Five things to improve your football winnings

Football is an American pastime and the office football pool is an American tradition.

Most companies across the country have a betting pool going on during the football season and it's fun to let off some steam by beating your coworkers. The hard part though is getting to the point of where you're winning.

That takes some work.

Here are five tips to give your game a little boost:

1.Check out the teams before you pick them and do a little homework. Get out of the mode of betting on your favorite team. Or betting on the team because you like the uniforms. A little background goes a long way. Take your time and don't base the pick on a hunch or what the team did the year before, use recent facts. Google the teams and at least look at the win-loss record and compare the two records. Go a step farther to see if the teams played the same teams. If they did compare how they did against the same team. This information can be gotten from the team's website.

2. Research the offensive stats of the teams playing. This could be found at NFL.com. Just google the team you are interested in and the stats are broken down by category. First they have the team stats and then they break it down into rushing, passing and receiving stats. Check to see how each team is doing in each category and how each offense is doing against certain defenses. For example, Green Bay is known as a great passing team with Aaron Rodgers. Let's say his opposing team is the 49ers. Last year the Niners led the league in interceptions, hence you might want to give the Niners the edge.

3. Find out how the team is doing defensively. Again NFL.com will be good for just the stats. Teams react differently to different offenses. Some teams are geared to stopping the run but have difficulty stopping the pass. Analyze the stats to see how the defense does against a running or passing team. For example, take the 49ers against the Seattle Seahawks. Both team liked to run last year. At the time Frank Gore was with the 49ers and Seattle has Marshawn Lynch. Here the team that can stop the run would win and in this case Seattle stopped the run better.

4. Find out if the team you are picking has any impact players that are injured. An impact player could be the quarterback, a key running back or even the best defensive player. Again we will use Lynch from Seattle. When Lynch does not play, then Seattle has a hard time winning games. The Seahawk running game is based on the the running of Lynch, because he is arguably the best running back in the NFL. So, if he is out, this will be a game changer. These injuries can be found here http://www.nfl.com/injuries.

5. Finally, check who the experts are picking and why. This can be a sports writer familiar with the team or it can be someone who bets professionally. Blogs are a good source and even fantasy football experts. These guys follow the teams closely. Here is an example of one: http://topbet.eu/news/category/nfl-news.