Betting the NFL playoffs means betting 13 games: six on Wild Card Weekend, four in the Divisional Round, two conference championships and the Super Bowl, with the same spreads, totals, moneylines and props as the regular season. What changes is the structure: 14 teams, one bye per conference, home field decided by seed, and no second chances, so a price has to be read against who is playing where and after how much rest.
For the 2026 season, the NFL has set Wild Card Weekend for January 16 to 18, the Divisional Round for January 23 and 24, both conference championships for Sunday, January 31, and Super Bowl LXI for Sunday, February 14, 2027, at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. The league lists those dates as subject to change.
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How the playoff field is built
Each conference sends seven teams. The four division winners are seeded 1 to 4 by record and the three wild cards 5 to 7, and only the No. 1 seed skips Wild Card Weekend. The pairings run 2 against 7, 3 against 6 and 4 against 5, with the better seed at home in every round until the Super Bowl, which is at a neutral site.
The seeding rule puts division winners at home even when a wild card had the better record. Last season showed it twice on Wild Card Weekend:
- Carolina (8-9, NFC No. 4) hosted the Los Angeles Rams (12-5): the Rams were 10-point road favorites and won 34-31.
- Pittsburgh (10-7, AFC No. 4) hosted Houston (12-5): Houston was a 3-point road favorite and won 30-6.
Home field comes from the seeding rule, and the spread is free to ignore it. In both games the book made the visitor the favorite, and both visitors won.
What last season’s 13 games did against the number
Using the DraftKings line ESPN lists for each game of the playoffs that ended with Super Bowl LX:
| Result | Record |
|---|---|
| Favorites, straight up | 10-3 |
| Favorites, against the spread | 7-6 |
| Totals | 6 overs, 7 unders |
| Home teams (Super Bowl excluded) | 6-6 |
Favorites won most games and covered barely half of them. Three of the six games the favorite failed to cover were wins by exactly 3: the Rams won 34-31 at Carolina as 10-point favorites and 20-17 in overtime at Chicago as 3.5-point favorites, and New England won the AFC Championship 10-7 at Denver as a 3.5-point favorite.
That is the whole case for caring about the half point in January. In the two of them lined at 3.5, a favorite at -3 would have pushed instead of losing. When the line sits on the hook, the moneyline or a teaser is worth pricing against the spread before you bet, and our teaser guide explains the bet.
Thirteen games is one postseason. Use the table as a record of what happened, and price each game on its own.
The bye, and what it bought last season
Denver and Seattle were the No. 1 seeds, both at 14-3. Seattle beat San Francisco 41-6 and the Rams 31-27 at home, then beat New England 29-13 in Super Bowl LX at Levi’s Stadium as a 4.5-point favorite. Denver won 33-30 in overtime against Buffalo, then lost the AFC Championship 10-7 at home to New England, the No. 2 seed.
A bye is one fewer game to survive and a home game in the Divisional Round. It does not carry a team to the Super Bowl: the last AFC team standing was the one that played on Wild Card Weekend, beating the Chargers 16-3 and Houston 28-16 before winning at Denver.
Overtime and the playoff total
Two of last season’s 13 games went to overtime: Denver’s 33-30 win over Buffalo and the Rams’ 20-17 win at Chicago. Both were settled by a score in overtime, and those points counted on the scoreboard, so read the sportsbook’s house rules on whether a full-game bet includes overtime before you bet a playoff total.
The Rams-Bears game shows the effect on a total. Its total was 49.5 and it finished at 37 with overtime included. Denver-Buffalo had a total of 45.5 and finished at 63, with the extra period adding to a score that was already past the number.
The playoff markets
The regular-season menu stays, and a few markets matter more in January:
- Point spread and total: the main line for each game.
- Moneyline: worth comparing with the spread whenever the line sits on 3.5 or 2.5.
- First half and quarters: a spread or total for part of the game only.
- Player props: yards, receptions and touchdowns. Super Bowl week adds the largest prop menu of the year, which our Super Bowl props page tracks.
- Futures: the conference winner and the Super Bowl winner, which shorten or drift after every round.
For any futures price, convert it to a chance first. A +375 price implies 21.1%, and a +1200 price implies 7.7%. A futures bet is worth making only when you rate the team’s chance higher than the price does. The current conference boards are on our AFC Championship odds and NFC Championship odds pages.
When lines move in playoff week
Each round gives a short window. Last season Houston played at Pittsburgh on Monday night, January 12, and at New England on Sunday, January 18, six days later, so a Monday winner’s injury report had less time to settle than in a normal week.
A practical order for the week:
- Early in the week: the opening spread and total, before injury reports are out.
- Midweek: the practice reports and the weather forecast for outdoor games.
- Game day: the inactive list, the last news that can move a prop before kickoff.
None of last season’s six Wild Card venues had a roof, from Soldier Field to Acrisure Stadium, per ESPN’s venue data, and the lowest total of the round, 38.5 for Houston at Pittsburgh, finished at 36.
Where our playoff coverage lives
Our NFL predictions page carries our game predictions through the season. For the pick services that cover the NFL, see our handicapper site reviews, and for picks from the handicappers we list, you can sign up here.