College Betting at Bally Bet Sportsbook

It’s amazing to think that of all the sporting events available to wager on in the United States and Canada, it’s actually the likes of March Madness and college football that attract a huge amount of interest from bettors.

And those are just two of the huge range of college betting options that you can explore here at Bally Bet, which includes many of the lines and wager types you may have become accustomed to in other sports.

From conference games to national championship finals, we’ve got you covered. But how does college betting work – and where is it legal?

How College Betting Works

Although the nature of college sports is different from the pro ranks and the big leagues, from a betting perspective it is, for the most part, exactly the same.

You’ll find the three most popular bet types available right off the bat. You can wager on college teams via their moneyline odds, back the over or under line in the total points market, or back one of the teams to beat their spread.

There are college betting futures wagers, from March Madness to the NCAA Championship in football, as well as lines for individual player awards such as the Heisman Trophy.

The only key point of difference is when it comes to betting on props, as the rules on this vary from one state to the next. Later in this article, we’ll take a look at college sports prop betting in more detail.

Where Can I Bet on College Sports?

The list of states can be divided into three distinct categories:

• Those where college betting is legal

• Those where college betting is legal except for local teams and/or props

• Those where college betting is not legal

At the time of writing, there are three states where college betting is allowed without exception: Nevada, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.

Then there are the states where college sports betting is legal, although you’re not allowed to wager on games that involve colleges from state soil. Illinois, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Washington D.C. are among this category.

Some states have legal college betting, but won’t let you wager on local teams or place bets online. Arkansas, New Mexico, Mississippi, and Delaware fit into this category. In New York, you can’t bet on local teams or place wagers online, although you can bet on in-state competitions as long as NY colleges aren’t taking part.

In Tennessee and New Hampshire, you can only bet on college sports online, while other states allow college betting but have specific rules on prop bets. We’ll detail those in the next section.

As you may know, Bally Bet is currently legal and live in seven states: Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Indiana, New York, Ohio, and Virginia.

Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, and Virginia are all on the list of states where college betting is legal except for props.

In Virginia, you can’t bet on games involving local teams either. This is also the case in New York, where college betting is allowed but just not on schools like Cornell, Albany, Columbia, Syracuse, and so on.

College Prop Betting

Prop betting is one of the most popular ways to wager on sports like football, basketball, and baseball. Yards, sacks, three-pointers, strikeouts; the list of available props is almost endless.

The rules on prop betting in college sports tend to be a little stricter, as there’s been a few high-profile scandals over the years in which college players have been lured into nefarious "match fixing" schemes.

That being said, some states allow for prop betting in college sports, with Arkansas, Illinois, New Jersey, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, and Tennessee among them.

You can wager on college props right here at Bally Bet in New York, however, you’ll notice that we don’t carry games that involve local state teams; as mentioned before, those are off limits.

Which College Sport Should I Bet On?

When choosing a sport to bet on – be it at collegiate level or the pro ranks – you should really know a thing or two about what you’re wagering on.

Maybe you follow a particular college sport closely as a fan or perhaps you live in a state with colleges that famously do well in NCAA competitions. This knowledge is important when it comes to sports betting, and you can also add further context to your wagers by studying the stats and the form of the teams involved.

College basketball is popular amongst bettors for a number of reasons. There are so many teams within the NCAA structure – around 350, as a guide – which of course means that there are dozens of games to bet on each and every week.

College basketball games can be highly entertaining, end to end, and feature stacks of points being scored, which is fun to watch but also adds to the betting intrigue, too. Maybe you’ll have success predicting which games will clear their total points line, or wagering on the spreads of the two teams.

Of course, the college basketball season culminates with March Madness, which continues to be one of the most wagered-on sporting events in North America. Some 64 teams enter, but who will make it to the Championship game?

March Madness futures and bracket betting are at the heart of what makes wagering on college basketball so popular.

Or maybe you’re more of a football fan? You might follow the college action already, given that this is something of a proving ground for the next generation of NFL stars.

