Best College Basketball Betting Sites in 2024 – Claim $5000+ at Top NCAAB Betting Sites

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Joe Napier

Joe Napier Sports Betting Content Writer

Joe began writing for Basketball Insiders at the start of 2023. A keen sports fanatic ever since his first days playing football in junior school, he has developed a flair for writing over the coming years, and graduated with a BA in English Literature. His professional background in the gambling and sports industries now extends to five years, mostly covering horse racing and US sports. He has previously written for sites such as gg.co.uk and cheltenhamfestival.net on the horse racing side, having grown passionate about the sport by visiting his local tracks on a regular basis. As well as this, he has the honor of being published in the Royal Ascot magazine in 2019.

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Following his graduation with an Honors in Business Administration, Nick redirected his focus from conventional stocks and bonds to the world of sports team performance investments. He employs a unique blend of advanced statistics and historical data to construct intricate sports investment models, pinpointing value opportunities and consistently yielding profits. Nick's contributions extend beyond a single platform, as his work can be discovered on outlets such as Pistons Powered, Winners And Whiners, and numerous other publications.

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Updated 10 Dec 2024

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College basketball betting can really ramp up the excitement you experience when watching a game unfold. This guide helps you find the world’s best online sportsbooks for college basketball betting.

It will explain the various NCAA betting options at your disposal, highlight some interesting betting systems, and provide tips on how to maximize your chances of securing a profit. Read on to become a college basketball betting expert.

The Best College Basketball Betting Sites in 2024

Our experts have reviewed all the different online college basketball sites in exhaustive detail. They evaluated the quality of the college basketball betting lines, the breadth of wagering options, the strength of the user experience, withdrawal speeds, customer service, and other important considerations.

We were then able to boil it down to an elite group of NCAA basketball betting sites. These are the very best online sportsbooks in the business for college basketball sports betting:

1. BetOnline – Best College basketball betting site overall
2. Bovada – Best of the NCAA betting sites for alternate spreads
3. MyBookie – One of the best college basketball betting sites online
4. BC.Game – Best site for crypto betting on NCAA
5. Everygame – Deep selection of betting markets for College Basketball
6. XBet – One of the best college betting sites for props
7. LuckyBlock – Rapid withdrawals and excellent live betting
8. BetUS – Largest sports betting welcome bonuses
9. BetNow – One of the best new offshore sportsbooks for college basketball
10. BUSR – Betting site with excellent college basketball lines
11. Jazz – One of the longest-standing offshore betting sites for college basketball

Top  Online College Basketball Betting Sites Reviewed

The best online college basketball betting sites provide different odds, markets, bonuses, betting limits, features and payment methods. In the list below we have reviewed each NCAA betting site, allowing you to learn more about them and choose the ideal one for you.

1. BetOnline – A World-Class NCAA Basketball Betting Site

BetOnline is one of the oldest, busiest and most trustworthy online sportsbooks in the world. It has a reputation for offering a great user experience, early lines, quick payouts, and very large bonuses.

BetOnline will give you a 50% free play welcome bonus worth up to $1,000 when you sign up for a new account and use our BetOnline code. You will earn a 100% welcome bonus if you use crypto for your initial deposit, and BetOnline will throw in an extra 5% if you use Bitcoin as opposed to an altcoin. Creating an account is a quick and simple process. You will also benefit from lots of reload bonuses and free bets.

The odds on offer are very competitive, and it caters to casual college basketball betting fans and high rollers alike. You will come up against a maximum bet amount, but you can then re-bet multiple times if you would like to place a large wager.

BetOnline is also a lot quicker to process payout requests than most rival college basketball betting sites. It excels in every important area, so we have made BetOnline our number one college basketball betting operator for 2024. It is one of the world’s best all-round gambling sites, as it also includes one of the most impressive online casinos on the market.

2. Bovada – A Wealth of Great College Basketball Betting Lines

Bovada is an elite online sportsbook with a reputation for offering lots of props, a sophisticated user experience, strong customer service and lucrative bonuses. It offers a stronger user experience than the other sites on this page, apart from perhaps BetOnline.

The site is a pleasure to browse, and you will always be presented with lots of intriguing NCAA betting line options. Many of its rivals simply offer spreads and totals, but BetOnline goes way deeper, offering lots of intriguing prop bets.

The Bovada bonus code entitles new customers to a 100% deposit match welcome bonus worth up to $750. That is smaller than the offers available at competitors such as BetUS, but it comes with less burdensome rollover requirements. Remember that you can sign up for accounts with multiple college basketball sites and claim a variety of welcome offers.

