As many as a dozen U.S. states are expected to allow for sports betting before the end of next year, according to a Reuters report.

Sports data provider Sportradar Group’s Vice-President of Legal and Regulatory Affairs Jake Williams estimated that four to eight states will “probably be accepting bets by the coming football season.” This will be in September 2019, with the current National Football League (NFL) season ending February next year.

Williams saw as many as 24 states in all having legal sports betting within the next 24 months.

At present, only a handful of states offer wagering on sports events. Nevada and Delaware have allowed it even during the federal ban, which the Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional only last May. Since then, several states such as New Jersey and Mississippi have passed legislation prescribing tax rates and other regulatory measures for the industry.

One of the best things about Week 11 in the NFL this year? It’s the last one with more than two teams on the bye. Six are this week: Buffalo, Cleveland, Miami, the New York Jets, New England and San Francisco. Five really bad teams and the Patriots.

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No question the marquee matchup of the week and perhaps the season is Monday night when the Kansas City Chiefs (9-1) visit the Los Angeles Rams (9-1) in a potential Super Bowl preview and between two of the highest-powered offenses in modern NFL history. This game originally was set for Mexico City but was moved due to the field conditions there being horrific. The Rams are -3.5 and the total of 63.5 is the highest in NFL history. Kansas City has covered eight of its last nine as an underdog.

It’s perhaps a playoff elimination game on Sunday as the Dallas Cowboys visit the Atlanta Falcons, with both clubs at 4-5. Very rare for teams 4-6 to play postseason football. The Falcons are 3-point favorites, and Dallas is just 3-7 straight up in its past 10 as a dog.

Even though it’s Week 10 of the NFL season, it’s accurate to call it the halfway point because now every team in the league has played at least eight of its 16 regular-season games.

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The living members of the 1972 Miami Dolphins may have celebrated a bit this week after the Los Angeles Rams fell from the ranks of the unbeaten last Sunday in New Orleans. That means those Dolphins will remain the only team to complete a perfect season through the Super Bowl. The Rams look to bounce back Sunday at home against the NFC West rival Seattle Seahawks as 10-point favorites. The Seahawks nearly upset the Rams in Week 5 but lost 33-3  1. Los Angeles is 5-2 ATS in its past seven against NFC West opponents.

Could the Saints have a bit of a letdown game off that big win over the Rams? New Orleans is a 6-point favorite at the Cincinnati Bengals, who have the benefit of coming off the bye week but will be without injured star receiver A.J. Green. Cincinnati has covered nine of its past 11 as a home dog.

It’s an interesting Week 9 in the NFL. There are a lot of matchups that leave plenty to be desired, but then Sunday ends with two of the most important games of the 2018 regular season: Los Angeles Rams at New Orleans Saints, and Green Bay Packers at New England Patriots.

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The Rams remain the only threat to the 1972 Miami Dolphins to complete a perfect season (through the Super Bowl) as Los Angeles is 8-0 for the first time since 1969. The Rams nearly lost at home last Sunday to the Packers, though, and are actually 1.5-point underdogs in New Orleans. While the Rams are the only team with zero losses in the entire league, the Saints are the only one in the NFC with a single defeat. The winner will be in the driver’s seat for the top seed in the conference. The Rams have covered six of the past eight in this series.

Packers-Patriots could be a Super Bowl preview, and it’s just the second-ever meeting between future Hall of Fame quarterbacks Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady, both on the short list of the best in history. At 3-3-1, the Packers need this a lot more than the 6-2 and AFC East-leading Patriots do, but New England is a 6-point favorite. The Patriots are 9-2 ATS during an 11-game home winning streak.

Casino operator MGM Resorts has signed an “official gaming partnership” with the National Football League’s New York Jets.

On Wednesday, MGM announced that it had entered into a “first of its kind” multi-year deal with the Jets. MGM called the pact “the most comprehensive and integrated gaming partnership” to date between a gaming operator and the NFL since the league relaxed its anti-gambling stance this summer.

The deal involves the usual signage and branding opportunities, but also allows Jets fans access to “mobile play-along predictive game I Called It,” which will be available in the Official New York Jets App but will be labeled as “presented by” MGM’s in-house interactive gambling brand PlayMGM (which, as of August, includes a sports betting component in New Jersey).

The I Called It game is free-play and includes both pre-game and in-play options, but players can (for the moment, at least) only win non-cash prizes. However, MGM notes that the deal allows the company to promote “PlayMGM’s online gaming platforms and mobile apps to millions of fans,” thereby allowing New Jersey-based Jets fans to inadvertently stumble into a real-money betting opportunity.

It’s Week 7 of the 2018 season and also the first time this year there are just 14 games with now four teams on a bye week: Green Bay, Pittsburgh, Oakland and Seattle.

