Best College Basketball Betting Sites

How to Sign Up at a Sportsbook

Once you’ve selected one of the sportsbooks we’ve vetted above, you can create an account. Once you’ve done that, make a deposit using your credit card, PayPal, Bitcoin or those rupees they use in The Legend of Zelda. Look for bonuses and offers that are offered to first-time depositors. Depending on the sportsbook, they may match your first deposit 100 percent up to $200.

How to Bet on College Basketball

As we stated above, there are over 350 Division I teams, which could be overwhelming when trying to determine how you want to bet. Having access to college basketball odds and free picks can help if you’re not overly familiar with every NCAA basketball statistic that ever statisticerized – not a word but it sounds cool.

Below we’ll explain some of the different betting options for college basketball to help you decide which bets make the most sense for you.

There are three basic bets you should know: moneyline, point spread and totals.

What is the NCAAB Moneyline?

In any sports betting scenario, the moneyline involves you simply picking the team you want to win the game outright. Your payout will be based on how big a favorite or underdog the team is. Underdogs are always represented by the plus sign (+) and favorites are shown with the minus sign (-).

A line for a game between the Duke Blue Devils and Kentucky Wildcats could look something like this: Kentucky -240 Duke +200

If you pick Kentucky to win, you would need to wager $240 to win $100. If you bet on Duke to win, you would only need to wager $100 to win $200. Because Duke is the underdog in this particular scenario, you’d be taking a bigger risk but would earn a bigger profit. For situations like this, you don’t have to bet $100 – that’s just the amount we’re using in this example.

How to Bet the College Basketball Point Spread

Point spread betting in college basketball works the same way as spread betting in the NBA. Oddsmakers determine a point spread for each game and that number is applied to the favorite and the underdog.

Let’s use the same Kentucky vs Duke example from above because they both have blue logos and blue is how you’re going to feel if you don’t handicap your bets accordingly and lose money on the point spread.

The point spread line for this game could look something like this: Kentucky -5.5 Duke +5.5

If Kentucky is favored by 5.5 points vs Duke, it means the Wildcats must win the game by six points or more to cover the spread to win your bet. If you were to take the underdog Duke – also a possible superhero name, get in touch, Marvel Cinematic Universe – the Blue Devils would need to either win or not lose by more than five points.

Betting Totals in College Basketball

When betting the total, you will need to decide if the total number of points scored in the game will go OVER or UNDER the oddsmaker’s selected number.

Using the same matchup between Kentucky and Duke, let’s pretend that the total is set at 149 and the final score of the game is 73-69. This combined score of 142 means that the total went UNDER 149. If you bet the UNDER, you’d win your wager. If you had bet the OVER, you’d be in the hole which is a nice way of saying that you lost your wager.

Are There Other Types of College Basketball Bets?

The answer to that question is a resounding YES. Most NCAA basketball betting sites offer parlays, teasers, live betting, props and futures.

Parlays

A parlay is multiple bets combined into one large bet. In order to win, all selected bets must hit. If even one of those bets loses, your whole parlay ticket loses. Your payout increases with each bet on a parlay, but so does your risk. Use OddsShark’s parlay calculator to determine how much you’d win on your combined wagers. Unless you’re a math whiz, then by all means do those calculations in your head and we sincerely hope you enjoy working at NASA.

Teasers

College basketball teasers allow the bettor – that’s you! – to adjust the point spread or game totals to be more in your favor. NCAA basketball teasers are generally 4-6 points, but some sportsbooks can offer teasers as high as 12. Teasers are fairly similar to parlays in that you select multiple bets and must have all wagers correct in order to receive a payout. However, the payout isn’t as big due to the odds being more in your favor.

An example of a 4-point teaser would be moving the Kentucky spread from -5.5 points to -1.5 points and moving the total from 149 up to 153 to bet the UNDER. If both are successful, you win your bet.

Live Betting

You may find yourself in a glass cage of emotions watching your favorite NCAA basketball team. Why aren’t they passing?!? Instead of simply watching the game, why not live-bet the game and make some money while it’s taking place?

Live sports betting is an exhilarating way to watch a college basketball game. Depending on your sportsbook of choice, you should be able to access live betting options during most games in the regular season and March Madness. Live betting for college basketball typically includes a spread, moneyline and total, as well as player and team prop bets that change after almost every possession.

Props

A prop bet is a wager on an outcome that is not directly related to the outcome of the game. College basketball prop bets are available during the regular season but they rise in popularity during March Madness. There are numerous player and team prop bets such as a player’s total rebounds or which team will score the last basket before halftime.

Futures

This type of bet involves you wagering on an event that has yet to happen. Futures bets typically offer bigger payouts as you’re betting on things such as a team to win the NCAA Tournament before it begins.

For instance, if Kentucky – yes, we’re using the Wildcats again – has odds of +2800 to win the March Madness Tournament, if you place a $100 bet on them and they win, you’d receive a payout of $2900.

Basic NCAA Betting Tips

• Only use the safe and trustworthy sportsbooks we recommend above
• Check out our college basketball pages for betting news, odds, free picks and more
• Watch your bankroll throughout the season otherwise you may not be able to fund your NCAA basketball bets