Bovada is typically quicker to release college basketball betting lines than most of its rivals. It is also quick to process and issue withdrawals, which tend to arrive in less than 24 hours if you opt for crypto. It even offers live streaming, so it really stands out as a great all-round sports betting site.

3. MyBookie – Ideal for NCAA Betting Beginners

MyBookie is an excellent option for newcomers to the wonderful world of college basketball betting. It offers a simple interface, a large welcome bonus and a great loyalty program, while it also provides a lot of educational material, including a lively college basketball blog.

The MyBookie promo code will unlock a deposit match welcome bonus worth up to $1,000 for new customers. This is a free play bonus with a 10x rollover requirement. You can alternatively choose a 10% cash bonus worth up to $200, which comes with just a 1x playthrough requirement. This level of flexibility is really appealing. You will also receive reload bonuses and join a terrific loyalty program.

We should point out that MyBookie offers fewer online college basketball betting lines than many of its rivals. You will generally just find a standard point spread and total points line. If you are looking for lots of prop bets, BetOnline or Bovada would be a better choice.

However, we were very impressed with the quality of the user experience at MyBookie. The NCAA basketball blog is a nice touch, as it offers college basketball betting tips, college basketball betting predictions, NCAA basketball betting trends and NCAA basketball betting picks. MyBookie also pays out in full and on time, so we highly recommend it for NCAA basketball fans.

4. Everygame – NCAA Betting Simplified

This sportsbook might not offer the same level of optionality as some of the competition when it comes to game day and live-in-play betting, but Everygame does broadcast generous odds for NCAA futures bets . Plus the markets tend to get real deep real fast during the NCAA offseason… it’s just that the site does take its sweet time getting NCAA betting lines to market.

We expect plenty more optionality at Everygame once this current season comes to an end – the two previous sites we reviewed (BetUS and the Bovada sportsbook) are very prompt indeed, so there’s little shame in lagging slightly behind these two. Plus, Everygame was one of the fastest of all sportsbooks to get its WNBA futures odds up on the site – which is good-going.

5. XBet – A No-Nonsense Online College Basketball Betting Site

XBet rounds out our list of the top five college basketball betting sites in 2024. It is a no-nonsense online sportsbook that caters to serious NCAA basketball bettors with a simple interface, clear promotions and excellent customer support. The site launched in 2013, and it bills itself as “the last sportsbook you’ll ever join”.

The XBet promo code offer is a 100% welcome bonus worth up to $500. Once again, this is smaller than some of the other promos mentioned on this page, but it comes with a generous 7x rollover requirement. You can also claim a sports reload bonus worth up to $250 on subsequent deposits.

You will be able to bet on spreads, totals and moneylines at XBet, either on a full college basketball game or on a particular quarter. It offers a few props, but not as many as BetOnline or Bovada. XBet’s key selling points are its polished interface, its in-play betting options and its regular odds boosts.

6. BetUS – A College Basketball Betting Site with a Huge Welcome Bonus

BetUS is an esteemed college basketball betting site that provides very large bonuses and competitive NCAA betting lines. It has been operating since 1994, and it is available for college basketball fans across the United States.

BetUS offers a 150% crypto sign-up bonus worth up to $7,500. That is the largest welcome bonus on the market. Use our BetUS bonus code to claim your welcome offer. If you deposit $5,000 via Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin or Ethereum, you will get $5,000 in free sportsbook credit plus $2,500 to spend in the casino. If you do not want to use crypto, you will be awarded a 125% welcome bonus worth up to $3,125.

BetUS is one of the best college basketball betting sites on the market, because it covers each game in excellent depth. You will find lots of appealing college basketball betting lines, and the navigation system is very user-friendly, so you should be able to place bets quickly and efficiently.

7. BetNow – Wager on the NCAA Using Crypto

With a Curacao license and just over 5 years of experience, BetNow easily makes it as one of the most trustworthy NCAA Futures betting sites available to US bettors. With a decent selection of BetNow promo codes getting released regularly, the bookie surely doesn’t skimp on boosting customer bankrolls. The bonus section has a little something for just about every type of bettor.

BetNow features a top-notch mobile betting site, allowing you to access its full range of NCAA markets on the move with a few finger swipes. Many US bettors prefer to create a web app and use the mobile website instead of the desktop platform.

