NCAA Basketball Betting: Strategy

When you bet on a NCAA basketball game, you'll typically be playing against a "point spread".7 points will favor team A over Team B for example. You'll either take Team A to win by more than 7, or Team B to lose by less than 7…or to win the game outright. It's important to remember that the point spread DOES NOT represent a prediction on the game from the sports book…but rather, a number that it believes will split the money evenly to reduce their risk.<p>You see…when you bet a straight play like this, you have to risk your money in an 11/10 ratio (that extra 10% is called the vigorish, or the "vig" or "juice" in slang). You risk $11 to win $10…or $110 to win $100…or $55 to win 50, etc…

Ideally from the sports book perspective…half the bettors will take one team in a game, half will take the other…then the sports book will make its profit from the losing side. Imagine that bettors as a group risked $55,000 to win $50,000 on Team A, and$55,000 to win $50,000 on Team B. It doesn't matter who wins…the sports book will pocket $5,000 in profit…and use the other $50,000 from the losers to payoff the winners.

All of this is important to you, because it means that for smart players, sports wagering is the best money making proposition in all of wagering.

Point spreads are based on perceptions of the wagering public. Because the wagering public isn't perfect in its analysis…there are holes that can be exploited each and every day. There are 7-point favorites who should be 10-12 point favorites…there are underdogs who have match-up advantages that will yield a straight up victory…there are good teams about to have an off-day, and bad teams who play over their heads in certain scenarios. This applies to all sports including football and basketball.

Football and Basketball are similar in that they use point spreads. Baseball generally uses a money line. Hockey uses either a "puck" line (similar to a point spread but based on goals), or a money line like baseball. Remember to study the starting pitchers, since the pitcher will decide the outcome of the game one way or another, good handicapping can help you become better at sports betting, and profit more from it.