NCAAB Odds Explained

The Point Spread for NCAA basketball is a margin of points set by sportsbooks to handicap basketball games for gambling purposes. The sportsbooks will handicap and based off their research they will predict how many points the favourite team will be favoured by and this is known as the spread. The favoured team will be indicated by a minus sign (e.g. -4.5) while the underdog will be indicated by a plus sign (e.g. +5.5). When you bet the point spread the team bet on has to cover the margin of point to win the bet so if you bet a team -4.5 they would have to win the game by at least 5 points.

The Money Line is not exactly common place when betting college basketball but it is a bet that should be paid attention to as it can really come in handy in some circumstances. The money line is a set price put on each team by the oddsmakers on how often they think each team will win the game. The favoured team will be indicated by a minus sign (e.g. -190) and the underdog will be indicated by a plus sign (e.g. +180).

The Over/Under or total is the number of points oddsmakers predict to be scored by both team combined in a game. The oddsmakers will handicap the game and set a number (e.g. 190) and you would wager on if you think the total number of points scored by both teams combined will be greater than 190 or less than 190. At most sportsbooks totals have 20 cent lines or -110 that means you would bet $110 to win $100 although you can find totals with 10 cent lines at some reduced shops and that mean you have to bet just$105 to $100.