Sports Betting: NCAAB Betting Guide

How do sports betting businesses make a book for NCAAB Odds?

Anybody studying March Madness odds once Selection Sunday has come and gone has to make a stern decision based on the conflict between the immovable object of tradition and the unstoppable force of momentum.

There is a very clear power structure in College sports. Always has been. The big schools in the big conferences haven’t that weight of history and achievement for nothing. The only thing is that the nature of oddsmaking is that a bookmaker sometimes has to make book when the perception of a school may be higher than the actuality of its current achievements merit. Duke in recent years is the classic example of this. The Blue Devils have that aura that means they are always going to be priced higher than perhaps their results deserve.

And on the other hand you have the romance of the competition itself. March Madness, above any other major sports competition, is where little teams can catch fire. Colorado did something like it in baseball this year, but – with the greatest respect to the Rockies – maybe the Mets’ collapse was the real story of the National League last year. March Madness is different – a team from Nowhere, MO, can catch fire, burn down a five seed in the first round, hit a hotstreak in their downtown shooting in the second round and the next thing you know the networks are doing live outside broadcasts from the diner where the fellas like to have their chow after training during the long and frozen winter.

The trick is, of course, to figure out which is which. In handicapping any game at March Madness, the secret to successful sports betting is figuring out the games where a high profile school is living on past glories and playing a team with a Point to Prove, or where a high profile school is just every bit as good as their publicity would suggest, and are about to unleash the apocalypse on some deer in the headlights. You then simply bet accordingly, and sit back to watch the dollars roll in.

The other trick, of course, is to keep believing. Nothing about March Madness is a game of perfect, and buzzer-beating accidents can happen. Don’t sweat it, keep faith in yourself and remember – there’ll be another game in twenty minutes. Every new game is a new opportunity to win. Take it while it’s here.