College Basketball Betting 2024
Reports surfaced in late-October that CBS Hall-of-Fame play-by-play announcer Jim Nantz would call his final March Madness tournament in 2024 so that he could spend more time with his family. It’ll be the end of an era, but not before one more college basketball betting season leading up to a sports bettors dream of filling out NCAA Tournament brackets. With so many college basketball betting options, it can be difficult to know where to start. Read on to learn about the best NCAA basketball spreads, college basketball overs/unders, and more!
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2023 NCAA Basketball Championship Odds Futures
Perennial college basketball powers remain atop the favorites to cut down the nets at the end of the 2023 NCAA men’s basketball tournament next April. Mark Few’s Gonzaga Bulldogs are the overall college basketball betting favorite at +750, while North Carolina is the only other program with odds better than 10-to-1. John Calipari’s Kentucky Wildcats check in ahead of the start of the season at 10-to-1, while we have a logjam at 12-to-1 between Texas’ finest, Houston and Baylor.
| Team | Odds to win 2023 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament |
|---|---|
| Gonzaga | +750 |
| North Carolina | +850 |
| Kentucky | +1000 |
| Baylor | +1200 |
| Houston | +1200 |
| Kansas | +1400 |
| Arkansas | +1600 |
| Creighton | +1800 |
| Duke | +1800 |
| UCLA | +1800 |
NCAA Basketball Betting Types
NCAA Basketball Point Spreads
Wager on the winning margin
NCAA basketball point spread bets involve placing a wager on which team you think will win the game and the points margin they’ll win by. Looking to bet spreads? Make sure you have a strategy in mind – start by finding expert college basketball betting picks to point you in the right direction.
Most bettors who wager on basketball prefer to place bets against the spread (ATS) and college basketball fans are no different. The idea behind this type of bet is to provide bettors an equal playing field between the opponents and give each team a small handicap.
Bookmakers use the point spread as a way of leveling out the chances of either team winning the game by providing an advantage or disadvantage based on the margin of victory or defeat for a given team. Bettors then need to choose if a team wins by a certain amount of points (the favorite) or doesn’t lose by a certain amount of points (the underdog).
Usually, betting against the spread requires you to risk $110 for a chance to win $100. Consider the following example:
- North Carolina -5.5 (-110)
- Duke +5.5 (-110)
In our hypothetical scenario, North Carolina is the favorite which means if bettors take North Carolina, they need to win by 6 or more points to cash the bet. On the flipside, if you put your money on Duke, you’re going to win the bet if they win the game outright or only lose by five points or less.
NCAAB Moneyline Betting
Wager on the overall game winner
An NCAAB moneyline bet is a type of bet that provides betting odds focused on who will win the game, regardless of how many points. The more uneven the game, the larger the numbers you’ll see.
In college basketball betting, the moneyline isn’t as popular as betting against the spread, but it’s still popular among casual bettors due to its simplicity. When you bet the moneyline, your goal is to predict which team will win the game outright – the number of points doesn’t matter. Moneylines use $100 increments to express the odds and determine payouts and the more uneven the game, the bigger the numbers you’ll see.
A minus sign (-) in front of the odds indicates the favorite and the number listed shows how much money you must wager to win $100. A positive sign (+) in front of the odds indicates the underdog and the number show how much money you will win for a $100 wager. It is rare, but sometimes if the matchup is too extreme or one-sided, a book will take the moneyline option off the board.
Here is an NCAA moneyline example:
- Kentucky -220
- Kansas +180
In this case, Kentucky is the favorite, so if you bet $220, you would win $320 which is your $220 from your original bet along with $100 in profit. Kansas, on the other hand, is the underdog, which means that if you bet $100, you would win $280 which is $100 from your original bet and $180 in profit.
College Basketball Over/Under Betting (Also known as Totals Bets)
Wager on the total number of points scored by both teams
Essentially, college basketball over/unders are when you wager on the final combined score of both teams, and if the score will be under or over a certain number.
