When most people think of college basketball lines they think of ‘March Madness’-otherwise known as the NCAA Basketball Tournament—and filling out office pool brackets. That’s unfortunate since 1xbit crypto professional sports bettors have long considered college basketball one of the most ‘beatable’ sports for a variety of reasons. There are so many teams on the board that the NCAA basketball betting enthusiast can become a ‘specialist’ and focus on teams from a specific region or conference. This allows them to find value against the college basketball lines or pointspread since bookmakers have to ‘generalize’ and set numbers on the entire board.
With so many good sports books available to players all over the world there’s no reason to bet into unfavorable NCAA college basketball odds. Always shopping for and betting into the most favorable college basketball lines is essential for long term success at sports betting. Whether you’re betting on NBA or college hoops, NFL or college football or any other sport there’s no getting around the fact that long term winners do the work necessary to make sure that they’re betting at the right college basketball pointspread.
The specific nature of college basketball betting makes pointspread shopping all the more important. With so many teams on the board and so many games being played every week you’ll find more disparity from sports book to sports book in NCAA basketball lines than in any other sport. Just by doing some shopping and finding college basketball odds that are a point or two more favorable and doing it on a consistent basis can turn a losing season into a highly profitable winning season.
Since it is such a huge event in the college basketball betting world let’s talk a little bit about the NCAA tournament aka ‘March Madness’. ‘March Madness’ is one of the biggest mainstream sporting events of the year and a huge cash cow for the NCAA itself. The CBS TV network pays the NCAA over a half billion dollars per year and this amount makes up over 90% of its operating budget. It’s also one of the biggest sports betting events of the year—some suggest that it’s an even bigger deal than the Super Bowl since it’s spread out over multiple days. In addition to college basketball pointspread betting on the game with sports books, NCAA tournament office pools are common in businesses large and small.
Whether you’re betting on the finals of ‘March Madness’ or an early season non-conference game it’s important to always get the best of it. This means shopping for the most favorable college basketball odds offered at more than one sports book. The extra work you do before the game will translate into more money in your pocket at the end of the season.
College football is one of the most exciting sports to watch and to bet on. From coast to coast colleges and their alumni play high stakes contests complete with pageantry, tradition and student pride. And the only more exciting than a fall day at your alma mater watching the team play is betting on college football. Like any other form of sports betting, of course, it’s important to stay up to date on the latest college football lines. Thanks to the growth in technology over the past decade and the explosion of offshore betting establishments it’s easier than ever to bet at the most favorable football odds.
Sports betting is an exciting activity for players of all ages and income levels but it’s important to remember that the underpinning of all betting is math. If you understand the mathematical foundation of how college football odds are made and what they mean you’re already ahead of the game when it comes to betting successfully. If you ignore the math behind the bet—and particularly if you don’t consistently find the most favorable NCAA football odds—you’re fighting an uphill battle from the start. No matter how well you know the sport if you ignore the importance of shopping and betting at the best college football lines you’re going to have a hard time winning in the long term.
Blackjack and poker players know this full well. They work hard to find small edges which they can accrue to give them a theoretical advantage over the casino or their opponents. It’s just as important for the NCAA football betting enthusiast to put in the work to give himself the best chance of winning. There are plenty of different strategies about how to do this but whatever your strategy it’s essential to bet at the best NCAA football lines.
Shopping for the best football odds on a specific game can turn a mediocre season into a very profitable one. This is well known among Las Vegas professionals who search tirelessly to find the best college football lines before they get down on a game. The importance of this should be obvious—just by finding the best price you’ll turn a fair number of games per year that would have been losers in to ‘pushes’ and wins.
Today there’s no reason that even a recreational NCAA football betting devotee can’t have several ‘outs’ at different sports books. With so many excellent offshore sports betting firms available to players all over the world it makes shopping for the latest—and best—college football odds almost ridiculously easy.
Bottom line—betting on sports is much more fun when you’re winning. By working hard and accessing multiple sportsbooks to find the best NCAA football lines you’re already ahead of the game and in a good position for a highly profitable season.
