The Big Blue Lowdown

College hoops gambling has become a national pastime. In the sportsbooks in Vegas during March Madness, you can feel the energy of the gambling masses with every shot. Eyes flit from one TV screen to another, as the point spread keeps even the biggest mismatches from becoming insignificant.

Today, you don’t even need to travel to Sin City to bet on college hoops. Online sportsbooks have made it easy. But if you’re going to put some cash on the line, you need to know a thing or two about sports betting.

Here are the BBL’s 5 Tips of College Basketball betting:

1)      Home court advantage is not a myth. Though it’s impossible to scientifically determine what makes winning (and covering) on the road so difficult, what we do know is that handicappers add two or three points to the spread in favor of the home team. Factor this in when weighing the relative qualities of two teams. A three-point home favorite signifies two teams that are statistically equal, while a three-point home underdog means that the visitor is a half dozen points better.

2)      Look for deep teams in games where they are big (20+ points) favorites. Depth can be an important factor in determining the best team in college basketball each year, but as the Duke Blue Devils have shown, you can still win a national title with a 7- or 8-man rotation. When it comes to gambling and large point spreads, however, teams who play 10 or more players regularly see a lot less of a drop-off when they take their starters out and put in the reserves. Even when the game has gotten out of hand, the substitutes are good enough to keep pouring it on.

3)      Free throws are critical in mid-range (8-12 points) spreads. A common criticism among casual college hoops observers is that the ends of games can be dragged out unnecessarily by the incessant fouling and free throw shooting even when the score is out of reach. Thankfully, when you’ve taken a team to cover a mid-ranged spread, these moments can work in your favor. The rule of thumb is this, if you’re taking the favorite and you’re giving up 10 points, make sure you look at their FT percentage. The higher it is, the better your chances of seeing a close, 4-point game turn into a 15 point win and some money in your pocket.

4)      Always hedge when the opportunity arises. Greed is a killer to the gambler looking for the angles. If you’re looking for success, the object should not be to make a lot of money quickly. Instead, your object is to make more than you lose. Even if you only net $1 on a range of bets, you turned a profit. And there is a reason that the best handicappers in the world are never right more than two-thirds of the time. With that in mind, think about your opportunities to hedge. A great strategy is to bet parlays where the games are scheduled one after the other. For instance, if you take a two game parlay and you hit the first two games, you can put a little extra cash going the opposite way on the third leg…this way you are guaranteed money.

5)      Stay away from teasers, buying points and other gimmicks. Your best odds are on the straight up game, and the increased payouts of a parlay full of straight up ATS games. Getting an extra 6 points in a two game teaser sounds nice, but you’re only two long distance jump shots away from losing. Teaser payouts don’t justify the added risk of needing multiple teams to cover, especially in college basketball, where the players are young and emotion and momentum can change rapidly, making even the largest leads unsafe.