread on a match, for example the Chicago Bears -1 for Evens at BetFair means that the Bears will need to win by two points for the bet to win. With the spread set there, it gives a good indicator of how tight the match is expected to be, with two fairly unpredictable sides squaring off. Because the Bears are on a minus in the spread it means they are favourites, naturally. With Tampa set at +1 for the same price at BetFair, you will simply be backing the Buccaneers to not lose my more than one point. Check out online betting exchange BetFair for more options, as they offer a risk free £25 bet for new customers registering an account.