While several payment methods are available, Bitcoin is an easy winner. It has the highest deposit and withdrawal limits and quickest transaction time frames. Other popular crypto banking methods like Tether and Ethereum aren’t available yet but we’ll likely see them soon as BetNow expands its cashier section.

BetNow has a decent customer support system going on, but the only challenge is you have to sign up to get the finer details on pretty much everything. You can contact the support team 24/7 via phone, live chat, and email.

How We Rate and Review College Basketball Betting Sites

The internet is crowded with sportsbooks so when it comes to online sportsbooks for gambling on college basketball, it’s tough to decide on which one to sign up to. Here at Basketball Insiders, we have simplified the process for you.  Our experts have conducted extensive research and compiled a list of how we rank the best sites out there. This is the custom system we use when rating and reviewing basketball betting sites.

Why We Rank College Basketball Sites

Online college basketball betting websites can differ greatly and there are some key areas to evaluate to make sure you get a safe, smooth, and enjoyable betting experience.

Using the best college basketball sportsbooks is important for the reasons below.

• Safety: When you use legal college basketball gambling sites you need to provide personal information and deposit real money. You want to be sure that your money and information are safe and not at risk of being misused or stolen.
• High value:  The main objective of betting on sports is to win more money than you lose. To stand the best chance of this it’s imperative to use sites that offer the best value wagers.
• Payments: You want a betting site that makes it simple to fund your betting account and withdraw your winnings and that all transactions are completed in a timely manner.
• Smooth Experience:  There is nothing more infuriating than going online to place and bet and spending a long time trying to find what you are looking for and having to wait for pages to load. By using betting agents with a well-designed and functional site you will avoid these issues.
• Special features: On top of the essentials mentioned above you want a little bit extra from a college basketball betting site that improves your overall experience and increases your chances of success.

Our Process for Ranking College Basketball Betting Sites

The aim of our ranking process is to inspect every aspect of an NCAA basketball betting service and evaluate it in detail.

To ensure our reviews are accurate, we go through all the same steps and processes customers would plus a few extra steps to make sure we cover everything. We also have several people go through the same process for each site to get a variety of impressions and opinions and more reliable information.

1. Background Check: We check who owns the betting site, when it was established, the license it holds, and other important details.
2. Join the Sportsbook: We go through the signup process and open a new account.
3. Check Promotions: Once our account is set up we check out the promotions available including welcome bonuses for new customers as well as offers for existing customers like reload bonuses.
4. Make a Deposit: Next, we head to the cashier section. We access what payment options are available and use a few different options (including at least one crypto option if available)to make deposits in order to check the fees and transaction times.
5. Place Bets: Once our deposits are in our account we look at the different sports markets available and check out the college basketball betting section. Then we place a variety of real money bets on some NCAA games and some other sports. Plus we check out the in-play betting section on the site.
6. Test Betting App or Mobile Version: Once we’ve spent time checking out the website we download a sports betting app or visit their mobile site on popular devices including at least one iOS and one Android device. We then lay down some more bets via mobile devices to ascertain if the sportsbook app or site experience is up to standards.
7. We contact Customer Support: The FAQ section is our next port of call and then we contact support via all the methods they have available to test the speed of response and the competency of the customer service representatives.
8. We Request a Payout: We return to the cashier to request a withdrawal to check the speed of transactions. We will repeat this process with multiple different payment options.

Our Key Ranking Criteria

There are multiple factors we evaluate when ranking online college basketball betting sites but the ones that we pay the closest attention to are listed below.

Security

Safety is our number 1 priority when rating a site.  We check that every site is licensed and regulated by an official and trustworthy authority.

On top of that, we also want to see that a site has suitable measures in place to protect itself from malicious third parties like hackers so that your money and information are safe and secure. This means having things like the latest anti-malware software and SSL (Secure Socket Layer) encryption installed.

Odds & markets

The more sports markets and odds a site has the more likely it is you can find a good value wager. We look for sites that have a wide range of bet types available on college basketball matches and of course the NCAA tournament.  We want to see lots of prop bets, over/under bets, parlay options, and more. In addition, we will compare odds across all the different bet types.

Free Bets & Bonuses

While picking a college basketball betting site is made difficult by the number of options one of the positives of the crowded online sportsbook industry is sites want to entice new players and keep existing ones. To do this betting sites offer bonuses.

The best online college basketball betting sites should offer a welcome bonus but also regular promotions for existing customers. Our grading is also based on bonuses having realistic terms and conditions like wagering requirements and minimum odds.