Totals in college basketball betting is different from betting the moneyline or against the spread as it requires you to pick the final combined score of both teams. This wager is strictly scoring based with nothing to do with the final match outcome. The bookmakers determine this number through past performance along with current matchups and the bettor must choose if the final combined score will land on either side of this number.
For example, if the total for an NCAA game is set at 141.5 and a bettor wagers on the under, this means that if the final combined score is 142 or more, the bet loses. If the teams combine to score 141 or less, the bet wins. As a sports bettor, there are many factors to consider before wagering on totals such as injury reports, matchups, recent schedule and performance.
NCAA Parlays
An NCAA parlay is a combination bet which combines the outcome of many games
Parlays let you place different types of bets, in one single bet.
Parlays are often referred to as accumulators or multipliers, as they allow you to combine many straight wagers of various types into a single bet. Wagering on a parlay is different from placing each of those bets separately as the odds offered on parlays are significantly higher.
In order for a parlay bet to cash, all single bets within the parlay need to be a success. For example, if you place a four-team parlay (four bets in one) and only three of your predictions are correct, your bet loses. Consequently, parlays are much riskier which makes them best suited for veteran bettors and high rollers.
NCAA Basketball Futures Betting
Bet on the future outcome of an NCAA basketball event
Bet on the future outcome of a college basketball event, like a championship or draft.
Much like in the case of NBA, many betting sites allow you to put your money on NCAA futures. The most popular wagering options are almost always tied to the outcome of the NCAA championship or March Madness.
Bets of this kind can be placed before the season starts and throughout the season with the odds varying on many factors. With a futures’ bet, keep in mind that the money you invest in this will be tied up until the result happens, which can take weeks and months. That’s also why you need to be able to go to the safest online sportsbooks.
Betting on March Madness
It’s a tradition unlike any other and, no, we’re not talking about golf’s Masters Tournament. College basketball’s March Madness NCAA Tournament is a sports betting rite of passage as one of thee most popular annual sports events.
March Madness Defending Champs
The Kansas Jayhawks set a record by rallying back from a 16-point deficit to beat North Carolina, 72-69, in the 2022 National Championship game.
The Jayhawks are among the top 10 favorites to win it all again in 2023.
2023 Final Four Host
Houston will host the NCAA tournament’s Final Four at the home of the Houston Texans, NRG Stadium.
Sweet 16 and Elite Eight regional host cities include Kansas City, Las Vegas, Louisville, and Madison Square Garden in New York.
The Favorites
The top favorites to win the 2023 NCAA men’s basketball tournament are:
- Gonzaga
- Houston
- Kentucky
- North Carolina
- Duke
- UCLA
- Kansas
NCAA Tournament Dates
Here are the scheduled dates and venues for the 2023 NCAA Basketball Tournament.
- Selection Sunday: Sunday, March 12
- First Four: Tuesday and Wednesday, March 14 and 15 at University of Dayton
- First Round: Thursday, March 16, and Friday, March 17 at various sites.
- Second Round: Saturday, March 18, and Sunday, March 19 at various sites.
- Sweet Sixteen: Thursday, March 23, and Friday, March 24 at regional host venues.
- Elite Eight: Saturday, March 25, and Sunday, March 26 at regional host venues.
- Final Four: Saturday, April 1, and Monday, April 3 at the NRG Stadium.
NCAA Basketball Betting Strategies
How does the team score points?
Obviously we know how to score a point in basketball, however it’s helpful to know which types of points teams usually score—For example, does Kentucky usually score points from free throws, the three-point line or field goals?
Being familiar with this information can help you with bets like college basketball over/unders, especially since there are far more teams than the NBA—353 teams, to be exact.
NCAA Tournaments—Know them well.
Players love to go through the wagering options that are almost always tied to the outcome of the NCAA championship, or March Madness. Sixty-eight teams make up the tournament, and over three weeks, the college hoops champion is determined.
However, the Tournament is a ripe ground for upsets from the very beginning, which is part of the fun of March Madness. Navigate betting on the NCAA Tournament carefully, and do plenty of research prior to tip-off.
Is the court neutral?
