NFL in London

National Football League in London

Indianapolis Colts

Week 1 Picks

by

The 2023 NFL season is finally here, as Ryan and Wade blow out a podcast with their Week 1 Picks.

So many great games going on this week, and the boys take the time to go through ALL of the games, offering some of their best advice this early on in the season.

Week 1 can be a crap shoot in the NFL, as teams try to figure out themselves, while trying best an opponent doing the same.

Which team will be set and balanced the best for the start of week 1?

To listen to the whole dang podcast, make sure that you click the link here to listen to it.

So which games are the guys most interested in, and which ones might be worth taking a look at for you betting value?
Let’s take a look at some of the best ones that Wade and Ryan like for Week 1 Picks.

Choice Picks

Texans at Ravens (-10) + 43.5

Lamar loves to light up week one historically, so the odds are that the Ravens might surpass the 10 points offered to them in the spread against the loveless Houston Texans.
CJ Stroud, Dameon Pearce and the tough Houston D might have an answer for the Ravens as they visit the set of ‘The Wire’, but will they be the right answers?
Ryan loves Lamar and Baltimore to stomp the bigness out of the Texans, and put up a solid and crushing domination of the visitors. He also likes Lamar to have a lovely fantasy day as well, with him spreading the ball around.
Wade is a little suspicious of the spread this early on, and 10 points has known to be a tough call having not seen either of these two teams.
While he does like the Baltimore Ravens to win, he thinks that the Texans might keep it close thanks to their reliance on the running game in the second half.
Ryan-Ravens 31 Texans 17
Wade-Ravens 30 Texans 23

Bengals (-2.5) vs Browns + 47

Cincy has just signed QB Joe Burrow to ‘big daddy bucks’, making him the highest paid quarterback on the planet (for now).
Will this influx of money, and the closeness of defeat last season propel the Bengals to the AFC top spot?
The Browns have no expectations this year, as pundits look beyond Deshaun Watson, perhaps the best running back in the game, and a D that features a still cagey Myles Garrett.
So why the hate when they dummied Cincinnati in a game last year?
Ryan likes the Browns to upset the Bengals, and sees Mixon getting nixon’d by that tough Cleveland D.
He likes the Browns in a field goal game.
Wade agrees with Ryan, which is weird to have their both shared upset so early on, but there you go.
Wade likes the Browns at home, and thinks that the Ohio fervour will take Cleveland to victory.
Ryan-Browns 24 Bengals 21
Wade-Browns 28 Bengals 24

Bucs at Vikings (-6) +45

How you like the Vikings this year? No, really.
Kirk Cousins and co. got rid of Dalvin Cook, but they still have that double J that crushes you as the best wide receiver right now.
Can the Vikings D answer back when they get shot down though?
Baker Mayfield is baking in Tampa, with a slew of star receivers who are under appreciated.
The Bucs defence has also been whittled away since the shine of Tommy left the stadium, and there are questions as to the durability of the whole team.
Ryan is taking the Vikings at home, and thinks that this should be a solid win against a shaky team, giving Minnesota that first push in the NFC North.
Wade is calling an upset here, plugging Baker and the boys to throw a monkey wrench into the Minnesota launch.
Sometimes you look ahead too much, and don’t see an opponent with nothing to lose right out of the gates.
That’s what could happen to Minnesota on Sunday.
Ryan-Vikings 24 Bucs 20
Wade-Bucs 21 Vikings 20
That’s it for our Week 1 Picks podcast, make sure that you listen in to the next one, where we lament how poorly we did.
Thanks for listening, and have a great week 1.

Promote Your NFL Nights

by

Are you a UK pub, bar or club who is looking to promote your NFL nights?
Then reach out, and we can help you promote your weekly NFL showings to millions of fans across the UK and Europe.

At NFL in London, we know that having a good place to watch the games with your friends is key, as well as some good food, and reasonably priced drinks.
That’s why we’re offering bars and pubs the opportunity to promote your NFL evenings across our social profiles.

Big Reach

With a weekly reach of over 25M across Europe, our NFL in London socials are the perfect place to target NFL fans in the UK, as well to showcase your American football offerings for the fans.