Live Betting & Streaming

Live streaming isn’t an essential feature but it is certainly desirable and something that adds to a user’s experience. In-play betting on the other hand is an essential feature a sportsbook needs to be classed as a top college basketball online betting site. We rate a site’s live betting feature based on ease of use, markets available, and speed at which odds are updated.

Usability on Desktop & Mobile

Our experts check through an entire website and app/mobile site to make sure that they offer an intuitive interface, run smoothly, have quick loading times, offer the same betting lines as their desktop site, and that the layout of the site makes it easy to navigate and place bets.

Key Features

Key features include things like prop builders, cash-out options, virtual sports, etc. These are things that aren’t essential for every sportsbook to have but greatly improve a user’s overall experience and make a betting site stand out against its competitors.

Customer Service

It doesn’t matter if you have a small query or a more pressing issue, you would like and expect a top online college basketball gambling site to be able to help you in a timely manner. We test out all the options to contact a site’s customer support and give a rating based on the contact methods available, the time of response, and the overall quality of the service.

How we Know Betting Sites are Safe

As previously stated safety is our foremost priority when ranking sites. There are multiple factors and criteria we consider when ranking a site’s security.

• Gambling license: If a site does not hold a gambling license from a respected and trustworthy operator then we will not spend any more time checking out their website as we would never consider recommending them.
• Ownership: We discover who the owner of the site is and check their history to make sure they are legitimate and have no previous issues that might suggest they are untrustworthy.
• Reputation: We spend time researching previous customers’ opinions by visiting other review sites and gambling forums to garner if previous and current customers are happy with their service.
• Security measures: Even if a sportsbook is fair and has the best of intentions if they don’t have the latest security measures to protect its site from third-party attacks it can not be considered safe.

NCAA Betting and College Basketball Betting Sites

The NCAA had a fraught relationship with online betting sites in the past. Its anti-gambling stance inspired it to ban championship games from taking place in states that allowed for legal, single game sports wagering. It meant Nevada, Delaware, Montana, and Oregon were all prohibited from hosting NCAA championships.

That all changed in 2018, when the Supreme Court overturned a federal sports wagering ban called PASPA. That paved the way for states to legalize online betting, and it also led the NCAA to lift its ban on those four states hosting championships.

Several states have gone on to legalize sports wagering, but many still prohibit wagering on in-state collegiate games. Examples include New Jersey, Illinois and Virginia. If you are in Illinois, for instance, you need to check out the best Illinois betting sites located offshore.

College basketball fans in large states like California and Texas are also prevented from enjoying college basketball betting with local operators, but it is perfectly legal for anyone in the country to sign up with offshore sites like the sportsbooks mentioned on this page.

These offshore sportsbooks are licensed and regulated by their local governments in countries such as Costa Rica and Panama. They have remote gaming licenses, which allow them to accept customers from across the world – including the United States. It is cheaper for them to be based in those countries, as they pay lower tax rates, while office space and commodities are also cheaper.

That typically allows them to offer more attractive odds and larger bonuses than the online sportsbooks that are launching in various states. They can also provide quicker payouts if you opt for a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin or Litecoin.

Their technology is often not quite as strong as the sites in the US that use Kambi, SBTech or OpenSports platforms – although BetOnline and Bovada both offer a very impressive user experience – and they are not as creative in the promos they offer. However, you will always benefit from a clean, user-friendly interface and the ability to place bets quickly and with minimum fuss if you use these sites.

We only recommend safe, secure college basketball betting sites that have a lengthy history of treating customers fairly and paying out on time. There are some scam sites lurking offshore, but we would never recommend them.

If you stick to the sites mentioned on this page, you will enjoy a safe, high-quality experience, competitive odds, a large welcome bonus, and a quick, reliable payout when you win. They have very experienced teams of oddsmakers too, so sites like BetOnline are often the first in the world to publish college basketball betting lines, making them popular with sharp bettors.

March Madness Betting Sites: Make the Most of the Tournament

March sees the end of winter as well as March Madness, one of the biggest events in the gambling and NCAAB calendar. It’s not only college basketball fans who get into the spirit of the tournament, people who have never watched a game in their life also want to get in on the action.

All of the sites included on our list have extensive coverage of the NCAA tournament. You will find a range of player, team, and game props in addition to betting lines. Sites will also offer plenty of other promotions like increased deposit bonuses, boosted odds, risk-free bets, and more.