Betting on the NCAA is a popular choice, not least because of the familiarity of the betting lines available. From moneyline and spreads to points totals and quarter/half betting, football fans will feel at home when wagering on college football.

As mentioned, there are also futures lines if you want to back your local college – or a team you like – to win the National Championship, and you can also place college football parlays as you would in any other professional sport.

College football tends to be beloved by those who dig a little deeper into their pre-wager research. You can find plenty of team and player stats for NCAA football, historic head-to-head records, and player/coach turnover from one season to the next. Some bettors even consider the local conditions: How will the weather impact upon the game? Will the altitude affect the passing range of the visiting quarterback?

You may be more of a follower of baseball or hockey, or something else entirely. Whatever your passion, there’s a chance you’ll find college betting markets to support it right here at Bally Bet.

College Betting vs. Professional Leagues Betting

One of the misconceptions about college sports betting is that it’s somehow an inferior "product" when compared to wagering on the pro ranks.

But there are plenty of bettors that will advocate college wagering. For a start, you may have in-depth knowledge of college sport and be able to spot value bets presented by a sportsbook. This happens more often than you might think, given that there are hundreds of games to price up every week of the season.

The majority of the most popular bet types are available in college sports too, so in many ways, there’s a close similarity between college betting and wagering on the professional leagues.

Of course, the actual specifics of the games are different. Have you ever watched a college basketball or football game? The atmosphere is often incredible: raucous, passionate, and loud. All the things that sports crowds should be.

That helps to create an extraordinary bond between the players and their supporters, who in many cases will be friends, family, and even classmates. You might argue that that creates a purer sporting experience, as opposed to the franchise feel of the pro ranks. It’s no coincidence that many professional athletes are only too happy to promote their alma mater, even many years after graduating.

From a betting perspective, this also creates unique variables. You probably know that home advantage is real across pretty much all sports in North America, but this can be accentuated in college sports, particularly at schools where the supporters are able to create a cauldron-like atmosphere — an experience that many visiting college players on the road aren’t used to.

But be warned: The pressures of playing in front of an impassioned crowd can also be off-putting to home players, too. Think about the "tight" quarterback eager to impress, or the nervous basketball player trying to sink free throws, the weight of expectation on their shoulders.

Remember too that professional athletes tend to be fitter and stronger than their younger counterparts in college, who may not yet have reached their physical peak. This can prove telling late in games, when fatigue is a factor — interesting if you like to place live bets.

And towards the end of a long, hard season, that relative lack of physicality in college athletes can be another variable to consider in your bets. Will a team perform as well in late season games as they did at the start?

College Betting Tips

If anything, college sports can be more unpredictable than the professional ranks. You only need to look at the shock results and Cinderella stories at March Madness for evidence of that.

Unpredictability can be useful for sports bettors, particularly those willing to go the extra mile in their research and analysis.

Study the form

It’s true that you can place winning sports bets using gut feel and instinct alone. But it’s also true that you can add extra insight and context to your wagers with some light reading, too.

The league standings can be a useful starting point, but why not take a deeper dive? Sometimes the short-term form can be more illuminating, while a consideration of strength of schedule is key, too. Are teams on a winning streak because they’ve been playing weak opposition? Which teams consistently beat their spread?

Be selective

Taking a scattergun approach to your betting has a low chance of delivering success.

There are hundreds of college sports games played every week, so to bet on all of them wouldn’t be the smartest play. Instead, home in on those teams and bets that you have more confidence in. This selective approach at least affords you the opportunity to only wager on picks you truly believe in.

Consider the local conditions

We’ve touched upon it already, but it’s incredible how the conditions can change from one college sports venue to the next.

The weather, wind, and altitude can all have an impact on passing and receiving in college football. Consider which teams and players will be most impacted (spoiler alert, it’s usually the road team).

Even indoor sports like college basketball can have local differences. Try and watch as many games as you can, noting how intense the atmosphere is at courtside, or how the venue itself lends itself to intimidating home support.

At Bally Bet, we offer betting odds for college basketball, football, hockey, baseball, and much more. Feel free to browse our various pages for more handy hints and tips to improve your college sports betting .