Winning football bets isn’t just about some good luck—it’s about knowledge. The best bettors study the game, analyze trends, and understand how odds really work. If you’re serious about improving your football betting skills, the right books can give you a huge edge.
Some books break down advanced strategies, like line movement and bankroll management. Others focus on the psychology of betting, helping you avoid common mistakes that cost money. Whether you’re a beginner looking for the basics or an experienced bettor refining your approach, there’s a book that can help.
This page highlights the best football betting books every serious bettor should read. You’ll find expert insights, proven strategies, and real-world advice to sharpen your betting game. If you want to stop guessing and start making smarter bets, these must-read books are the perfect place to start.
The Best Football Betting Books
Even the best betting guides can’t cover everything, and that’s where these books come in. They dive deeper into strategy, bankroll management, and the psychology of betting—giving you extra tools to improve your game.
Whether you’re sharpening your skills or looking for new angles, these books are the perfect supplement to our NFL football betting guide, helping you bet smarter and find more value in the odds.
1. The Logic Of Sports Betting – Ed Miller

The Logic of Sports Betting teaches you how to win with perspectives from the inside. It is easily the best book in the past few years about sports betting.
For example, how does a sportsbook generate lines for a particular market?
As the abstract says, the book “answers all these questions and more with a dash of humor and a whole lot of real talk about how it all works.”
The book will teach you the process and will help you determine when and what are the easiest areas to focus your efforts as a football bettor.
2. The Everything Guide To Sports Betting – Josh Appelbaum

This book does an excellent job explaining the various types of market insights and the reasoning behind them. It is an excellent book for beginners.
The author Josh Appelbaum has a great plan that works regardless of whether you play many games a day or just a few times a week.
You can apply his ideas after learning almost exclusively about the market’s ticket total and betting line movements. Josh Appelbaum also has a weekly podcast explaining the details of sports betting in America.
By the way, if you prefer podcasts, we have an article recommending the best NFL betting podcasts.
3. Sharp Sports Betting – Stanford Wong

This book offers a comprehensive overview of gambling in sports, focusing strongly on NFL football betting. It is also the most famous book on this list.
The book has many charts that help you understand where to put your money smartly.
You may have heard the author’s name before in Wong Teasers, a fundamental strategy to bet teasers.
Stanford Wong combines beginners’ terminology with plenty of math propositions to make the book interesting for newbies and advanced bettors.
4. Picking NFL Winners: A Statistical Handicapping Primer – Masaru Kanemoto

Author Masaru Kanemoto explains his betting model for football from top to bottom. The author discusses the improvements and adjustments that he made to existing statistics.
The book comes as a direct conversation with a professional gambler looking to beat sportsbooks, especially during football season.
Kanemoto is also the author of “Winning Sports Betting.” But he will focus on football and his statistical winning method in Picking NFL Winners.
It’s a great NFL betting book if you are serious about beating the sportsbooks weekly.
5. Sharper: A Guide To Modern Sports Betting – TruePoker Joe

Many books focus on handicapping, which uses statistics and information to assign probabilities for different outcomes. However, most of this book is about trading.
This book has different qualities from everyday sports betting books. The author focused on how to think and the process of beating the oddsmakers.
It’s a solid guide for new and intermediate bettors to use when betting on football. However, it’s not a model. Instead, the author will tell you how he sees different betting situations and how to attack them.
The Biggest Takeaway From These Books
Reading the right books gives you an edge. Whether it’s breaking down point spreads, learning how the sharps bet, or mastering emotional discipline, these books can change the way you approach football betting. Even if you already know the basics, there’s always more to learn.
If you’re serious about improving your betting game, don’t stop at experience alone. A strong betting strategy is built on knowledge, and these books are packed with it. The more you understand, the better decisions you’ll make—and that’s what leads to long-term success.
We also have a college football betting guide for even more info on NCAAF specifics.