The majority also offer contests with huge cash prizes, what’s even better is that many of these contests are free to enter. When March comes around you will want to find the best March Madness betting site and explore all the special promos and competitions on offer.

Any site included in our list is a good choice but BetOnline, Bovada, Mybookie, and BetUS are sites that offer some exciting promotions for the Big Dance.

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Find a College Basketball Site That Offers Excellent Mobile Betting

Nowadays just having a top-quality NCAA betting website isn’t enough, to be considered one of the best college basketball betting sportsbooks they must offer a mobile betting experience that is just as good as a desktop site. Having an app is essential to capitalize on live odds and momentum swings during the course of the game as well as if you can’t make it to your computer before the start of a game.

The best college basketball betting apps or mobile sites can be used on Apple or Android, are easy to use, and offer all the same features as their main website. This includes signing up, claiming bonuses, having all of the same college basketball betting lines, and most importantly a live betting feature.

NCAA betting sites make it convenient for bettors to deposit and withdraw, claim bonuses, and place bets on all college basketball games.

How To Bet On NCAA Basketball Games 

College basketball is an appealing sport to bet on as there are so many games throughout the year and of course, you have one of the major sporting and sports betting events of the year in March Madness. If you are a first-time bettor we have you covered. Below is a step-by-step guide on how to bet on NCAA basketball games.

Step 1: Select a Betting Site

We have done the research and listed the top 10 sites on where to bet on college basketball. You can’t go wrong with any of the sites listed on this page and the best one for you depends on your needs. Overall we rate BetOnline as the best NCAA basketball betting site but if you are interested in prop bets, Bovada is ideal. 

Step 2: Register for the Betting Site

Once you have chosen the site that best suits your needs, go ahead and click the join button (usually top right) and sign up. It’s a quick and easy process to register. You will need to input details such as name, address, phone number, etc. For most sites it generally takes less than 15 minutes to sign up. Keep in mind some sites need to confirm your identity with a driver’s license, however, Betonline is not one of them.

Step 3: Fund Your Account

Deposit the funds to the betting site. You can deposit funds via credit cards on all the sites discussed on this page. Most also have crypto deposit options. Be sure to input the sites’ promo code to receive the bonus cash to boost your account balance.

Step 4: Place Your College Basketball Bets

Once you are set up and have funded the account, it’s time to select your college basketball bets. Be sure to research all the betting options including the point spreads, totals, and prop bets.  Once you’ve selected the bet or bets you want to place enter how much you want to stake check out your potential winnings then hit the Place Bet button and then sit back and enjoy the game and hopefully your win.

Types of College Basketball Betting Lines

You will be presented with a selection of college basketball betting lines when you click on a particular game at an online sportsbook. These are the most common NCAA betting options on individual college basketball games:

Spread Bets

Spread bets are the most common form of college basketball betting. The sites mentioned on this page are very consistent in terms of the point spreads they offer, and you generally find they offer an identical line on every game.

BetOnline and Bovada are often the first sites to release overnight college basketball betting lines. Many of their rivals wait until those sites have released their point spreads and totals before publishing their own lines. MyBookie and XBet – which are sister sites – are a lot slower to release lines, as are Everygame and BUSR. BetNow is also quick to release lines.

The sites mentioned on this page all charge standard juice, also known as vigorish. You will typically find odds of -110 (bet $110 to win $100) on either side of the bet, and sometimes you will find -105 / -115 as an NCAA betting line.

You can find occasional discrepancies between the odds offered at the top college basketball betting online sites mentioned on this page. Sometimes they disagree about the line, or one operator might be slow to react to a line change. This can present occasional arbitrage opportunities.

There have historically been some reduced juice sites that offer discounted lines on basketball, but they have largely been phased out. The best sites will never offer less than standard juice.

Many sportsbooks that have launched in the U.S. in recent years offer significantly less competitive odds, such as -115 / -115, because they have high licensing fees, or they have promised to hold an unnaturally large percentage of the bets they handle. For that reason, many bettors continue to use high-quality offshore sites, which provide greater anonymity and tax advantages.

We should also point out that Bovada offers a wide range of alternative spreads. That means you can move the line in either direction. You can gain more value by making the spread tougher, or increase your chances of success by making the spread gentler.

This level of flexibility is great. Other sites, such as MyBookie, allow you to buy or sell points, which is a similar – if slightly more painstaking – process.