Like we mentioned above, NCAA basketball teams play less games per season than NBA athletes—Therefore, it goes without saying that neutral courts they haven’t played on yet might provide some sort of disadvantage.
Usually, neutral courts are played during the Maui Invitational, which means placing unders wagers could be a good strategy for placing well-informed bets.
NCAA Basketball FAQs
Who are the favorites to win the 2023 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament?
The college basketball betting favorites to win March Madness 2023 – and only programs with odds 10-to-1-or-better – are the Gonzaga, North Carolina and Kentucky.
Are NCAA Basketball pools illegal?
Organizing a March Madness betting pool has become a beloved annual tradition, both for families and offices alike. According to data compiled by the American Gaming Association (AGA), over 24 million people filled out more than 70 million brackets ahead of last year’s NCAA Tournament. Of course, that hardly means more than one-fifth of the nation committed a criminal act – not in the slightest.
Joseph M. Kelly, a professor of business law at Buffalo State College, offered the following advice via Law360 in March of 2016: “I would say that the chance of prosecution would be the same as being struck by lightning. If it is just an office pool, where the winner takes all, in theory, you are violating the law in about half the states, but in practice, you are not going to be prosecuted. I just can’t imagine a prosecutor taking time to go after a casual player.” To learn more about the law across the states, see our guide to legal online gambling in the USA.
How do I bet on NCAA college basketball online?
There are plenty of ways to bet on NCAA basketball, the first thing a new sports bettor needs is to find the best online sportsbook and get an account set up. The next step is to explore the betting options available. When betting on regular-season basketball, the most common bets are spreads, moneylines, and totals. These bets can are available for full games and first or second half bets. Most online sportsbooks accept forms of Bitcoin, Visa, Mastercard, and other major credit cards and e-wallets.
How much money is bet on March Madness?
According to the AGA, the 2018 March Madness generated over $10 billion in total wagers nationwide.That figure covers everything from casual office pools to targeted one-game wagers through an online sportsbook. This represents 6.6 percent of the combined sum Americans bet on sports every year. What are the odds of picking a perfect March Madness bracket sheet? Since 2014, billionaire investment guru Warren Buffet has issued a challenge that seems too good to be true.
Anybody who can predict all 63 games in the NCAA Tournament will receive $1 million every year for the rest of their life. That challenge remains unfulfilled through five years and counting though. Thanks in large part to the astronomical odds against nailing a spotless bracket. Picking all 63 games requires perfect accuracy on a one-on-one matchup 63 times over, or 2^63 in math geek lingo. All told, that equation equates to odds of 1 in over 9.2 quintillions. Making a perfect bracket exactly one trillion times less likely than getting struck by lightning twice in a lifetime. Jonathan Mattingly – a professor of mathematics at Duke University – developed a formula based on the overwhelming likelihood of the No. 1 seeds defeating their No. 16-seed opening round opponents.
But even when these long-shots are factored in, along with other superior seeds facing underdogs, Mattingly calculated improved odds of 1 in 2.4 trillion. And if a Blue Devil’s digits aren’t up to snuff in your book, DePaul University mathematician Jay Bergen calculated the odds at one in 128 billion. But whomever you consider gospel when betting NCAA basketball, backing one side with a single bet through your favorite online sportsbook is the best way to beat the odds.
Can you legally bet on college basketball?
Up until May 14, 2018, the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) of 1992 prohibited bookmakers from conducting sports wagering business in every state except for Nevada. Thankfully, the United States Supreme Court took a second look at the PASPA, before striking the federal ban down as an unconstitutional violation of states’ rights in a 6-3 decision. But even as these states scramble to get in on the sports betting gold rush, college basketball enthusiasts who enjoy filling out their March Madness bracket have nothing to worry about. Despite recent rumblings, after the Department of Justice (DOJ) clarified its position regarding online gambling, individual bettors are in luck. Federal law might be murky when it comes to operating online sportsbooks, but patronizing these businesses remains legal. To date, not a single bettor has ever been pursued by the DOJ, nor any local or state law enforcement agencies. Taking bets can be a risky business, no doubt about it, but online college basketball betting come tournament time has always been completely above board.