Facebook has 26k+ Likes, and 20k Followers on our main page, with another 2k on our Groups.
X (Twitter) brings in 3.5k followers, with another 1.5k on Instagram.
Add in the 10k per month in website traffic, 30k per month in podcast listeners, and you can hit a huge swath of NFL fans across Great Britain.

Events

To help get the word out, we can also promote your weekly NFL viewing parties through our website, and Facebook pages, so that fans can seamlessly book a table at your location with ease.

By hosting these regular Sunday events, you’re demonstrating fans that you are committed to showing the games all season, and they don’t have to worry about coming for the 6pm matches, and cricket is on.

We’re also looking to work with like-minded bars for the 2023 London NFL games, so make sure you get in touch!

Commitment

We do ask from the bars we work with that there is a commitment to showing these NFL nights, and that you’re not going to advertise it, and then there’s no games.
That pisses off NFL fans, and happens too often.

Some of the questions we will have for venues includes:

  • Are you showing the NFL all season, or is this just a whim to get in fans?
  • How many games are you showing? How many TVs? How late are you open?
  • Are there any special deals for NFL fans across food, drink, seating etc?
  • Do you have DAZN, or are you showing just Sky games?

We want to help you deliver the best fan experience for NFL viewing, so let us help you finesse your NFL nights to make them more authentic.

Packaging

As much as we appreciate the massive pub chains asking for us to ‘help spread the word’, you’re making money off of this, so don’t expect free advertising.

You get what you pay for, and we’re happy to create bespoke packages for any bar or pub to help you pack your place with NFL fans, with prices starting from £5 per week.

Bigger packages can include more marquee level weekly promotions, appearances and ads on our podcasts, as well as dedicated spaces on our website to promote your location.

Subscribing bars will also be added to our weekly calendar, so that fans can directly access your venue and book themselves in.

We also have options to help promote the London NFL games, Thanksgiving, playoffs and the Super Bowl, as well as live podcast recordings with NFL celebrities live from your pub.

NFL in London frequently works with UK betting companies who like to do ‘pub takeovers’, and as such can your location get massive exposure and highly elevated NFL viewing events.

Get in Touch

So what are you waiting for?

If your bar or pub wants to promote your NFL nights, get in touch and we can work out a reasonable package to help get football bums in seats every week.

Are you committed to a great 2023 season?
We are!

Feel free to send us an email, at mapleyankeesports@gmail.com

 

 

Early Super Bowl Odds

by

It might be only August, but we thought we would offer some Early Super Bowl Odds for everyone to take a look at, or even take a punt on.

Odds On

There are a lot of great teams in the mix this season, and if you exclude the obvious favourites like the Chiefs and Eagles, you can find some value in those teams that might just sneak into the show.
Those plucky teams that snipe through on a barely winning season to capture the title and take the Lombardy.

Here are a few of our teams to look at early on. Please note that these odds were chosen in August 2023.

Ravens (+1800)

Eighth ranked to take the title this year, are the rejuvenated squad from Maryland, with Lamar steadily at the helm this season.

Baltimore loaded up on wide receivers and running backs to take the edge of LJ, and the defence has been as fierce as has it ever has been, with some key rookie additions.

The Ravens are worth a bet to sneak through the slugfest that will be the AFC, and take themselves to the big game if they remain healthy.

Saints (+3500)

What the who dat day? The Saints?

Yes, New Orleans has the chance of sneaking through via a horrible division, and the potluck Chuck of possibly moving through a sluggish looking NFC aside from a few.

Derek Carr could be motivated to light up Michael Thomas and Olave, and their running game has always been solid.

It’s all about staying healthy, and if the Saints can do that, why not take a chance on them to go to the Super Bowl?

Panthers (+7000)

Oh Carolina, are you getting Shaggy with us?

Maybe, but let’s Frank the Reich out of this situation.
The Panthers have had a solid D for the past few seasons, the running game was great, but it was the QB that sunk them.

Bryce Young has the benefit of being surrounded by a trio of veteran wide receivers in Adam Thielen, DJ Chark, and Leviska Shenault Jr. and TE Hayden Hurst, and maybe they can sling enough W’s to get out into a playoff rumble.

The NFC has the best odds for crazy value, but of course.

LA Chargers (+2200)

The Chargers might be tenth favoured to win the Super Bowl, but there are still five AFC teams ahead of them.

