When you bet NFL international games, treat the designated home team as a team on a neutral field, because the market already does: across 56 regular season games played outside the US and Canada from 2005 through 2025, the closing spread made the designated home team a 1.6 point underdog on average, and that team covered 29 times and failed 27. The home label on your ticket decides which locker room a team uses and which game comes off its home schedule. It does not add points to the spread.
The 2026 international slate
The NFL scheduled a record nine international games in 2026. The Rams hosted the 49ers in Melbourne on September 10 and the Cowboys hosted the Ravens in Rio de Janeiro on September 27. The rest:
- Week 4, October 4: Colts vs Commanders (home), Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London
- Week 5, October 11: Eagles vs Jaguars (home), Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London
- Week 6, October 18: Texans vs Jaguars (home), Wembley Stadium, London
- Week 7, October 25: Steelers vs Saints (home), Stade de France, Paris
- Week 9, November 8: Bengals vs Falcons (home), Bernabéu, Madrid
- Week 10, November 15: Patriots vs Lions (home), FC Bayern Munich Stadium, Munich
- Week 11, November 22: Vikings vs 49ers (home), Estadio Banorte, Mexico City
The six European games kick off at 9:30 a.m. Eastern. Mexico City is a night game at 8:20 p.m. Eastern.
Why the home label is mostly administrative
A spread starts as a gap between two power ratings on a neutral field, with home field added on top; what that is worth in a normal game is covered in home field advantage in betting. At a neutral venue neither team sleeps in its own bed or plays in front of a mostly friendly crowd, so the honest adjustment for either side is close to zero.
The designated home team still gets a few real things. It picks its jersey color and takes the home sideline. None of that is worth a point. What the label mostly does is take a game off that team's home schedule, which is a cost to its season ticket holders, not an edge on Sunday.
The results line up with that. From 2005 through 2025, designated home teams in international games went 27-28-1 straight up and 29-27 against the closing spread, a 51.8% cover rate, according to the public nflverse game dataset. They lost by 2.0 points on average against a closing spread that expected them to lose by 1.6. Fifty-six games is far too small to call that an angle either way, but it shows the market is not giving the home label points.
Take the spread at a fairer number.
Standard -110 juice is the house tax on every spread. On BettorEdge you set your line against other bettors and keep more of every win.
Worked example: one matchup, three venues
Say your ratings make Team A 3 points better than Team B, and you value home field at 1.5 points, near the modern NFL figure. At Team A's stadium your line is A -4.5. At Team B's stadium it is A -1.5. In London, the line is A -3, and it stays A -3 whether the schedule lists A or B as the home team.
29-27 ATS in 56 games
about 0 in your number
A neutral field sits halfway between the two home lines. The label on the ticket does not move it.
The 3 points between the two home lines is the whole home field question, and a neutral site cancels it. If an international line seems to give the designated home team a point or two, check first whether your ratings and the market's simply disagree about the teams.
Travel and byes around overseas games
The old pattern was a rest week after a trip abroad. From 2007 through 2019, 54 of the 62 teams that played overseas had no game the following week. From 2021 through 2025 that fell to 22 of 48. In 2026 it is rarer still: of the twelve team spots in the six European games, only three lead straight into a bye, the Jaguars after their second London game, the Saints after Paris and the Patriots after Munich.
That matters more for the week after than for the overseas game itself, since a team flying home from Europe into a normal Sunday game spends a travel day its opponent did not. The market prices rest closely, as betting teams off a bye week shows, so check the number before adding anything for it.
Kickoff times and body clocks
A 9:30 a.m. Eastern kickoff is 2:30 p.m. in London in October, and 3:30 p.m. in Madrid and Munich once US clocks fall back on November 1. The body clock question is which of those times the players are living on. Some teams fly out early to adjust, others land late to stay on home time, and the video above is Sean McVay explaining the late arrival before the Melbourne trip.
A 1997 study in the journal Sleep by Smith, Guilleminault and Efron found West Coast teams playing Monday night games in the East outperformed the point spread, consistent with playing closer to their circadian peak. That was domestic night games, not 9:30 a.m. kickoffs abroad, so it says kickoff time can matter without pricing any one London game. Every team in the 2026 European games is based in the Eastern or Central time zone, so none faces the early body clock a West Coast team would.
How to price an international game
Build the number on a neutral field, add nothing for the home label, then ask whether either team's travel or next week's schedule is unusual enough to move you. Usually it is not. Compare your line to the board on the NFL odds page.
NFL international games betting FAQ
Does home field advantage matter in NFL international games?
Home field advantage is close to zero in NFL international games, and the market prices them that way: across 56 games outside the US and Canada from 2005 through 2025, the closing spread made the designated home team a 1.6 point underdog on average, and it covered 29 times and failed 27. Neither team is playing in its own stadium, so a neutral field line is the right starting point.
Do NFL teams get a bye after a London game?
NFL teams no longer reliably get a bye after a London or other overseas game: from 2007 through 2019, 54 of 62 teams that played abroad had the next week off, but from 2021 through 2025 only 22 of 48 did. In 2026, only the Jaguars, Saints and Patriots go straight into a bye after their European games.
What time do NFL London games start?
NFL London games kick off at 9:30 a.m. Eastern, which is 2:30 p.m. in London in October, and in 2026 they fall on October 4, 11 and 18. Paris on October 25, Madrid on November 8 and Munich on November 15 use the same 9:30 a.m. Eastern slot.
An international game asks you to strip one input out of your number and price what is left. On BettorEdge community odds you set that price yourself against another real bettor, with no house margin on top. Open BettorEdge and get this price for real, peer-to-peer.
Take the spread at a fairer number.
Standard -110 juice is the house tax on every spread. On BettorEdge you set your line against other bettors and keep more of every win.