Total Bets

Once again, the sites mentioned on this page are very consistent in the total points lines they offer. BetOnline tends to release spreads and totals on a broad selection of games the day before they are scheduled to take place. Bovada will offer overnight totals and spreads on the biggest games, as will BetUS. MyBookie and XBet are a little slower, and you will often not find total points lines on college basketball games at those sites.

There are often half-point differences in the total points lines. For example, BetOnline might offer -110 on over 143 points and -110 on under 143 points in a game between Kansas and Michigan State, whereas BetUS will set the line at 143.5. In that case, you would find more value by betting “over” at BetOnline and “under” at BetUS.

For that reason, it is helpful to hold accounts with multiple college basketball betting sites, ensuring you can always quickly grab the best terms on every total points line you want to bet on. MyBookie and XBet are mirror-image sister sites, as are BetOnline and SportsBetting.ag. It might be worth opening accounts with BetOnline, Bovada, BetUS and MyBookie, or perhaps SportsBetting.ag, Bovada, BetUS and XBet.

Bovada stands out again for providing a broad array of alternative total points lines, which provides you with a lot more flexibility. In terms of the sheer volume of betting options provided on each game, Bovada is the clear leader.

BetNow is also a great option for anyone that wants to bet totals. It is among the first college basketball betting sites to release its NCAA lines, and it has totals on halves and quarters as well as the entire game.

Moneyline Bets

Moneyline betting is not particularly common in college basketball. You might roll a bunch of moneyline selections into a single parlay bet, but it is rare for NCAA basketball fans to place moneyline wagers, as the point spread offers a lot more value. For that reason, many sites do not bother to offer moneyline odds on college basketball games.

If you would like to place moneyline bets, Bovada, MyBookie and XBet are the best options. MyBookie and XBet offer identical lines. They are often more appealing than the moneylines provided by Bovada, but sometimes Bovada leads the way, so it does pay to hold multiple accounts.

Futures Bets

All of the sites mentioned on this page provide futures betting lines on the winner of the NCAA Division 1 Men’s Basketball Tournament. BetOnline and Bovada also allow you to bet on the winner of each of the big conferences – American Athletic, Atlantic 10, Atlantic Coast, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, Mountain West, Pac 12, and Southeastern.

We found that Bovada tends to offer the best NCAA basketball futures betting odds. It regularly provides significantly better odds than BetOnline, BetUS, MyBookie and Everygame on certain teams winning the national championship. However, as is generally the case, sometimes a rival will offer better odds on a few of the teams, so it does help to hold accounts with a few different college basketball betting sites.

Prop Bets

You will not find player props on college basketball games, but certain sites provide a variety of different game props. Bovada is the clear leader in this regard. It has betting on the first team to reach 20 points, whether the total points will be odd or even points, whether the game will go to overtime, the winning margin, half-time / full-time, highest scoring half, and so on.

BetUS is also pretty strong for game props. It provides many similar markets to Bovada, including winning margin, odd / even, and highest scoring half. It also has double result betting. BetOnline offers lots of prop betting options on various sports, but it lags behind its rivals in terms of college basketball props.

Parlays and Other Multiples

The college basketball betting sites mentioned on this page allow you to roll multiple selections into a single parlay. They also accept teasers, round robins, if bets, and reverse bets. The terms offered are very similar, and you will find attractive cumulative odds on parlays at these sites.

BetUS, BetOnline, MyBookie, Bovada and XBet are all great options. Bovada is a good sportsbook for anyone that likes sweetheart teasers.

The sites mentioned on this page do not offer parlay bonuses, such as parlay insurance if one leg lets you down, or boosted payouts on successful parlays.

March Madness

Many of the college basketball betting sites featured on this page launch bracket contests as March Madness looms large on the horizon. BetOnline and BetUS offer two of the best bracket contests, offering large cash prizes for the NCAA basketball March Madness betting fans that make the most astute predictions.

MyBookie also stands out for providing a large volume of college basketball betting predictions and college basketball betting picks via its lively blog at this time of year.

College Basketball Betting Odds – The Vigorish

The vigorish is the house edge that NCAA betting sites build into their college basketball betting lines. It is also known as the juice.

A standard juice line would be to offer odds of -110 on either team covering the spread. If you bet $100 on a team to cover the spread, you would earn a $90.91 profit if successful.

If a sportsbook were taking zero juice, it would offer +100 on either team covering, meaning you would get $100 in profit for a $100 bet. However, that would not make commercial sense for a sportsbook. The $9.09 difference is the vigorish it takes as a charge for running the book.