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Teams get their bye week (unless they request not to) after playing a game in London. The Raiders and Seahawks did last week, and the Tennessee Titans and Los Angeles Chargers will be at Wembley Stadium for a 9:30am ET kickoff this Sunday. Two teams going in opposite directions, as the Titans have scored just 12 combined points in back-to-back losses, while the Chargers have scored at least 26 in winning three straight. Tennessee is a 7-point underdog and amazingly has failed to cover the past 10 in the series.

History is likely to be made Sunday afternoon when the New Orleans Saints visit the Baltimore Ravens in a matchup of division leaders. Saints quarterback Drew Brees became the NFL’s all-time passing yardage leader two weeks ago and can become the fourth member of the 500-touchdown passing club by throwing just one against the Ravens. Baltimore is -2.5 in its first home game in about a month and 6-1 ATS in the past seven in this series.

With the Arizona Cardinals becoming the last team to win in the 2018 season in Week 5, that means we enter Week 6 with every team having won at least once for the first time in 28 years. This is what happens when the Cleveland Browns become competitive.

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The last time the previously sad-sack Browns were over .500 in a season was late in 2014. They can get back there on Sunday with a win over the visiting Los Angeles Chargers, who are 1.5-point favorites. Might want to expect an overtime game as Cleveland already has played three of them. That’s tied for the most through Week 5 in NFL history since regular-season OT was instituted in 1974. Cleveland has covered its past six against the Chargers.

We have our first London game in Week 6 as the Seattle Seahawks and Oakland Raiders both endure very long flights across the pond. Those games are often sloppy and turnover-filled with the time change and travel, etc. Seattle is a 3-point “road” favorite. The Seahawks are ahead of their bye and have won the past seven in that scenario (6-1 ATS).

The NFL loves to tout parity in its league, and that is on display through three weeks of the 2018 season as there were just three teams at 3-0: Los Angeles Rams, Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins. Fans of those teams should feel good about their playoff hopes because since the 12-team postseason format has been in place (1990), nearly 74 percent of teams to start 3-0 made the playoffs.

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The Dolphins are the surprise unbeaten team of that group after slipping to 6-10 last year without injured starting QB Ryan Tannehill. He’s back and playing well, and Coach Adam Gase is off the hot seat. Gase’s Dolphins are 7-point underdogs, though, this week at New England. A win would give Miami a whopping 3-game lead over the Patriots in the AFC East, but the Fins have dropped their past nine in Foxboro and failed to cover the previous six.

There are also three 0-3 teams in the NFL: Houston Texans, Oakland Raiders and Arizona Cardinals. The Texans likely are the surprise of that unfortunate group, and they are 1.5-point underdogs at AFC South rival Indianapolis, a place Houston rarely wins. Indy has won 14 of the past 16 at home in the series. The Texans are on an NFL-high nine-game losing streak overall and have failed to cover their past eight.

A common theme that NFL fans will hear entering Week 3 is the playoff probabilities of 2-0 or 0-2 teams. Seven teams entered this week at 2-0, and since the NFL adopted its current playoff format in 1990 more than 62 percent of teams to start a year with that mark did make the postseason.

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Almost impossibly, there’s not a single matchup of 2-0 teams in Week 3. There is one meeting of 0-2 clubs as the New York Giants visit the Houston Texans, two teams struggling offensively. Eli Manning, at age 37, sure looks like he’s shot for the G-Men. On the flipside, Houston’s Deshaun Watson may just be a bit rusty coming back from last year’s ACL tear. The Texans are 6-point favorites but have lost eight straight overall and failed to cover their previous seven.

Perhaps the marquee matchup of Week 3 is a battle of Los Angeles, and possibly a Super Bowl preview, as the Chargers head across town to take on the Rams – those teams will share the same stadium in a few years. The Rams have been perhaps the league’s most impressive team thus far and are -7. They are 7-2 ATS in their past nine as a favorite.

It’s a big NFL week for every club that lost in Week 1 – and not all of them won or lost considering the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns played to a very rare opening-week tie – because history has shown that 0-2 teams rarely make the postseason.

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It can happen, though, as the New Orleans Saints proved last year. The Saints were the biggest favorites of Week 1 at -9.5 but were shocked at home by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 48-40. New Orleans is the second-biggest favorite of Week 2 at -9 against the visiting Browns. Cleveland has lost its past 21 road games by an average of nearly 12.8 points. However, the Saints have now failed to cover their past five at home in September.

The biggest favorite of Week 2 and a team likely to be used in many Survivor Pools is the Los Angeles Rams at -13.5 against the visiting Arizona Cardinals. Always a bit dangerous backing teams on a short week as the Rams will be after winning in Oakland on Monday night. However, the Cardinals were offensively inept last Sunday in a 24-6 home loss to the Washington Redskins. Arizona has won eight of its past nine following a loss.