Justin Herbert has that new contract smell about him, as he awaits the slave labour contract that is about to slapped on Austin Ekeler for wanting fair pay.

Once all that malarky is settled, the Chargers have that mix of veterans and rookies that might be able to gel together to make it work.

Keenan Allen is a reliable number one, but it remains to be seen if he can last a whole season.
Losing Herbert too would stick LA with Easton Stick, which is their back-up and a baseball bat name.

That being said if the Chargers can navigate the healthy waters of the seasonal slug, they could rally their squad to finally win some playoff games.
The hometown could be proudish.

Other Odds

Some other ones to look at if you want to take an early season punt on a Super Bowl hope:

Jaguars +2800

Why the heck not? The Jags and Trevor Lawrence could get cooking, plough through their division and get themselves a playoff glide.

49ers +900

Yeah, they’re fourth ranked, but they have a win it or else culture about them this season. Look for Sam Darnold to be a fantasy leader here via a great O line.

Bears (+5000)

Because why the hell not?

Justin Fields could ball out like a mother-trucker this season, and the D could magically find ways to stop people.

Stranger things have happened.

Who do you think could win it all?

 

 

London Games 2023

by

Alright NFL fans, the Draft is done, the season schedule is about to be released on May 11th, and we are due to know who is playing in the London Games 2023 on May 4th.

Prior to that date of course, we like to make our own predictions on who is going to play in London, and when.
It’s an annual fun tradition for us, and in no way is meant to confuse, or claim that these are the real games.
Although we have benefited from some great press from US media personalities reporting our news as gospel. (which it ain’t!)

Much like the Pro Bowl, this is just for fun, not to be taken too seriously, and forged under the influence of alcohol.
Funny enough we have gotten a few right in the past, let’s see how we do this year.

Methodology

No, we didn’t smoke ‘meth’ to come up with these, but we did look at schedule, past London appearances, recent team changes, and potential strength of travel schedule to determine who we think will be making it to the UK in the fall.

The London games have been moving steadily towards a two-chunk set at Tottenham early in the month, and a late October Wembley game in between the time changes.
This time change is a big part of the UK games, as it represents a 4 hour time difference between the east coast, and more appetising for networks schedulers.

We also asked ChatGPT but it got all weird and porny, so we just went back to our old faithful methods.

Again, no real science behind it.

If you want to listen to our DraftOver podcast, and our NFL London picks, listen here:

London Games 2023?

Raiders vs Bills-Oct 8, 2023

First up at Tottenham stadium this year will be the Buffalo Bills hosting the Las Vegas Raiders on Oct 8, 2023 at 2:30pm. There are no tickets, because this is a guess.

The Bills are set to host the following teams in 2023, with their previous London visits in brackets:
Broncos (’22), Jaguars (’22), Giants (’22), Cowboys (’14), Bucs (’22*), Raiders (’19), Jets, Dolphins, Patriots.

Given the toughness and ticket sales of the AFC East this season, it is very unlikely that NFL would schedule a divisional game abroad in 2023.
Each one of these games is going to be very important, and not one they want to lose out on big rivalry matches.

Given that the Broncos & Bucs were in Europe recently, that leaves the Jags, Raiders and Cowboys as top targets. The league could surprise us by having the Jags play twice in London this year, but it feels like a bit of an odd bunching.

With Jerry Jones and America’s team commanding such presence, it would seem unlikely that they would travel from Texas to London as visitors. Jones has a lot of pull with the league, and he would probably poo-poo this quickly.

It would seem likely then, that the struggling Las Vegas Raiders would be the most likely candidate to play the Buffalo Bills in October 2023.

Panthers vs Titans-Oct 15, 2023

We know that the Titans are in a building year (again), so while this might not be a HUGE loss to Tennessee home fans, they will want to see a good game out of it.

The Titans have the following Home opponents for 2023:
Chargers (’18); Seahawks (’18); Bengals (’19); Ravens (’17); Panthers (’19); Falcons (’21); as well as the Texans, Colts and Jags.

Again, while a divisional game sounds appetising, and their division truly sucks, it would seem unlikely that owners would offer that up, as the Jags played the Texans in 2019 in a craptastic result.

