NCAA Basketball Odds

If you do not quite understand these college basketball odds, then we’ll give you a quick run through so you’ll know what you are doing the next time you want to place a wager. We cover the most common bets including point spreads, money lines and totals below.

NCAA Basketball Point Spreads - Bettors wager against the point spread more than any other set of odds that sportsbooks offer when it comes to college basketball. Basically a point spread is a number set that the odds makers use to make the game a 50/50 wager.

There is a favorite and an underdog to every spread, unless it’s a pick ‘em on very rare occasions. The favorite is signified with a minus (-) sign and the underdog is listed with a plus (+) sign.

Let’s give an example to help you understand. We’ll go with the North Carolina Tar Heels vs. the Duke Blue Devils, two of the more popular teams in the country. Duke is playing at home, and the odds makers list the Blue Devils as 3-point favorites.

That means they list a line of Duke -3 as they feel the Blue Devils should win the game by 3 points. If you want to bet on the underdog, then you would take UNC +3. A winning wager on Duke would mean that the Blue Devils have to win the game by 4 points or more.

A winning bet on UNC would take a Tar Heels’ loss by 2 point or less or an outright win. If Duke wins the game by 3 points, then this is considered a “Push” and the money wagered on both sides is refunded.

The house edge comes with the “Vigorous” or “Vig” for short, also known by most bettors as the “Juice”. Most books use a juice of -110 on both the favorite and the underdog once they have even action on both sides, meaning that you have to bet $110 to win $100.

If you are a small bettor, you would wager $11 to win $10. You wager $55 to win $50 and $220 to win $200 and so on and so forth. Doing the math, you have to win 52.38% of your bets with -110 juice to break even. If you win 53 out of 100 bets you will make a profit, 52 or fewer and you will lose money.

NCAA Basketball Money Lines - Wagering on the money line of a game means that you are simply predicting which team wins the game outright.

These are bets placed normally on underdogs where a bettor feels that a team has a good chance to pull off the upset. A 6-point favorite has a money line of around -300 at most books, meaning you have to bet $300 to profit $100.

On the other hand, a 6-point underdog has a money line at approximately +250. You would bet $100 to win $250 on a 6-point dog. We do not recommend taking favorites on the money line because the bigger the favorite, the more money you have to lay down to win a small amount.

If you have a good hunch on an underdog that you feel will win outright, then feel free to place a money line wager as you can win more by betting less.

NCAA Basketball Totals - Some books don’t even offer totals in college basketball, but most do. These are not very popular wagers, but you can still place a bet on them and there’s likely to be -110 juice on both sides of the total just like point spreads.

The two bets offered are “OVER” and “UNDER” wagers. Most college hoops totals are set between the 100 and 160 range. We’ll say the odds makers set the UNC/Duke total at 140 points.

For a winning UNDER bet, the final combined score of the two teams would have to equal 139 or less points. For a profitable OVER wager, the final combined score would have to add up to 141 or more points with a score such as UNC 68/Duke 73. If the combined score added up lands on 140 exactly, then this is also considered a “Push”.

NCAA Basketball Line Shopping - Just as you would bargain shop when buying groceries or presents, it’s also very important to shop around for the best available lines in college basketball. If an item is cheaper at Wal Mart than it is at Hy Vee, then you are going to go to Wal Mart to buy it.

It works the same in college basketball betting. We recommend that you use five different sportsbooks to do your wagering, that way you can line shop for the best lines. For example, three of the five books could have Duke -3, one book has Duke -3.5 and one book has Duke -2.5. If you are going to bet on Duke, which book would you choose? The answer is simple. You would place your wagers at the book with Duke -2.5 because that is your best line.

Now if the Blue Devils win the game by 3, you would win your bet. If you only had the book with Duke -3.5, then you would be kicking yourself because you would lose your wagers when you could have won simply by having more books to choose from. Saving a point or two here or there can really add up in the long run, and it gives you the best chance to win over time.

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