Successful sports handicapping is an ongoing intellectual challenge that you never really ‘master’, even for those of us who’ve done it for years. There’s no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to do it, but these are some basic handicapping concepts that have stood the test of time. This is true in every sport on the betting board including NBA basketball. In fact, the high scoring that is possible in pro basketball games makes doing the right things from a strategic standpoint even more important.
Most successful pointspread handicappers begin their analysis of the day’s NBA card by comparing the opening NBA line to ‘their’ line and looking for advantageous wagering situations. This is usually done through the use of power ratings. Power ratings are simply a numerical ranking of the teams in the league from best to worst. But even the most well calculated and accurate power ratings won’t help if you’re consistently betting into bad NBA lines.
Even if you don’t use dedicated power ratings, a good place to begin is simply looking at the standings and won/loss records of the teams involved. There’s a wealth of statistical information to be found on the Internet, and you can learn a lot by evaluating the wide variety of statistics available. Take a look at a team’s recent form, their won/loss record at home and on the road, and their performance against teams with better or worse winning percentages. This type of analysis can help you find NBA odds overlay situations that can translate into effective and profitable bets.
From there, you can consider scoring data such as points scored and allowed both at home and on the road. Look for recent scoring trends—is a team scoring or allowing more than their average for the season in recent games? With the relatively small number of players on a NBA roster it’s also possible to consider individual performance in your handicapping. Is a star player in a slump and producing less than his seasonal average? Is he ‘on a roll’ and outperforming his usual numbers?
The handicapping insight that you can find in statistical information is limited only by your ambition and imagination. There’s plenty of data to be found on the Internet, and the more comfortable you are with analyzing and evaluating this statistical information the more successful you’ll be in your NBA odds and lines sheet.
It’s also helpful to go beyond the ‘general’ statistical data on pro basketball teams and look at their performance against the NBA pointspread. There’s a variety of resources online that provide information tailored specifically for the basketball pointspread handicapper, and this can be a valuable resource. You’ll often be surprised to discover that some bad teams have a winning record against the NBA betting lines, while some elite level teams are money losers for basketball bettors.
You’ll frequently find additional pointspread performance tendencies in specific situations. Some teams perform well against NBA spreads at home, but not on the road or vice versa. Some teams dominate weaker opposition, but struggle against better teams. Like the general statistical data, the insight that can be gained from examining NBA odds data is limited only by the effort you’re willing to put into it.
Few sports can match the excitement of professional hockey and the best way to make it even more exciting is to bet the sport. Hockey offers end to end, hard hitting excitement and with an 82 game schedule and NHL betting odds posted every day there’s no shortage of action. There are also a variety of different ways to bet hockey and it’s important to stay up to date on the latest NHL lines to find the best value prices.
NHL betting lines are somewhat different than other sports. The primary NHL odds you’ll see posted at sportsbooks is the moneyline which is the simplest way to place a bet. You pick the winner of the game, lay (or take) the price indicated on the NHL lines screen and if your team wins you cash your bet. There’s also the over/under total which you’ll see posted by NHL odds and lines. This bet requires you to pick whether the total goals scored in a game will go ‘over’ or ‘under’ a certain number. The final NHL betting odds concept you need to understand is the ‘puck line’ which is like a pointspread for hockey. The team you bet on needs to win by a certain number of goals (usually 1.5) if you’re ‘laying’ the number or cover the number if you’re betting the underdog.
Once the 82 game NHL regular season is in the books the playoffs for the most coveted trophy in hockey—the Stanley Cup—will begin. The top 8 teams from each conference are all hoping to claim the oldest prize in North American professional sports. The intensity of the Stanley Cup playoffs is unrivaled in professional sports, and even the top seeded teams often face a tough challenge in the first round.
The first US team to compete for the Cup was the Portland Rosebuds of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association in 1916, and the first American team to win the Cup was the Seattle Metropolitans the following year. The Montreal Canadiens have won the Cup 24 times, more than any other team. Former Canadiens great Jean Beliveau’s name appears on the Cup more than anyone else—he’s listed 17 times, 10 as a player and 7 as management.
