Best MNF Bets | Vikings vs Bears – Week 1 Picks

by Eric Uribe

Updated: August 4, 2025

One of the oldest traditions in the NFL is Monday Night Football. Whereas nearly every game is played on Sunday, one special game a week gets a Monday playing window — in front of a national TV audience, no less. All eyes are on this matchup since there’s no other football game on. With the extra attention, you get more betting too. MNF bets come far and wide.

For this reason, we’ve created a betting guide for Monday Night Football. We’ve got everything on this page — odds, tips, and how-to’s to football betting. By the time you’re done reading, you’ll know everything there is to know about Monday Night Football bets. There’s a lot to cover so let’s get it started.

Best MNF Bets Week 1: Vikings at Bears

The 2025 Monday Night Football season begins with a classic NFC North clash as the Minnesota Vikings head to Soldier Field to take on the Chicago Bears. Whether it’s a new-look Bears offense or a gritty Vikings defense, this opener offers plenty of betting angles. With Joe Buck and Troy Aikman back in the booth and multiple doubleheaders scheduled throughout the year, MNF is once again packed with primetime value. The schedule features rivalries, high-powered offenses, and playoff hopefuls fighting for early momentum.

For those interested in NFL betting check out the full range of bookmakers made available to you in your state right here at MTS.

MNF Betting Odds

Let’s take a quick look at some of the best MNF bets available. For now, we’re going to be focused on the “classic” bet types — spread, moneyline, and point total (over/under). We have a separate section for betting on in-game props later on this page. Check out the MNF best bets:

Best Monday Night Football Bonuses

Do you know all your Monday Night Football bets could be free of cost? It’s completely possible so long as you leverage a promotional bonus for free play. Across our favorite bookies for MNF bets, deals are available for hundreds to thousands of dollars in free play. Pick one and you’re gambling with “house money” per se. Here’s a list of our favorite offers going into the Monday night meeting:

1

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How To Bet Monday Night Football Like A Sharp

Want to actually hit on your Monday Night Football betting picks? Welp, it would be smart to think like a “sharp” bettor. Sharps are professionals who profit off sportsbooks more than the other way around. We’ll stop short of saying you can become a professional right away, but applying the three tips below will go a long way in winning off this MNF game:

Wait For Injury Reports

As we mentioned before, both teams are battling injuries to big-name players. Undoubtedly, this will affect the game — especially if it’s a quarterback or star player.

Sometimes the best thing you can do is to take a wait-and-see approach with injuries. Both teams will update their injury report in the days leading to the game, designating players as questionable or doubtful. This tag lets you know who is on track to suit up on Monday or not.

Many times, you’ll see sharp bettors lay bets hours before game time once injury situations become more clear. It would behoove you to do the same so you’re best bets Monday Night Football are using the latest info.

Analyze The Matchups

Not only does this rule apply to Monday Night Football, but it’s a blanket rule for all football games. When researching the best sports bets today, it should start with a comparison of the matchups. By that we mean, offensive line vs. defensive line or wide recovers vs. secondary, for example.

In particular, you want to find possible exploits for either team. Say one team has a dominant run game and the opposite team’s weakness is its linebackers. Welp, maybe, just maybe, that run-heavy team can capitalize on the bad linebacker play and help cover the spread or score points for an over/under bet.

Matchups can also be on a more player-to-player level rather than entire units. Either way, you want to find where the talent discrepancies are between both teams and bet accordingly.

Prioritize Recent Information

The NFL season is long, really long. How a player or team was performing in the first month of the season won’t matter all that much by the end of the season. This could be because of a myriad of reasons — coaching changes, injuries, or opponents just “figuring them out.”

Therefore, when you’re making picks, you’re best off putting extra weight on recent games and performances more than anything else. This will give you the most accurate look at how a team is trending going into the MNF game — not what happened three months ago most likely.

MNF Prop Bets Spotlight

The prop betting market is where things get fun. A lot of the same Super Bowl betting props can also be had here for MNF or any of the primetime games (Thursday Night Football and Sunday Night Football.).

First up, there are game markets. These bets revolve around team performances as a whole. Example bets here include picking which teams score first or get to 10 points before the other. Over/under bets are also a thing. Such props are available for how many touchdowns or field goals one specific team will get during MNF.

A different category of props focuses on the players themselves. Here again, most of these bets involve statistical outcomes. For instance, over/under on passing touchdowns by the quarterback or rushing yards by the back. There’s also bets on who scores a touchdown — either the first one, the last one, or at any time.

Props will, without question, have the most bets available of all markets. For any given MNF matchup, you’ll find around 100 different prop bets that can be gambled on. Due to the variety, it’s sometimes easier to find betting value here since the markets are less “mature.” At the same time, many bookies often put betting limits on props so you can’t over-bet them money-wise.

For bettors that want to bet on props but not have to sacrifice payout upside, then same-game parlays should strongly be considered. Also called SGP, this bet allows you to combine multiple props into one ticket. Risky? Yes. Huge upside? Oh yeah. It’s on bettors to balance the risk and reward with same-game parlays.

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