Americans are loud and proud about their Alma Mater. This is the reason why college sports are so popular all over the country. It’s not that rare to meet people more in love with a NCAA team than with a professional one. College basketball tournaments, for example, are very polarising and attract a large number of supporters and bettors.
Not by chance, the major online operators in the market are always ready to offer more or less advantageous odds. In this regard, to get a complete overview, it is possible to check the list of NCAAM betting odds, where anyone can find the best options for each and every match on the schedule. Since March Madness is fast approaching, now is a good time to get to know college basketball better.
March Madness: a month to chase glory
The college basketball landscape is so wide it is actually difficult to describe. We have more than 300 teams and 32 different conferences throughout the country. These are all independent leagues and don’t assign the national championship. To win all the marbles a team must succeed in the NCAA tournament, reserved to the 32 champions of their conference. This trophy is awarded in April, after three weeks of all-out war between the top tier teams in the country, during a period all basketball fans love and wait for, known as March Madness.
Usually, March Madness is a showcase for the top 25 teams in America, the ones which actually have a shot at the national title, and 7 other contenders trying to defy all the odds. During these three weekends, people can enjoy an elimination game between future NBA stars. The top 16 teams in college basketball are called Sweet Sixteen, the top 8 are the Elite Eight and the final 4 are, well, the Final Four.
Given this format, college basketball is perfect for whoever likes to bet. The matches are usually simultaneous, on Saturdays or Sundays and March Madness is not longer than a month, during a window where there aren’t usually a lot of big sport events.
How to bet on NCAA basketball
There are different types of bets regarding college hoops. Firstly, a bettor can guess how a game will turn out, including which team will win, which will lose, how wide will the margin of victory be and what will the final score read. It is also possible to place an over/under bet based on the combined points between the two opposite teams.
The so-called moneyline is the basis for each college basketball matchup. Given a set game, the two teams are provided with a positive or negative number. It represents the odds of winning for that side. When a bettor picks up only the winner of the game he or she is interested in, and puts money on that team, he or she bets the moneyline. A negative number indicates the odds for the favourite while a positive one, usually higher than 100, represents the chances of the underdog. Since we often see uneven or lopsided matches in college basketball, oftentimes also in the later rounds of March Madness, the moneyline enables operators to limit their liabilities when people bet on a straight winner.
The spread is the process by which oddsmakers analyse the potential winner in a matchup. Considering strengths, weaknesses and other factors, it is possible to assign a point spread, or a prediction of how much the favourite will win by. To win his or her bet, the bettor must guess if the favourite will triumph scoring more points than calculated by the sportsbook (-x favourite against the spread, in jargon) or the underdog lose by fewer points than the set spread.
In order to cash in a bigger payout, the bettor can choose to parlay. It means that he or she doesn’t bet on a single result, but combines multiple legs in order to win more. Of course, betting like this is riskier, because all legs must win to cash in even a single penny. The more wagers a bettor adds, the bigger the potential reward. And the combined risk, obviously.