The sportsbooks featured on this page all offer standard juice lines on college basketball sides and totals. You will typically find -110 on either side of the bet, but you can sometimes find -105 / -115 at certain books. These college basketball betting sites tend to provide identical point spreads, but they can sometimes vary by half a point.

As previously mentioned, many of the sites that have launched in the U.S. charge high vigorish. Sometimes it can be an extra point – such as -112 / -109 – but in some instances we have seen -115 / -115 on either side of a bet, or even -120 / -120. For that reason, bettors in many states stick to the offshore operators they know and trust.

College Basketball Betting Systems

There are certain college basketball betting systems that experienced bettors use in a bid to gain an edge. These are some common college basketball betting systems:

Against the Spread

Most bettors will analyze a team’s record against the spread (ATS) before betting on it to cover. They factor in trends, homecourt advantage and other factors in a bid to beat the sportsbooks. This is a pretty basic approach, but you can pore over all sorts of advanced analytics in an effort to gain an edge. Many seasoned bettors also like to build up contacts at many of the top colleges to learn roster information before the market.

Under on Good Over Teams

The college basketball betting sites sometimes inflate the total points line on popular, entertaining teams. This artificial inflation provides savvy bettors with an opportunity to bet on under in the total points NCAA betting line. This is by no means a fool-proof method, but it can increase your expected value (EV) on a bet.

Betting Against the Public

Sharp bettors will often find great value by fading the public. Let’s say that Baylor opens as the 4.5-point favorite against Arkansas. If the college basketball betting public overwhelmingly bets on Baylor to cover, the sportsbooks will move the line.

They do this because they like to balance their risk by encouraging an equal volume of wagers on either side of a college basketball betting line. They would make the betting terms less attractive on Baylor and more attractive on Arkansas.

By the night of the game, you might find that Arkansas is now the 7-point underdog. That provides you with a tantalizing opportunity to bet on Arkansas at much better terms, even though nothing has changed in terms of the relative strengths and weaknesses of both teams.

Hedging and Scalping

Scalping involves exploiting discrepancies between the odds provided by rival sportsbooks on the same game. This provides opportunities for arbitrage, or abing. The idea is to lock in a guaranteed profit, regardless of the result of a game.

Hedging simply requires you to cover multiple outcomes. If you bet on Villanova to win the national championship at the start of the season, and it reached the final, it would make sense to place a large bet on its opponent.

Positive and Negative Progression Systems

Some bettors use positive progression systems like the Paroli System, the Reverse Martingale, or the 1-3-2-6 System, or negative progression systems, such as the Fibonacci System, the D’Alembert System, the Labouchere System, to determine the size of each bet they place.

College Basketball Betting Tips

These college basketball tips can help you manage your bankroll effectively and boost your chances of earning a profit:

• Keep Records | Maintain a list of your results and your overall profit/loss.
• Practice Sensible Bankroll Management | Set aside an amount of money that you can afford to lose in a worst-case scenario. Assign a percentage of that bankroll, such as 2% or 3%, as your base unit, and bet that amount on each game. If your bankroll increases, your bet sizes will increase accordingly. If your bankroll shrinks, you will end up placing smaller bets, keeping you in the game until you get more favorable results.
• Gather Information | Watch as much college basketball action as possible and find advanced stats.
• Make Informed Bets | Make sure you stay abreast of injury news and player absences.
• Find Value | Shop around for the best college basketball betting odds, seek opportunities to fade the public, consider hedging, and look for arbitrage opportunities.
• Home Courts and Rivalries | Studies suggest that home court advantage is worth 2-6 points, so a 4-point swing might be a good bet. Remember that teams often raise their game against fierce rivals.
• Choose Opportune Moments | Bet when you have a clear head. Avoid betting when you are drunk, angry, or chasing a loss.
• Consider Multiple Options | Sites like Bovada offer a wealth of great prop bets and alternative spreads and totals, giving you many more chances to find a winning wager beyond the basic spread and total.

NCAA Betting and College Basketball Betting Bonuses

There are lots of different online college basketball betting sites vying for your business. Most of them offer compelling bonuses in a bid to stand out. These are some of the bonuses you will receive:

Match Deposit Sign-Up Bonuses

You must deposit some of your own money, and the sportsbook will match it in the form of site credit. For example, if you claim a 100% deposit match bonus worth up to $500, and you deposit $500 of your own money, you will unlock $500 in bonus credit. You then need to complete a rollover requirement before you can cash out any winnings.