The Bengals, Falcons and Seahawks will be looking to tap into their heat, and would probably push back to a Europe trip after having been here only a few short years ago.

Carolina has been making massive changes to the team, which always doesn’t translate that well into fan support, which is why we think that they will be the ones making the trek to London town in 2023.

Ravens vs Jaguars-Oct 29, 2023

The Jags ended the 2022 season quite respectably after stagnating under Urban decay. With Dougie P leading the way, and Lawrence finding his form, Jacksonville might not be a chore to trek to Wembley to.

Jacksonville has some tough teams on tap in 2023 with: Chiefs (22*); Bengals (19), 49ers, Falcons, Panthers, and their division tripe as well.

The one team that does stick out here are the Baltimore Ravens, who haven’t been to the UK since 2017.
With Lamar firmly in control, and the team now ready to rock to the playoffs, it seems tempting to think that the Ravens will be facing the Jags in north London under a harvest moon.

That’s it for our predictions for the London Games 2023.
Who do you think will be coming to the UK?
Let’s see how we do!

 

 

 

Draft Eve

by

Are your NFL stockings hung by the fireplace with care, in hopes that Draft Eve will bring your team the talent to spare?

Welcome to the giddiness of the 2023 NFL Draft, as we bust your ear drums open with some banter of how we see the first bit of the draft going, and all the saucy news that will make up the hot gossip of trades around the week.
Buckle up!

Wade McElwain and Ryan Cull dust off their other life, and hop back into the NFL saddle as the cobwebs are off to start 2023!

If you would like to listen to the full Draft Eve podcast, you can click here for the Soundcloud, or find us on iTunes and Spotify as well.

Aaron ‘Jet’ Rodgers

Well it’s official kids, Aaron Rodgers is finally following in the footsteps of Brett Favre and moving off to the Big Apple.
The deal is finally done in a swap of rounders and Woody goes ‘all in’ on hoping that the guru veteran take them to the playoff land.
For both teams it’s a chance to finally move on to the season with the Draft now a focus on how they are going to surround them.
Giving Rodgers a solid o-line and a big old tight end might be some of the keys that he needs.
Rodgers will once again be wearing his Golden Bear 8, perhaps trying to channel his inner youth in a cleanse to start over.
8 could also be the number of interceptions he throws in a game given his predecessors.
Given the move to a 17 week season, the alignment means that an NFC North and NFC battle zone could see a 25% chance of the Packers playing the Jets again this year. The Jets won in 2022, maybe they could do it again.

Tom Brady

Nothing. Who cares. Made you look.

Draft Drama

We all know that the draft brings with it the joy of seeing your team jiggle it up to prime for a new run, but it’s also that dirty drama drama that accompanies it.
What’s the deal with Derek Henry? Is Dalvin Cook going anywhere? Has everyone forgot about Lamar? Lamar is missing y’all!
With a bucket load of free agent talent out there, and not a lot of cash to back it up, could there be some people that have to suck it up for cheap?
Welcome to 2023.

Draft Picks

In some ways it feels like kind of a ‘meh’ draft, because there isn’t really anyone with ‘pizza-azzle’ to ignite a flurry of excitement.
That being said, in an injury prone league of increased play time, the more bodies the better.
Big, young, fat men with questionable diets lead the focus, as DE, OT, C’s and BLT’s are the hunger of many a GM.
Any why not? After seeing so many QB’s get smashed by inept lines of fourth stringers, and the knowledge that just one of these kids could change the whole dynamic of a line.
QBs will sill be the focus though, but the cost of living crisis has also made some cuts to the height of the top talent.
Woe is the short man in this new game, where the Tua’s and Kyler’s college shuffle didn’t translate to a league where smackdown and field vision are more prevalent.

International Games

Okay folks, the big news is only weeks away. Word is that we will get the announcement of the full NFL in London games on May 4th, 2023!  That’s right, cancel your plans that day, as we your world is about to change.
We will not only know who plays the Buffalo Bills, Tennessee Titans, and Jacksonville Jaguars, but also the dates.
We will NOT know anything about that though for a while. Please watch the NFLUK website for that, as they will have all the legit news.
Please make sure that you don’t buy any tickets online before the official news, as they are deffo a big scam.
Check out out socials. You have our permission. You can also touch them if you want.
It’s been a long offseason.