In our blog, we will be discussing the following areas of the NCAA and how you can bet online inside of NZ casinos:
- NCAA basketball betting predictions
- NCAA basketball odd
- College basketball spread
- NCAA tournament game odds
Welcome to the Mad World in March
March Madness is about college basketball that is a tournament that expands through the month of march with the Finals usually played in the first week of April.
It Is the most riveting, compelling and exciting events in sports and hugely fun when it comes to betting.
The NCAA Division is the men’s basketball tournament which is a full single-elimination tournament consisting of 68 teams. If you lose, you’re out, no second chance. The final is what’s known as the Final Four.
The tournament begins with what is the Selection Sunday phase. This is the construction of the tournament done by the Selection Committee. The committee plans how the tournament is bracketed with the teams and the seeds.
Example of the Tournament Schedule for 2020:
| Dates | Rounds | Watch | City | Hosts |
| March 15 | Selection Sunday | 6 p.m. | N/A | N/A |
| March 17- 18 | First Four | Live | Dayton, OH | University of Dayton |
| March 19/21 | 1st/2nd Rounds | Live | Albany, NY | Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference |
| March 19/21 | 1st/2nd Rounds | Live | Spokane, WA | University of Idaho |
| March 19/21 | 1st/2nd Rounds | Live | St. Louis, MO | Missouri Valley Conference |
| March 19/21 | 1st/2nd Rounds | Live | Tampa, FL | University of South Florida |
| March 20/22 | 1st/2nd Rounds | Live | Greensboro, NC | Atlantic Coast Conference |
| March 20/22 | 1st/2nd Rounds | Live | Omaha, NE | Creighton University |
| March 20/22 | 1st/2nd Rounds | Live | Sacramento, CA | Sacramento State University |
| March 20/22 | 1st/2nd Rounds | Live | Cleveland, OH | Mid-American Conference/Cleveland State |
| March 26/28 | Midwest Regional | Live | Indianapolis, IN | Horizon League/IUPUI |
| March 26/29 | West Regional | Live | Los Angeles, CA | Pepperdine University |
| March 27/29 | South Regional | Live | Huston, TX | University of Houston |
| March 27/29 | East Regional | Live | New York, NY | St. John’s University/Big East Conference |
| April 4/6 | Final Four and Title Game | Live | Atlanta, GA | Georgia Institute of Technology |
The tournament began in 1939 and has been grounded in American basketball culture every year since.
NCAA basketball betting predictions
This is a colossal 68 team single-elimination tournament extravaganza, in which, 67 games are played over 21 days, thusly, giving us the appropriately named ‘March Madness’.
Predictions at this stage can be done either using the statistical data you get online or you can play pot-luck and have the generator predict at random the winner of each round and tournament.
NCAA basketball odd
The odds look different to how you may normally come across them, so when registered to an online casino that offers the March Madness betting, here is how the odds look:
North Carolina -233
Kentucky +195
This is preprogramed American odds that cab be altered to fractional odds or Decimal odds should you prefer.
These set of odds are for any traditional money line bet. You will make this type of bet by simply picking a team that will be the flat-out winner, otherwise known as a Straight Up bet.
In the example above, the -233 North Carolina team are the clear favorites. How so? You can tell this alone because of the minus sign (-). With the Kentucy team at +195, They are deemed the underdog. This is signified by the plus sign (+).
This is standard is universal across all sportsbooks. It’s down to the simple maths of the bet as explained in the following example.
If you were to pick the UNC team and place a bet of $100 on them, in return, you’d get a winning payout of $142.92. The original money wagered comes back with your winnings of $42.92. Conversely, make this same $100 bet on the Kentucky team and it would give you $295 in return with $100 is return of your original wager, coupled with the final winning prize of $195.
You can use the online casino https://www.thecasinocitynz.com/top-casinos.html sports calculator to show you want your returns are and also when selecting inside your betslip what you can gain back from your stakes.
College basketball spread
Unlike the straight-up bet option where you pick the team to win over their opponent, the betting option called the point spread is different and allows you to bet on the ratio of the loss or score margin of the game. In this bet the underdog of the fixture is given an advantage that is basically a handicap over the opposition and the favorite team is at a disadvantage. This is to create a more even field of betting.
If opting to go for this option the ‘Spread odds’ would look like this:
Villanova -9.5
Marquette +9.5
Villanova are the favourite team in this case with a minus deficit to overcome, with the weaker team Marquette given a 9.5 score lead.
NCAA tournament game odds
Given the nature of the tournament, anything goes. There is no safety net for the teams competing, therefore, many odds are even, and ties come with a higher set of odds. Ties are fully possible within the game; the winner being crowned via a shoot-out.
The success of the NCAA comes from the fixtures that do pit more well-established colleges against those will less of a track record. The only issue here, is that even though the win rate is high the returns are not as profitable, especially when odds commonly return only 1% or 2% of you wager back. But who knows what can happen with certainty in the NCAA basketball March Madness.