It’s 1pm in Central London and, while most of the country’s NFL fans are trying to entertain themselves as the clock ticks slowly, time is moving quickly in RedZone.Bet’s Victoria office as they prepare to take their biggest action of the week.

Sundays for a company formed with the unique selling point of being a UK operation focused primarily on US sports are like weekly Super Bowls. And five hours before the game is the fourth quarter, heralding the moments that define the success or failure of a week’s game-planning.

For gameday, at least in the lives of RedZone’s key traders, begins as soon as the last one has ended. They are, in essence, like an NFL coaching staff, breaking down the plan ahead of a very different type of game, albeit with equally high stakes. Their task is simple in theory, hard in practice: first, stop the company losing hundreds of thousands of pounds and, ideally, win.

Coach is Stephen Baumohl, the co-founder who is responsible for their USP; RedZone set their own betting lines, rather than simply following Las Vegas. Baumohl, who’s spent the last 32 years in the industry, has been preparing for these Sundays for months, even going so far as to visit multiple training camps each offseason. “Back when I first started, in the late 1980s, the trip was a lot more valuable and I was a bettor,” Baumohl tells Gridiron. “Now there’s daily training-camp reports. That wasn’t the case then, so you’d glean things that the bookies didn’t know, and they’d set the lines based on last year. You could win big in those opening weeks. But, even now, it’s still valuable. At this level, any little edge is huge – and you can definitely get some edges by going to camp.”

The intensity only ratchets up once the games begin. Each week during the campaign sees Baumohl and his partner, Dharmish Parmar, break down game film, make individual notes and come together to compile their respective findings. “We’ll look at a combination of normal games, the 40-minute games and also some All-22 film if there’s bits we want to really dig in on,” he admits. “We do it on our own and then discuss our findings; the key is not influencing each other’s research.”

The fruits of those efforts are then inputted into the system that acts as the company’s bedrock: an astonishingly detailed eight-tab Excel file that can run 10,000 season simulations immediately and automatically delivers live odds on hundreds of markets based on the data inputted. Built gradually over the last 18 years, the database is akin to your mind’s eye’s interpretation of what a government intelligence database might look like.

For Gridiron, brought up under the idea that the bookies always win, this level of detail and preparation seems shocking. But sit in the office at 1pm, when the betting portal to RedZone’s high-stakes customers opens and the punts that will adorn the board on the wall (those totaling over £5,000) flood in, and you begin to understand the necessity of the efforts.

Because, for every person like Stephen or Dharmish, there are hundreds on the opposite side, devoting numerous hours – and often their whole lives – to one quest: beating the bookies.

Come Sunday, many of the blows have already been thrown, certainly in terms of volume. However, a large portion of the £500,000 average punted on RedZone is not yet accounted for; that comes at 1pm, when Baumohl and Parmar’s screens are suddenly abuzz with WhatsApp, Telegram and Skype messages.

The big players want to lay down their money, and RedZone – unlike many high-street betting companies – are happy to let them. “We believe in our lines and what we do, and we want people betting as much as possible; it’s good for turnover,” admits co-founder Warren Llambias.

Their willingness owes much to Baumohl, who started out as a punter and now cannot place a wager in any UK sportsbook. Even a little bet down the local shop would be tricky, with many installing facial-recognition technology to stop those who are too successful. RedZone, though, welcome all bettors with open arms, a high-risk strategy they’re able to utilise due to Baumohl and Parmar – who Llambias claims are “among the best NFL traders in the world”.

They need to be; the opposition is nothing if not prepared. Especially in this five-hour window before games. The reason they’re in this exclusive club is that they want to go over the bet limit on the company’s site – £15,000 – and it also guarantees them better odds than if they placed separate bets online. Punts of that size will reduce the odds for the next one, whereas Baumohl and Parmar – after consultation – are able to offer a price for the whole wager. But do the company’s owners get nervous. “Absolutely,” says Llambias. His partner? “Not at all,” smiles Baumohl.

The latter’s surety comes from total confidence in his own method; an example of how RedZone differs from traditional Vegas, and UK high street, offerings comes in the Seahawks-Rams game. Their line is giving Seattle an extra point at home; many of the high rollers are interested in this game, but seemingly would prefer to bet the Rams with less points given up. Baumohl quotes prices to multiple clients, none of whom take it up (in the end, the Seahawks lose in a close game; everybody gets it wrong!).

It’s a different story in the Panthers-Giants encounter. One player asks for a line on Big Blue and snaps Baumohl’s hands off when he offers +6.5. Bet placed: £42,000 on the Giants. It proves the biggest in the early window of games, one that might well determine the success or failure of the night. Baumohl and Parmar are confident.

All the meticulous time spent forecasting can help you lose sight of the reality that, despite knowing basically everything there is to know about a game, it’s impossible to know exactly what will happen. Because, in the end, outcomes will be determined by 100-plus people you have literally no control over.

So, when RedZone’s traders entered believing a Carolina win by at least seven points was more likely than not, they couldn’t have imagined the Giants running a trick play that saw Odell Beckham Jr. throw a 57-yard touchdown pass to Saquon Barkley, nor that the Panthers would take their foot off the pedal at the end of the game with a chance to go up 10. So, while the world was transfixed as Graham Gano lined up for a 63-yard field goal to win it for Carolina 33-31, it was barely given a second glance in the office. The big bet was already decided; chalk it up as an L.

It all adds up to a sombre mood come 9pm. The Panthers have won, but only by a point; the night’s biggest punt is paid out to the tune of close to £80,000. The bookies, on this occasion, don’t win.

Yet this proves the low ebb in a night of ebbs and flows. The 9pm window brings with it fresh hope and Baumohl’s confidence in a fine Minnesota coaching staff who’ve had extra days to prepare for their NFC Championship Game rematch against Philadelphia proves well-founded. He’s able to leverage that to eat away at the earlier losses.

By the time all of the bets are counted up, the mood is happier. “It wasn’t the best night,” admits Llambias. “But it wasn’t the worst either. It was decent in the end. It’s like this every week: a rollercoaster. And each week is different. There are some weeks we are up big on the higher stakes bets, but lose a lot on the lower levels and vice versa. Coming to work on a Sunday is never dull; that’s for certain!”

In sporting parlance, you could say RedZone ended with the late momentum. But there’s no time for Baumohl and Parmar to pat themselves on the back having salvaged the night.

Tomorrow is Monday; game-planning for Week 6 starts at 8am sharp.

A version of this article originally appeared in Issue 41 of Gridiron Magazine