The NCAAB, or National Collegiate Athletic Association Basketball, is more commonly known as college basketball.
Attracting millions of viewers each year, the NCAAB is becoming one of the most popular sports, not just in the US but across the globe.
The attraction of college basketball lies in its lack of commercialism and its sheer unpredictability. Each year, teams could lose entire rosters, with players graduating or being drafted into the big leagues. This means there are no particular teams that are favored to win the championship each year – it’s very much anyone’s game.
This makes betting on the NCAAB a little tricky, but it can also yield greater results if you back the right team.
In this guide, we’ll talk about how the NCAAB works, what March Madness is, and the types of bets that you could place on college basketball games.
How the NCAAB works
The NCAAB is the umbrella term for a collection of all the different college basketball organizations in the country. With the US being so large, there are a number of regional and state groups that handle matters on the ground level.
Altogether, there are 358 schools that make up the collegiate basketball leagues. They compete in regional conferences and acquire an NCAA rank that covers the entire country.
This rank then helps determine whether a team qualifies for the NCAA tournament – otherwise known as March Madness.
Betting on March Madness
March Madness is most certainly one of the standout events of the college basketball year. This knock-out tournament takes place over three weeks, usually in March, though in 2022, the final is scheduled to take place at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans on April 4.
The tournament features 68 teams, all battling it out to become the national champion. To claim the title, they have to get through seven intense rounds. Betting on March Madness is a way to add to the overall excitement and could see you earn some extra money.
Prior to the start of the tournament, the favorites and top seeds are announced. In 2022, the favorite to claim the title is last year’s finalists, Gonzaga. Also tipped to do well are Kansas, Kentucky, Arizona, Baylor and Duke.
The nature of this competition means it can be a hard call to pick a favorite from the outset. Knock-out tournaments are high-pressure events and psychologically, this can affect players.
Injuries to key players can swing everything too, especially for those teams that rely heavily on two or three standout players.
What are the best types of bets for the NCAAB?
When it comes to betting on college basketball, there is a range of different bets you can make, some with greater odds than others.
One of the most popular types of bets is accumulators. This involves picking the winning team in a number of different fixtures. The more teams you choose, the greater the odds. And they increase even more if you decide to pick the underdog.
Accumulators that involve a number of different folds, or selections, can have huge payouts. The trick is calling it right.
A popular type of bet that balances decent returns with a chance of winning is the four-fold accumulator – betting on the outcome of four games.
Another popular type of bet is handicaps, the reason for this being that you get higher odds. The bet, however, is riskier, though you can make it safer, for lower odds.
Handicap bets in basketball work in different ways. One method is to bet on a team’s overall score, either in a quarter, half or match, by scores like +1.5, +2.5, +4.5 and so on. This simply means that if the team you back scores 70 points, but the other team scores 73, and you’ve backed a +4.5 handicap bet, you win because your team’s score is raised to 74.5.
Take advantage of offers and welcome bonuses
As we speed toward March Madness, you may notice betting companies offering special offers and deals. Some of them, as we’ll see below, could be worth taking advantage of.
With the competition still a few weeks away, you may also see enhanced odds on some of the favorites.
If you couple these odds with a welcome bonus that matches your first bet, you could make a good return a great one.
Some betting companies will match first bets as high as $1,000, or even more. And around March Madness time, lots of sportsbooks will be offering these kinds of deals.
