Whether you’re rooting for the Buckeyes, Wolverines, Bulldogs, or just any team, there's no denying that College football is fun. It’s not quite the pro leagues, but there are plenty of betting opportunities that you can explore.
How To Bet On College Football – Best College Football Betting Sites For Competitive NCAA Odds
Learn more about point spreads, money lines, and over/under bets, and find the top sportsbooks with the most competitive odds for College football betting in this guide.
How to Bet on College Football
How to Bet on College Football
We've packed all the information in this guide if you want to learn how to bet on college football, use the best betting strategies, and find the most competitive odds for college sports.?
Best Sites to Bet on College Football
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NCAA Football Betting?
America loves football and betting on football! The sport that started out being played by a few small colleges in the North East grew into a national obsession and led to professional football and the NFL, which became the most valuable sports league in America by a wide margin.
In recent years, sports betting has emerged from the shadows as more and more states legalized sports gambling and online sports betting.?
As the most popular sport in America, it stands to reason that it would also be the most popular sport to bet on. And while the NFL sits at the top of the sports betting mountain, College football isn’t far behind. Professional and college football are very similar, but if you plan on betting on college football, you may want to leave some of your NFL strategies behind.?
For years the NFL has worked towards creating parity, and by and large, they have succeeded. Teams regularly rise from the bottom to the top of a division in one season, and as they say, “On any given Sunday, any NFL team can beat any other team.”??
College football, by contrast, is much more unpredictable. First, there are far more teams in College football, representing a much broader talent pool than the NFL, where every player is elite. Add that these rosters turn over the year due to player graduations or transfers, and things become even more unpredictable.?
And don’t forget that many of these players are still teenagers.?
While this may seem daunting, it can present opportunities to the savvy bettor. This guide will offer potential strategies for betting on college football to give you an advantage over the casual, “hunch-driven” wagerer, also known as “the Public.”??
We’ll also help you navigate the dozens of sports betting sites available and point you toward some of the most reliable, established sites, zeroing in on what they excel in.?
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Why Bet on College Football Betting Sites Online?
We have nothing against old-school bookies, but betting on college football is much more convenient online, especially when you know which sportsbooks can be trusted.?
Most competitive odds: It’s easier to find the best odds on your team when you can quickly skim from one bookie to another in just a few clicks.?
Plenty of betting opportunities: There are some bet types that traditional bookmakers do not offer. Depending on which sportsbook you bet on, you’ll discover many other ways to bet on your team and favorite athletes.?
Exciting bonuses: From welcome offers to odds boosters and parlay bets, you’ll find exciting promotions in online sportsbooks.?
Guide to College Football Betting
Bet Tracking
Bet tracking is simply keeping track of your open wagers. Nearly every online betting site will have a tab or column that tracks all of your college football bets on that site. You can even download apps to track wagers from different betting sites. This is a significant upgrade from when you had to keep track of your bets on a slip of paper or by writing them on your hand.?
Futures
While every bet is on a future outcome (or else it would be much easier), futures bets are placed with an eye on a distant future result, often at the end of the season for a team or individual player. It could be reaching a certain number of wins for a team, winning an award, or reaching a statistical achievement for a player.
These bets sometimes fly under the radar because the result is so far off, but they can offer great odds and significant returns if you hit your pick.?
Hook
“The Hook” stands for a half point (.5) in a line or point spread for a game: Example: “After the injury news, the line went up, and Vegas added a hook to the 3-point spread, bringing it up to 3?.”?
This comes into play often and assures that the game will not end in a push for bettors or the house.?
Live Betting (AKA In-game betting)
Live betting is placing a bet on an event while it is in progress. You could bet on a revised point spread based on the current score or on a single quarter or half result. Online betting and gambling apps are updated continuously as the game progresses, allowing you to wager right up to the last second.?
Moneyline
Betting the moneyline means picking the winner of any game without a point spread. Because of this, the teams will have different odds offered based on who is the favorite or underdog. The underdog will (obviously) offer better odds on the moneyline than the favorite.?
Odds
The Odds show how much you will win on any wager based on betting $100.? Odds are based on the likelihood of the outcome of whatever event is being wagered on. If you place a bet with plus (+) odds, you root for the “underdog.”?
Example: If I bet on Notre Dame to win and the odds are (+140), a $100 bet will pay off $140.?
And if you are betting on the favorite in a game, you would have negative (-) Odds.?
Example: If you bet on Alabama to win and the odds are (-165), you would have to wager $165 to win $100.?
Parlay
A Parlay is the combination of two or more wagers together into one bet. It only pays out if you win EVERY bet on it. Because this is more difficult than winning just one bet, the odds of Parlay bets are often the highest on the board.?
Many sites allow you to choose what bets you include in a parlay, calculating the odds for you as you go. Parlays are high-risk, high-reward bets.??
Point spread (AKA spread or line)
This is the easiest bet you can make on a game and is the most popular way to bet on football. The point spread is designed to show the difference between the teams competing.?
