Learning how to bet on college basketball can feel intimidating even to seasoned bettors. With hundreds of teams duking it out each year in the college game, there are a lot of variables to consider before the return of one specific player or college team. In today’s article, we will take a look at some tips, tricks, and more to help guide you along what is arguably one of the most entertaining journeys in the betting world: that is, betting on college basketball and, hopefully, making some solid picks along the way.
College Basketball Betting Lines
There are many ways to make college basketball picks as there are multi-college basketball games every year. That being said, the three central lines of betting you need to keep your eye on are the money line, point spread, and over/under totals, which we break down below.
Moneyline, The Basic Betting Market
In college basketball money lines, the bettor predicts the winner in his college basketball picks of the particular game day. For example, bookmakers assign a moneyline price to each team based on their implied probability of winning the game. This is a bit trickier in the NCAAB, as the rosters are not always even, considering that some schools have much better rosters than their opponent. That being said, sportsbooks are going to ensure the money line odds are going to reflect that. Typically, sportsbooks list moneyline odds in hundreds (American odds). American odds are when one team is established as the favorite, which is determined by a negative value, and one team is displayed as the underdog, which is shown by a positive value.
Pointspread: Levelling the Difference in Skill
Of course, many people betting on college basketball use point spreads in their picks. For instance, point spreads involve books leveling off the difference between two teams due to the level of skills, which is quite huge in the NCAAB, as earlier indicated. Sportsbooks will prepare the point spread odds after studying both teams taking part in the particular game, their advantages, weaknesses, home team advantage, and other related things. A point spread favorite will have negative values attached to it, and they have to win the game more than the spread for that bet to win. The point spread, on the other hand, contains the underdog team with positive values and the winning of the bets lies in the team winning or losing by less than the spread.
The Good Friend of Basketball Bet
Game totals, or as they are more commonly referred to over/under, are one of the most attractive betting options for fans of college basketball. As an illustration, an over/under bet is a position whereby, after analyzing the matchups for college basketball, the sportsbook examines both the offense and defense and then assigns a sum that represents the combined points of both teams. Bettors then wager on whether the result will exceed that total.
More College Basketball Betting Lines Explained
Now that we have the common college basketball and sports betting lines out of the way, let’s go a bit further into other options college hoop betting lines punters have.
*Parlays: A system of betting in which two or more sides are bet in one play at better odds than a straight wager. For instance, the more wagers bettors add to parlays, the larger the potential payout and the bigger the risk because every bet in the parlay must win for the entire parlay to cash out. Each bet added to a parlay in college basketball is actually termed a “leg,” and sportsbooks typically allow anywhere from 2 to 12 games for a college basketball parlay.
*Future: This is another betting method that can be used to make college basketball picks. Futures are one of the most common forms of betting in college basketball that allows you to predict who might win the National Championship. It is possible to bet on a future bet, such as who will win the college National Championship. This means that a lot of college basketball fans will have their money set on teams long before the season.
Betting on College Basketball
So, these have been the most popular college basketball betting lines, and some more that you may not have heard of. Just go through them, and you may even attempt to inculcate them in your playbooks for the college basketball season. Whether for the rest of the current campaign or one in the future, you can now buckle up for one of the most exciting college sports leagues with a bit more betting expertise. That said, you would need to wager on college basketball safely and responsibly, manage your bankroll well, and never bet more money than there is in your bank account.
Following these tips will enable you to make some of the best-informed decisions when it comes to college basketball. Be it a beginner in college sports betting or a pro in need of some extra tricks up their sleeve, this college basketball season is sure to be full of thrills and spills, so constant updates and working on strategies are key in an attempt to improve your betting strategies.