It’s doubtful that the current crop of NHL superstars will be thinking much about the history of the Stanley Cup once play gets underway. Even though the top seeded teams face the lowest seeded teams and have home ice advantage throughout the playoffs, that doesn’t mean they always have an easy time of it. In fact, the team that usually wins the Stanley Cup is the one that finds a way to win on the road.
If you’re going to bet on football you need to have the latest NFL betting odds. Successful betting is a big enough challenge as it is but one way to make winning easier is to always use the most favorable football betting lines. There is no more essential component to profitable sports betting. If you were to ask a dozen professional sports bettors for advice they’d probably each give you a different answer. One thing they would agree on is the importance of always finding the best NFL lines for your particular wager.
There’s plenty of excitement and emotion involved with all forms of sports betting but the reality is that success or failure is determined by cold, hard mathematical certainty. For a NFL pointspread player laying the traditional 11/10 odds, breakeven is 52.4%. The moneyline player’s breakeven percentage varies with the average NFL odds of his specific wager but the math behind success or failure is no less rigid.
People who participate in other forms of gambling know full well that small, incremental factors can accrue to ultimately give the player an advantage over ‘the house’. Blackjack players learn to count cards and employ mathematically based strategy. Video poker players look for machines with favorable payout tables and understand the ‘optimal strategy’ for each type of machine. For some reason, however, many sports bettors don’t have the same awareness of the importance of giving themselves the best chance of winning.
Shopping for the best football odds on an individual wagering proposition can provide a significant boost to the player’s bottom line. This is what the professionals do—they methodically search to make sure they are getting the best NFL betting lines possible when they place a bet. Over the course of the year, they’ll see losing plays become winners simply because they did the work to find the most favorable football betting lines.
With the wide variety of offshore sports betting options available to players today there’s simply no excuse for not maintaining multiple ‘outs’ and always betting at the best possible NFL odds. No matter what sport a player wishes to bet on or what his betting style or bankroll there’s plenty of excellent sportsbooks from which to choose.
If you were buying a car or a television set, you’d be foolish to pay more than necessary when a minimal bit of effort would afford you the best price available. The same concept applies to sports betting—it’s foolish to ‘pay more’ for a bet on a particular team when it’s possible to find the most favorable NFL lines quickly and easily.
Many North American sports bettors take the summer off but that can be a mistake. Baseball betting offers one of the best opportunities for profit of any sport. One of the great things about baseball betting is the sheer number of wagering opportunities. With each team playing 162 games a year there are a mind boggling number of betting propositions every season. Just considering the basic MLB odds which include sides and total plays on each game, there are nearly 5000 wagering opportunities over the course of the season. That number doesn’t include the many other MLB lines posted by sportsbooks including runline plays, series wagers (which are offered by a growing number of books), futures bets, over/under season win totals, etc.
The overwhelming majority of profitable sports bettors are “grinders”—they focus more on grinding out small profits that add up over the long term rather than trying to make a big killing. There are exceptions, of course, but this is the way that most serious professionals approach sports wagering. Baseball is simply a great sport for grinding out small profits day after day and week after week for a number of reasons. Part of this is the nature of MLB lines—they are based on moneyline odds. Also important is the sheer number of wagering opportunities, and the ability to turn a profit while winning less than 50% of your wagers by betting underdogs. Considering that the best teams lose 1/3 of their games, and the worst teams win a third of theirs it is clear that there are ample opportunities to find value for the astute baseball handicapper.
For many baseball bettors betting underdogs at ‘plus money’ MLB lines can be a successful strategy. As noted above, the best teams lose at least sixty games a year and the worst teams win about the same number. The rest of the league falls somewhere in the middle. Now consider the fact that the more favorite baseball lines you bet, the higher your breakeven percentage that you need to win to make money.
Another important concept to remember is the relative unimportance of home field advantage. Of all major sports, there may be less intrinsic advantage to playing at home in baseball than in any other yet linesmakers always factor home field advantage into MLB odds. This is particularly true during the regular season. Granted there are teams that do better in certain ballparks than others, but this is more a function of the design of the ballpark and the personnel of the team than any sort of “home field advantage”.