Anyone who is a fan of college football will know just how different NCAA football is from the NFL. For online sports bettors, this also means that betting on NCAA football will come with its own quirks that are important to understand and navigate, and distinguish from NFL football.
With it having more regular season games and championship games than the NFL has, it can be a bit tricky to keep up with the NCAAF. And there are also oodles of different teams to keep track of at any given time throughout the college football season, as well as all the bowl games too. NCAAF Betting odds can also be different too!
It is a lot, so if you are just getting started with betting on college football betting, deciding the odds and which different bet types work best can be a little intimidating. This is why we put together a guide like this to help you on your way.
So, how can you bet on college? Single game bets are the best and are classic wagers in sports betting. They require you to only bet on one game. So, if you can accurately predict the outcome of a national championship game, you win the bet and receive a payout as well as the return of your original wager. If you pick wrong, then you will end up losing the bet and forfeit your bet. Simple.
One of the bets you can place when you bet on a single game is moneyline betting. It is not the most popular way to wager on football in general, yet it is a good and comfortable place to start for new bettors, as it is the least complex to understand.
You are simply asked to predict the winner of the game, no more, no less. Just pick the winner, and if they win, so do you.
Just like NFL moneyline betting, there will be odds that indicate difference in talent or disparities between the competitors to give you an idea of whom the sportsbook thinks is more likely to win. Of course, you will get a bigger payout if you bet on the underdog, however, you take more risk.
The favorite to win will be indicated by a minus sign next to the moneyline odds, and the dog will be indicated by a plus sign.
Now, the more popular bet type for college football is betting the point spread. Sportsbooks will give one team a handicap, and the bettor will choose teams at typically even odds.
This, again, will be represented by a minus sign and plus sign. The spread may look like;
Texas -7.5 (-110)
Tennessee +7.5 (-110)
The spread on this game is 7.5, which will refer to the amount of points that Texas needs to win by, or the maximum that Tennessee can lose by in order for bettors to be paid out. The -110 odds indicate that either side would have to wager $110 in order to win $100.
So, in this case, if you bet $100 on Texas, and they won by 8 points, then you would be paid out $190.91. Yet if you back Tennessee, and they lose by no more than 7.5 points then you will get a greater payout, however the risk is much higher.
If you bet totals, it is not all that different from betting against the spread, in that you do not really bet on which side will win or lose. Instead, with totals, you bet the total number of points scored in the game overall.
So, if the totals are anticipated to be 62.5 then this is the projected total score of both teams combined. However, you have the option to bet over or under this. If you were to bet over, then the actual total between teams had to exceed 62 points in order for you to win. If you bet under, then the total must be less than 62 for you to win.
Again, you will be faced with (-110) as the indicator that you must bet $110 to win $100.
There are a few things you want to be wary of when you bet on college football.
First of all, study the teams before the game, understand their strengths and weaknesses. If you have a strong offense going up against a weak defense, then this makes for a good prop bet on the running back, and a possible overall good play.
Also be cautious of big favorites. If you like a big favorite to demolish a team, it is often safer to play the first half instead of the game.
Try to avoid making any significant bets around the first week of the season. Get to know the teams first and then start placing your bets, or more significant bets once you know them better.