If two teams are fairly evenly matched, the point spread may only be a point or two. In college football, you can sometimes have teams that are 40 or 50-point favorites, which you will never see in an NFL game. Generally speaking, home-field advantage is worth 3 points in the spread.
Prop Bet
A Prop bet is based on an outcome other than the game's result. It could predict a statistical benchmark (rushing yds, sacks, fumbles, etc.) for a team OR an individual player.?
Prop bets are very popular during the college postseason or NFL Super Bowl, when you can bet on everything from the coin flip to how long the national anthem will be. In the past few years, many online betting sites have also started offering multiple prop bets for regular season games.?
Push
A “Push” is when your bet ends in a tie.? If you bet on Oklahoma (-7) to win by seven points, and they win by exactly 7 points, that bet is a push, and all bettors are refunded their total wager. If a Push occurs as part of a Parlay, that game is removed, and the odds are recalculated without it.?
Total (Over/Under)
The Total, or Over/Under, is the predicted total number of combined points scored by both teams in a game. You can usually find it listed after the Point Spread for the game.?
Example: When the Over/Under for a game is 56, you are betting on whether the final score will be more or less than 56 points. The Over/Under can also be used for prop bets in relation to rushing or passing yards or even fumbles or sacks.?
College Football Betting Tips and Strategies
Most of these tips are good general advice you can apply to any sports wagering, but there are a few College football-specific tips below. If you already have a system or strategy working for you, that’s awesome! But if you are just starting to dabble in sports betting or want to change your approach, these tips might help you.?
1. Set a bankroll
This goes for everyone; whether you are betting a buck at a time or hitting the high rollers table, know how much money you can afford to lose and call that amount your bankroll. Once you’ve established your bankroll, divide that amount by 100. This number will be 1 unit for you.?
Example: If you have $500 in your College Football bankroll, each Unit for you would be $5. Breaking your bankroll into units will help you maintain a consistent strategy throughout the season and keep you from extending past your bankroll. Plus, it’s cool to say “units.”?
2. Don’t throw too much into any one bet
There is no such thing as a sure bet. The easiest way to erase your bankroll is to lose a big bet early and spend the rest of what’s left trying to catch up.?
Even big-time sports bettors in Las Vegas rarely bet more than 2 or 3 “units” on ANY wager, and if this approach is good enough for the people who make their living on sports betting, it’s probably good enough for you as well.?
3. Shop for the most competitive odds
One of the significant advantages of legalized online sports betting is the number and variety of options available to the bettor. Before you make your wager, look at 4 or 5 reliable sites to compare odds.?
This should guarantee you’ll be able to lock in the best odds every time. Sometimes that extra ? point can make a big difference in a wager, and don’t you deserve to have the best odds??
There is a lot of competition between these sites to take your wagers. They will often offer sign-up bonuses, deposit bonuses, referral bonuses, crypto bonuses, and more! Just a few minutes of research can find the site or sites that fit your preferences and give you the most “bang for your buck” (or “Kapow! for your crypto” if you like).?
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4. Bet on what you know
This is universal for all gambling, but we want to specifically address this as it applies to College football betting. There are more than 120 teams in Division 1 college football alone. It is impossible to keep track of every one of these teams during the season.?
We recommend you find a few teams or a conference that you follow closely (Eventually, there will only be two conferences anyway, it’s inevitable). If you narrow your focus, you can gather more information on the games you wager on. And if you are already watching the SEC to see who the #1 pick in the draft will be, why not use what you’ve observed in your wagers?
Now and again, there will be a game out of your “betting knowledge wheelhouse” that has a line too juicy to pass up. Go ahead! Whether you researched it for hours or just trusted your gut, a winning bet pays out.?
But if you take a strategic, long-term approach to your wagers, it’s not wise to stray outside of what you know regularly unless you know something we don’t (not impossible).?
5. Early lines have value
Generally speaking, the average public bettor tends to bet on the favorite. This results in the line moving in favor of the underdog, so common sense is to bet the favorite early AND/OR wait to bet the underdog until right before game time.?
Because of the sheer number of College football teams playing and the more unpredictable nature of the college game, you see much more line movement than in the NFL.?
You also see the line move the other way (in favor of the favorite) more frequently in the college game. This is especially true early in the year when everyone is trying to assess teams based on a spring inter-squad scrimmage and maybe an early season blowout of a Division 3 cupcake. Not a lot of Data there, Bob.?
This is where your knowledge comes in. There is opportunity in these early lines if you know where to find it.
6. Start slowly as you test your strategy
As we mentioned before, College football is unpredictable, never more so than at the beginning of the season. College football rosters experience more turnover than ever before, and almost every team incorporates multiple starters on both sides.?
When the college football season begins, we’re all trying to see through the fog and determine what is real and what is just hype. That’s why it’s smart to approach the first few weeks more conservatively.?
Test out your assumptions with some lower-stakes bets, and as the weeks go on and you have more information available to digest, you can be more aggressive. Again, you want to build that bankroll while ensuring you have something to wager next week.?
