If you’re already perusing Bracketology articles and tracking conference standings in NCAA men’s basketball, then you’re likely preparing for one of the biggest NCAA Basketball betting events of the year: the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, known as “March Madness.” Whether you bet on individual games, fill out a bracket for the whole tournament while hoping for a big payout at the end, or just focus on prop wagers, let’s consider some rules you should bear in mind to keep your wagering experience positive.
NCAA News: 7 Rules for Betting on March Madness
Be wise with your parlays
A parlay is a wager that has multiple legs, or bets, that all have to go your way for you to win. You get better odds on the payout because you are accepting the combined risk. Here’s an example: you decide to put down $100 on a three-team parlay where you pick the Kansas Jayhawks (-125), the Missouri Tigers (+250), and the Duke Blue Devils (-175). If all three games go your way, you would get your $100 back plus $890 in winnings. However, all it takes to wreck your parlay is just one of the three games going the other way. You can also find “same-game parlays,” which allow bets on multiple props within the same game. An example would include picking one team to win, the point total to go over or under the line, and one player to grab more or less than a certain number of rebounds. These can be fun and exciting wagers, but the elevated risk means that you need to do your research and make sure you’re not just throwing money away on a big moneyline.
Consider live betting
You will run into games, particularly in the early rounds of March Madness, that go sharply against the chalk. A 1-seed might be favored to win by 25 but go into the locker room at halftime down by three. A 6-seed might be favored to win by 2 ½ points but have a 30-point halftime lead. Different teams respond to pressure differently. Live betting, or in-game betting, allows you to take advantage of new odds that are released during the game.
Stick to a betting budget
First of all, you should never wager money that you need. Before you start betting on March Madness, figure out your budget for the tournament. Even if you hear from three friends that a particular point spread or prop bet is a “lock,” don’t go over your budget. If there were really such a thing as a “lock,” sports gambling would not be an immense industry.
Take advantage of free bracket competitions
Such free games as the ESPN Tournament Challenge, Yahoo! Tourney Pick’em and the free bracket contests set up by sports books allow you to give yourself a chance at a huge payday with zero financial risk. The ads that you see on the websites (and the business that the books look to get after the tournament from newbies lured in by thee free chance to win). Your chances of winning are very low, but they’re higher than what they would be if you didn’t enter at all.
Work backwards when filling out your brackets
Who do you think will win the national championship? Who else do you think will make the Final Four? If you can start with that part of your bracket, it might be easier to work your way back up through the games to the round of 64, instead of starting with 64 teams and having to untangle a winner. Most brackets offer more points for each successive round, so getting your champion and Final Four right will give you more points.
Balance your upset picks in the first round
If you look at your 5-12, 6-11, 7-10 and 8-9 games, it can be smart to pick two upsets and two favorites for each matchup. After all, this part of the seeding is often biased toward the bigger conferences, so you might see a middling team from the Big Ten get a six-seed and a mid-major champion get the 11-seed, and the mid-major ends up winning. When you get a little lower (4-13, 3-14, 2-15, 1-16), the upsets are much rarer. For those mid-bracket matchups, you can leverage a lot of money out of careful research.
Remember to look for balance
Many tournaments feature teams like Loyola-Chicago, Florida Gulf Coast and George Mason, who post runs to the Elite Eight, or even further. The national media acts surprised, but among those who have taken the time to research some of the lesser-known teams, these runs correlate with what they know. A lot of point spreads, particularly in the first two rounds, are out of balance because of the names of the larger schools in the matchups – and you can take advantage.
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