2023 March Madness Odds

March Madness Betting Odds Explained

Every year, the NCAA hosts a tournament for the 68 best teams in the country, with the winner of the March Madness tournament being declared the National Champion.

The 68 teams invited to the tournament are divided into four divisions called regions. (North, South, East, West) 

Each of these regions will play elimination games until one team is declared the winner of their region. The four remaining teams are the four teams who make up the NCAA Final Four.

A team can gain entry into the March Madness tournament in two ways. Thirty-two spots are automatically awarded to the 32 conference champions.

The remaining seeds are awarded at the discretion of the tournament committee.

When the teams are selected for the tournament, they are ranked or seeded between 1 and 16.

These seeds or rankings determine which teams play each other. 

The #1 ranked team in each region will play the #16 ranked seed. 

#2 plays #15, and that format continues for all eight first-round games.

The #1 Seeds

Houston Cougars (+500)

The Houston Cougars finished last year with a 32-6 record and won their third AAC conference championship in the previous four years.

Ranked third in the country to start this year, the Cougars looked like one of the best teams in the nation all season long. 

With a 31-3 record, the Cougars are considered one of if not the betting favorites to win it all this year. Houston fans might be a lot more confident heading into the tourney if the Cougars didn’t lose the conference championship game to Memphis.

A 75-65 loss to Memphis in their last game before the tournament didn’t impact their ability to grab a #1 seed, but did it affect their confidence?

We are about to find out.

Alabama Crimson Tide (+750)

Alabama as a #1 seed in the March Madness tournament? Aren’t they a football school?

Maybe the Crimson Tide are more known for their ability to win big games in a different sport, but if you are sleeping on Alabama, the basketball team, then you just haven’t been watching the season play out.

After a rather unimpressive 19-14 season last year, the Tide were ranked only 20th to start this year. 

However, as the early season wins continued to pile up, ‘Bama continued to climb the rankings and became the number-one team in the country at different times this year.

The Tide did lose a game on the road to Texas A&M in early March that might have had fans a little concerned. 

The Tide rebounded to win the SEC Championship, including an 82-63 win in a rematch against the Aggies in the final.

Kansas Jayhawks (+1200)

The 2022 NCAA Championship banner hangs from the rafters at the Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, Kansas. The Jayhawks defeated the University of North Carolina to claim their fourth National Championship all time.

This season they started with great promise, as the Jayhawks jumped out to a 16-1 record. 

However, there was a definite mid-season slide when they lost consecutive games to Kansas State, Texas Christian and Baylor.

Kansas finished the year 27-7, winning 9 of their last 11. Unfortunately, those two losses were both against conference rival Texas, including a 76-56 blowout in the Big 12 Championship.

Purdue Boilermakers (+1200)

When the AP Top 25 preseason rankings were released, the Purdue Boilermakers were nowhere to be found on that list.

When the season started, all Purdue did was win 13 straight to start the year, including quality wins against Duke and Gonzaga.

After starting the year 20-1, the Boilermakers finished 29-5, including a win in the Big 10 Championship game against Penn St.

The Boilermakers are no strangers to the March Madness tournament. However, the school hasn’t made a Final Four appearance since 1980.

The Contenders

UCLA (+1400)

When the preseason rankings were released, UCLA was 8th in the country and had lofty expectations this year. Once the season tipped off, the Bruins stumbled out of the gates, dropping two early games against Illinois and Baylor.

UCLA quickly fell out of the Top 10 rankings, but they have been very good since those two losses. 

The Bruins finished with a 29-5 record for the year. 

If there was a concern for UCLA fans, it’s that conference rival Arizona has their number this year, beating them two of the three times they played.

Gonzaga (+1200)

In 2022, the Gonzaga Bulldogs finished with a record of 28-4 and were the second-ranked team in the country to start this year.

There are two types of Gonzaga Bulldogs fans, those who are quick to point out they have won the West Coast Conference 22 times in the last 23 years and those who hate Saint Mary’s for winning the WCC that one time in 2011-12.

To say the Bulldogs have been dominant in their conference is an understatement. This year they blew out Saint Mary’s in the final once again.

However, this year has been challenging at different times for Gonzaga. 

Many were surprised when the Bulldogs were blown out against Texas and Purdue early in the season.

In mid-December, the Dogs had a real quality win, beating Alabama by 10 points.

If you believe that great teams cover spreads, Gonzaga will not meet your standards of greatness. 

They started the year just 4-13 ATS and finished with a 13-20 record ATS for the season.

Arizona (+1400)

Despite a strong 33-4 record last year, the Arizona Wildcats ranked 17th to start this season.

