Best College Basketball Betting Sites | NCAAB Betting Sites for 2024

Moneyline

A moneyline bet is the simplest wager in NCAA college basketball. It’s a straight bet on the winner of a game where one team is assigned the favorite and the other the underdog.

Here’s an example: The North Carolina Tar Heels are taking on the Duke Blue Devils in a critical ACC clash. The basketball odds are displayed on a sportsbook as follows:

• UNC: -200
• Duke: +200

UNC is considered the favorites. The moneyline odds shown indicate the amount you would need to bet in order to win $100. In this case, you’d need to gamble $200 in order to win a $100 profit.

Duke is playing away and are considered underdogs. The price is the amount you would win for a bet of $100. In this case, it’s $200. You would also receive your initial stake back.

Point Spread

College basketball also lends itself well to point spread betting. In a point spread, the favorite is assigned a points handicap before the game starts. The underdog will receive the same amount as a points head-start.

• UNC: -8 (-110)
• Duke: +8 (-110)

In our example, UNC is given a -8 handicap and their odds change to -110. This represents a bigger price, but UNC would have to win by more than 8 points for your bet to cash out.

Conversely, Duke has an 8-point advantage to start with. Their price drops to -110, but their odds of winning the bet also increase.

Imagine the final score is 65-63 UNC. Duke would have a final score of 71 with their 8-point head-start, thus winning the point spread in the process.

Totals

Totals betting is a popular market in college basketball. Essentially, it’s a bet on the total points scored in a game, regardless of individual team scores.

The totals market is displayed as an Over/Under and is normally shown in half-points.

UNC vs Duke:

• Over 200.5: -110
• Under 200.5: -110

In our example, the odds for over or under 200.5 points is -110. If the score ended 86-65 to UNC, the total would be 151. Therefore, the Under 200.5 bet would win.

Futures

You can also find betting odds on events taking place further into the season. The most popular college basketball futures market is the NCAA Tournament, known as March Madness.

The NCAA Tournament consists of 68 teams made up of 32 Conference Championship winners, plus 36 committee-selected teams. March Madness is a knockout tournament with each round contested between seeded teams.

March Madness betting sites offer odds on every round of the NCAA Tournament, as well the outright winner. Bet far enough in advance and you can pick up some value, especially if the matchups haven’t been decided yet.

With so many teams taking part in the NCAA Tournament each year, finding value can be hard. However, online sportsbooks will often put up big prices on a range of teams to entice speculative sports bettors. This is where you can use a free bet offer to snap up any big odds.

Live Betting

Some college basketball sportsbooks allow in-game betting. Live betting is wagering on NCAA basketball games as they happen. You can follow the action live on TV or track the graphic visualizer to study key plays. The basketball odds will change in real time before your eyes!

Popular live betting markets include: point spread, moneyline, totals (over/unders), and overtime prop bets.

In-play betting is a great way of securing a profit when you have more information on how a game is playing out. For example, you may have a feeling about UNC vs Duke before the game, but you decide it’s better to wait for the game to start.

As it turns out, UNC race into a first-quarter lead, and their moneyline odds shorten. But as the second quarter starts, Duke make a strong comeback. There could be some value in betting on Duke to win the first half at +240, even if you don’t think they will win the game.

Other in-play markets will open up too. By the end of the first half, 89 points have been scored in the game. The game's total odds have changed and now read:

• Over 136.5 (-130)
• Under 136.5 (+100)

The NCAAB betting site predicts a high-scoring game and makes Over 136.5 the favorite. However, watching the game, you notice the action is beginning to slow. You think there won’t be too many more slam dunks and sense a value bet in Under 136.5 at +100.

NCAAB Public Betting & Betting Percentages

It’s important you work out how you are going to choose your college basketball bets before you make them. You may study the form or recent head-to-heads. You may look at which stars are slam-dunking for fun right now, or you might look for underdogs being undervalued in the markets.

You can make clever college basketball picks by knowing how the public is betting. Statistics websites track how the public is betting on NCAAB markets. These stats show the consensus or betting percentages.

Essentially, college basketball odds and trends help you decide whether you want to bet with the public or against them. You may agree with the public money and want to follow it. However, the site's odds will certainly be lower because of the risk to their overall returns.

Alternatively, you may want to "fade the public" and deliberately bet against the college basketball consensus. This "contrarian" method is common among professional gamblers. They look for value in markets where most of the money has gone on the home side or a hot favorite. The smart cash, the pro gambler feels, should go on the other team.

Sports betting apps alter their NCAAB odds to save their position. A heavily-backed home side may end up odds-on. 

That doesn’t mean they have a better chance of winning, but it could just represent the sheer amount of money being bet on them. This can happen if a home team attracts a large number of bets from gamblers in the same state. This is the ideal time for a savvy gambler to bet the other way.

Study Individual Matchups

Most good college basketball betting sites offer in-depth stats and analysis on individual matchups in college basketball. This information is free and provides an insight into how well teams perform against one another. Statistics also provide records on how star players perform against each other. 

You'll find average points, assists, and shooting percentages. All this information is vital when calculating moneyline bets or props.

Look for Home-Court Advantage

Home-court advantage is often overlooked when making college basketball bets. Players perform better on home turf and also benefit from being surrounded by a full house of their own fans. 

NCAAB sides enjoy a bigger percentage of home wins compared to their professional NBA counterparts. While some teams enjoyed a home win percentage of 66-67%, others had winning percentages of 80% or greater.

Bet Against the Spread

There is little value in NCAA basketball moneyline bets. That’s why it can pay to find decent prices in the point spreads. Betting against the spread (ATS) can reap dividends if you know where to look.

You will get much better college basketball odds on hot favorites who have a heavy point handicap prior to the start of the game. This is where you can make profits if you know which favorite to back.

Similarly, an NCAA basketball underdog may have a better chance of winning you your college basketball bet if they start with a healthy points advantage. You may not like the look of Syracuse at +200 on the moneyline, but with a +6.5 point headstart, the odds-on price looks more appealing.