The sign-up bonuses provided by the sportsbooks on this page are deposit match offers. They fall into two categories – cash bonuses and free play bonuses. A cash bonus is more attractive, because you get to keep your risk amount.

For example, if you get a $100 cash bonus and place a successful bet at -110, you will be returned $190.91. If you get a free play bonus worth $100 and place a winning bet at -110, you will be returned $90.91, as the stake is not included in your return.

However, you also need to factor in the rollover requirement when considering the general appeal of a bonus. A 100% deposit match free play bonus with a 6x rollover may actually be more appealing than a 100% deposit match cash bonus with a 6x rollover.

Bovada stands out for offering generous rollover requirements, while the flexibility available at MyBookie is very appealing in this regard.

Crypto Bonuses

The sportsbooks mentioned on this page are located in Central America. They like receiving funds via crypto, as it is quick, secure, and cost-effective. These college basketball betting sites therefore provide customers with incentives to use crypto when making deposits.

You will often receive a larger bonus if you choose crypto as opposed to an alternative method, such as a credit card or a wire transfer. If you are unsure about how to send a crypto transfer, sites like Bovada and BetOnline provide detailed guides on setting up a wallet, buying crypto and transferring it.

The crypto will immediately be converted to USD, so you can bet in fiat currency and you do not have to worry about fluctuations in the price of your chosen cryptocurrency.

Reload Bonuses

A reload bonus is similar to a sign-up bonus, but it is available on all subsequent deposits for existing customers. Reload bonuses follow a deposit match format. They tend to be smaller than welcome bonuses, but they have less onerous rollover requirements.

Risk-Free Bets

Some of the sites mentioned on this page will occasionally offer risk-free bets. In the past, BetOnline offered a risk-free live bet for new customers. Look out for risk-free bet offers around big events like March Madness.

Bracket Contests

Some of the top college basketball sites mentioned on this page will launch exciting bracket contests when March Madness rolls around each year. The customers that predict the most correct results can win large cash prizes.

Refer a Friend

The sites mentioned on this page will give you free bet credit if you recommend a friend. If you head to the “Promotions” section, you will be given a referral code, which your friend can enter during the sign-up process. The size of your free bet is dependent on the size of your friend’s initial deposit.

Loyalty Programs

Some of the best college basketball sites run loyalty programs. For example, when you sign up for an account at BetUS, you will automatically be enrolled in the site’s excellent loyalty scheme.

You earn points for simply placing wagers – regardless of whether they win or lose – and these points can later be exchanged for free bet credit and other rewards. At BetUS, you will start off as a Silver member, and then you move up to Gold after accumulating enough points.

You can keep climbing up through the tiers – Platinum, Diamond, and finally Black – earning better redemption rates and perks as you scale the ladder. If you like the idea of a loyalty program, BetUS is a great option.

NCAA Basketball Live Betting

Most college basketball sites allow you to continue betting after the game has started. Some even offer live streaming. The odds are continually updated to reflect developments on the court. There are various advantages to wagering in-play on college basketball betting lines:

• You can get a feel for the game before making an educated wagering decision. For example, you might notice that one team looks fatigued, or a key player is carrying an injury.
• Before the game starts, the college basketball betting odds compilers can spend a lot of time crunching the numbers and devising tough lines. However, when the game begins, everyone is reacting in real time, so you may be able to catch them out.
• It makes the viewing experience a lot more fun.
• Some sites allow you to cash out your live bets early, meaning you can lock in a profit if your bet is on course to win, but you fear your team will capitulate.

Legal Betting College Basketball in My State

The legal betting landscape is constantly shifting in the United States. Some states have legalized sports wagering, but they do not permit wagering on in-state college basketball betting.

We have selected the sites featured on this page because they are available to NCAA basketball bettors across the country. They are safe, they pay out on time, they grade wagers fairly, and they have gained the trust and respect of the college basketball betting community over a long period of time.

Some of them restrict players from a few states, and they all have different strengths and weaknesses, so the table below can help you find your perfect match:

College Basketball Betting in 2024

College basketball betting can be a fun and profitable pursuit if you follow the advice on this page. Stick to high-quality, reputable, secure college basketball betting sites that offer great bonuses and provide you with competitive odds.

We have explained the key NCAA betting options provided by each operator, so it is now time for you to sign up for an account with one of our top-rated college basketball betting sites, such as BetUS, Bovada, MyBookie, XBet, or BetOnline, and start placing betting on NCAA basketball games today!

College Basketball Betting FAQs