The Wildcats lived in the shadow of conference rival UCLA for most of the year. After splitting two games against the Bruins during the regular season, Arizona beat UCLA in the Pac12 Championship, winning the season series 2-1 and the Pac12 Title.

Arizona once had a streak of 25 consecutive tournament appearances and was considered an annual threat to win in the late 1990s and early parts of this century.

Unfortunately for Wildcats fans, Arizona hasn’t made a Final Four appearance since 2001, when they lost to Duke in the National Championship game.

With multiple wins against UCLA already, Arizona has shown they can play with the best teams in the country. Now it’s time to do it during the tournament.

March Madness Key Betting Stats

The March Madness tournament is divided into four regions, each consisting of 16 teams. These teams are ranked 1 through 16, with rankings determining who your opponent will be.

Let’s look at how these matchups have played out historically.

Matchup	Record Last 5 Years	2022 Tournament
#1 seed vs #16 seed	#1 seed is 23-1	4-0
#2 seed vs #15 seed	#2 seed is 21-3	3-1
#3 seed vs. #14 seed	#3 seed is 22-2	4-0
#4 seed vs. #13 seed	#4 seed is 18-6	4-0
#5 seed vs. #12 seed	#5 seed is 15-9	2-2
#6 seed vs. #11 seed	**#6 seed is 10-14	**1-3
#7 seed vs. #10 seed	#7 seed is 14-10	3-1
#8 seed vs. #9 seed	**#8 seed is 9-15	**1-3

Interesting to see that over the last five years, both the #6 seeds and #8 seeds, who should be the betting favorite in their first round games are both below .500 during the last five years.

This is a reminder that upsets happen and happen regularly, with underdog seeds going 10-22 straight up last year.

What Is March Madness Bracket Betting?

Many of us are familiar with traditional basketball-type bets, such as point spreads, moneylines and totals, also referred to as over/unders bets.

However, the NCAA March Madness tournament is an opportunity to dive into what is known as bracket betting.

College hoops fans are trying to fill out the winner of all 63 tournament games before the Madness even begins. 

Only first-round matchups are known when you fill out a bracket, and it is up to you to predict how all of the remaining games will play out.

The odds for filling out a perfect bracket are astronomical, and the rewards offered for doing so are often very steep.

Filling out brackets is by far the most popular way for recreational and novice fans to bet on the tournament.

Points are awarded for each game a person gets correct, and the bettor with the most points overall is declared the winner.

Popular March Madness Bets

In a big betting event like March Madness, you will find many different options when you log into the online sportsbooks of your choice.

The sportsbooks understand this is a very popular time of year for bettors, and you can find many different bonus options like the BetMGM bet 10 win 200.

Here, we will detail the most popular March Madness betting types.

Point Spreads

The spread is the most popular form of betting for basketball. 

A point spread is a handicap given by the oddsmakers to both teams. 

The team expected to win the game will have to win by a certain amount of points to cover the point spread and win the bet.

Sportsbooks set a point spread for each game, and bettors must decide if they want to pick the favorite team to win by more than that number. 

If a spread is set at -5 points, and the favorite wins the game 70-66, then they have failed to cover the -5 point spread, making the underdog team the winner of the bet.

Totals (O/U)

Totals betting is also commonly referred to as Over/Under betting. 

Sportsbooks will set a total for the number of points both teams will combine to score in a game. 

A bettor then has to decide if the two teams will combine to score more or less points than the total set by the ‘books.

If you think they will combine to score more than the total, you are taking the Over. 

Of course, if you believe the opposite, you are betting on the Under.

Moneylines

Moneyline betting is maybe the simplest form of gambling available. There is no point spread to worry about with moneyline betting. 

The only decision a bettor needs to make is who will win the game outright.

Where things get a little bit tricky for moneyline bettors is dealing with the odds assigned to each team.

Favorites are given considerable negative odds, meaning you are not betting a dollar-for-dollar scenario.

The most difficult challenge for recreational bettors is to pick underdogs and bet against the favorites, regardless of the odds assigned to each team.

Futures

You can bet on who wins the March Madness tournament even before the big dance begins. 

Of course, as the tournament plays out, a bettor can still wager who the eventual champion will be.

Obviously, as teams advance and go deeper into the tournament, their odds begin to drop significantly. The key to Futures betting is identifying great teams before they go on a run.

Player Prop Betting

March Madness player prop bets have nothing to do with a game’s outcome or the final score.

Instead, they are centred around individual player performance. Instead of betting on which team will win the game or cover the spread, a bettor can look at placing wagers on how many points, assists, rebounds, etc., a player will have during a game.

Player prop betting is an excellent alternative for those who want some action on a game but aren’t overly familiar with the teams playing or don’t have a feel for who might win.