The 2026 NFL season begins on September 9th, 2026 and will run until January 10th with all teams playing 17 regular season games. The playoffs will follow with Super Bowl LXI taking place on February 14th, 2027 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.
The NFL is the most bet on sport in both Wisconsin and Minnesota. The Green Bay Packers of Wisconsin and the Minnesota Vikings of Minnesota both open the 2026 NFL season in a competitive NFC North, with the Packers sitting among the fringe Super Bowl contenders at 22-1 and the Vikings a longer shot at 45-1 leading into the season. It’s a fun time to be an NFL fan and bettor in both Minnesota and Wisconsin.
On this page I will recommend a betting site, touch on the sports betting situation in Minnesota and Wisconsin, look at the popular NFL bets using the Packers vs Vikings Week 1 matchup as an example, and provide a simple three step guide you can follow to bet on the NFL online.
Best Betting Site For US Residents
Bovada.lv is our top rated betting site for Minnesota and Wisconsin residents interested in betting on NFL games online.
Bovada is the most popular betting site for American bettors. They’ve been in business serving the US betting market for the past 10+ years and have built a strong reputation as a trusted and fair sportsbook in this time.
NFL Betting in Minnesota and Wisconsin
It is not currently legal to operate a sportsbook in Minnesota. Legislation has been proposed for years, but the most recent attempt stalled in the Senate before the 2026 legislative session ended in May. The long-running disagreement between the state’s tribes and its horse racing tracks over who would control the market remains the main sticking point, though there is still broad support for legalization down the road.
In Wisconsin legal sports betting runs through the state’s federally recognized tribes via tribal compacts. Three tribes (the Oneida Nation, Forest County Potawatomi Community, and St. Croix Chippewa) currently offer in-person sports betting, with roughly six tribal casino locations throughout the state that have sportsbooks. In April 2026, Governor Tony Evers signed a law authorizing statewide online and mobile sports betting through a tribal “hub-and-spoke” model, but those statewide apps have not launched yet while new tribal compacts are negotiated and approved. For now, online sports betting in Wisconsin is limited to the Oneida Nation’s geofenced app on its tribal lands, including its One-Stop locations.
Minnesota and Wisconsin residents are both able to bet on the NFL through offshore betting sites that are licensed and regulated outside of the USA, while accepting American bettors. Bovada.lv falls into this category as an online betting site that has served the US betting market for the past decade.
NFL Betting Lines
Bovada.lv has a wide range of NFL betting options for both individual games and season long futures and props.
Below I will look at the odds from the Week 1 matchup between the Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings to explain the three most popular NFL bets: spread, money line and total.
Spread
The spread odds are shown in the first column of the above screenshot. The Minnesota Vikings are 1.5 point favorites (-1.5), while the Green Bay Packers are 1.5 point underdogs (+1.5).
- Vikings spread bets win if the Vikings win by 2 or more points.
- Packers spread bets win if the Packers win outright, the game ends in a tie, or the Vikings win by exactly 1 point.
To Win
The second column shows the “to win” odds, which is also known as the money line. This is a bet on which team will win the game outright, with the odds for each team determining the risk vs reward of your bet.
- Bet $125 on the Vikings to win $100 (payout of $225).
- Bet $100 on the Packers to win $105 (payout of $205).
Total
The total is a bet on the number of points scored in the game by both teams combined. Bovada has set a total of 46 for the Vikings vs Packers game.
- Over bets win if 47 or more points are scored.
- Under bets win if 45 or fewer points are scored.
- All totals bets push if exactly 46 points are scored.
Bovada.lv now typically has 200+ betting markets available for NFL games.
Bet On The NFL Online – 3 Step Guide
Follow this three step tutorial to bet on the NFL online from anywhere in Minnesota or Wisconsin.
Step 1. Open Account with Bovada.lv
Click the above link, select ‘Join Now’ on the landing page, and fill out the sign up form to open your account.
Step 2. Deposit
Log into your Bovada account and click the ‘Deposit’ link under your accounts drop down menu. Choose your preferred deposit method, enter your deposit amount, and follow the instructions to complete your deposit.
Bovada accepts deposits through Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies and more.
Step 3. Place Your NFL Bets
It’s time to place your NFL wagers:
- Click ‘Sports’ from the top navigation bar on the Bovada website, and select ‘Football’ from the secondary sports menu.
- Select ‘NFL’ from the ‘Football A-Z’ menu in the left sidebar to bring up the individual game odds for all upcoming NFL games. You can also select the ‘NFL Futures’, ‘NFL Regular Season Wins’, ‘NFL Season Player Props’, and various other betting market links to see the futures and props betting lines.
- Select the odds of the bet that you want to make to add it to your Bet Slip.
- Enter your risk amount on the Bet Slip and click ‘Place Bet’ to make the wager.
Check out our guide section if you’re new to betting online. You will find several articles that will help you feel comfortable betting online, including an odds format explained article that outlines how the odds determine the risk vs reward of your bets.
That’s it. Ready to bet? Click here to visit Bovada.lv.
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