7. Parlays are fun, but are they smart?
The short answer is no. While those odds on that 3-game parlay sure look enticing, it’s actually in your best interest to lay those three wagers separately.?
We’re not saying there’s no place for the parlay, but we prefer to play them as a “heat check” when we’re up and on a streak. It’s not the way to make up for a bad week. Generally, doing that only makes the week worse.?
8. Don’t bet if you are inebriated
There is a reason they give the drinks out for free in Vegas. If the betting sites could give you booze for free, they would. Don’t do their work for them! Drink to celebrate those cold, calculated, sober, winning bets you made hours ago!
9. Don’t be afraid to bet the under
Generally speaking, the public loves to bet the over, and the first Over/Under put out by the sportsbooks take that into account. If you only were to bet the under all the time, the statistics say you would have more money than you started with.?
How To Bet on College Football Games
Now that you’ve got a handle on all the important terms, let’s take you through a step-by-step walk-through for placing an actual bet on a College football game. For this example, we will use our #1 site for College football betting – BetOnline.
Step 1: Go to BetOnline.com to create an account
- Click the green “Join ” button at the top of the page.?
- Enter your info.
- Go to your email and click the link they send to verify your email address
Step 2: Deposit funds
- Click the $$ banking/deposit button
- Pick your desired currency type and how much you want to deposit
- Don’t forget to see what kind of bonus promotions you might be eligible for. If you have a promo code, put it in here!
Step 3: Make your bets
- Click “sports” at the top of the page.?
- Scroll to Football on the left sidebar. Click and scroll down to NCAA football.
- Click NCAA Football to bring up a list of games and bets; just click the ones you like, and they’ll be added to your bet slip.?
Guide to Betting on College Football
What’s the Best Site for Betting on College Football Games?
There are plenty of great places to wager on College Football. We recommend sticking with the best gambling sites like BetOnline .?
They have everything you need for the best online college football betting. You may prefer a different site, so we suggest you look at a few before choosing which one(s) to sign up for.?
What Are the Best Betting Strategies?
To begin with, any strategy is better than no strategy at all. The strategy suggests organization and a plan for how the sharps (professional sports bettors) approach their wagering. They also don’t bet on games they haven’t researched. Betting hunches is for the public.?
Regardless of your approach, we strongly recommend establishing your bankroll and sticking to that amount. It’s also wise to begin with smaller bets as you test your strategy.?
What’s the Easiest Bet in College Football?
There is no such thing as an easy bet in college football, but if you want to know the most straightforward bet you can make, the answer is point spread. This bet is designed to show the difference between the competing teams.?
Why Bet on College Football?
College Football is one of the most popular sports in America, trailing only the NFL. There are incredible regional rivalries all over the country between teams and conferences. With state after state opening up to online sports betting, there’s never been a better time to jump into college football betting.?
Here are a few more reasons to consider making a wager on college football.?
- Excellent betting options: The NFL is the most popular sport to bet on, but they only have 32 teams. There are more than 100 division one college football teams alone! Find the one who will win you some $$$!
- Heisman History: ?No individual sports trophy in America has more cultural relevance than the Heisman Trophy. If you win the Heisman, it may not lead to NFL dominance, but you can be sure to star in at least a few commercials.?
College football futures bets are a great way to cast your vote for your Heisman pick, and if your choice wins, it could provide a healthy return.
- Amusing rivalries: “The Iron Bowl”, “The Game”, “Bedlam”. These are just a few names attributed to College football rivalry games. Many rivalries go back over 100 years, so blood is bad. Any matchup that has earned its nickname should be worthy of a wager.?
Are You Ready to Bet on College Football?
College Football has become a year-round sport, joining the NFL in capturing our attention even when the games aren’t being played. NIL deals and the transfer portal have raised the profile of many college players and teams. But just like the NFL, all the transaction news is just the appetizer for the main course, the games.?
Now that making a wager on your favorite team is easier than ever, sports betting is just as safe and reliable as the sportsbooks in Las Vegas. Just remember to stick with well-established sites like BetOnline .
Betting on college football is a fun way to participate in the game; just remember to wager responsibly. Good Luck!
DISCLAIMER: 21+ only. The information on this site is for entertainment purposes only. Online gambling comes with many risks. Players are advised to gamble responsibly and only use funds they can afford to lose. Remember, gambling is only intended for entertainment purposes and is not a solution to any financial difficulties.
Gambling laws and policies vary from one region to another. Some sites mentioned in this review may not be accessible in your area. Always do your due diligence and check your local gambling policies. It is always better to be safe than sorry.
If you suspect you’re becoming addicted to gambling, seek help immediately by contacting the National Gambling Helpline at 1-800-522-4700.
The following resources may be helpful as well:
- https://www.gamblersanonymous.org/
- https://www.ncpgambling.org/
- https://www.gamblingtherapy.org/
Disclaimer: The above is a sponsored post, the views expressed are those of the sponsor/author and do not represent the stand and views of Outlook Editorial.
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