Understanding March Madness Point Spreads

The NCAA men's college basketball tournament is one of the most entertaining sporting events of the year. There are a few things that sports bettors should keep in mind when getting a head start on March Madness. The point spread is the number of points allocated and shown with a plus sign (+) for the favorite and a minus sign (-) for the underdog. The favorite has to win by more than the point spread in order for you to win if you bet on the favorite.

During March Madness, the NCAA college basketball point spreads are more affected by the public because it attracts more inexperienced bettors than the regular season. Experts take this into consideration and adjust their point spreads accordingly. However, sports bettors who know the teams from different conferences can get ahead of the experts early on in the season.

Expert sports bettors configure their March Madness point spreads for travel and home court advantage during the NCAA Tournament they do during the regular season. However, they don't always make enough adjustments. By overlooking this, it gives the educated sports bettor more value when picking teams playing in familiar courts or against teams who traveled long distances to play. As soon as the participating teams are announced and the selection process is finalized, the best thing to do is to observe the schedule to figure out the travel arrangements.

If there are any surprise victories during the first round of the NCAA Tournament, the bookmakers will most likely overreact in setting their point spreads. This gives the rest of the sports bettors and opportunity to win big in the second round. Bookmakers can be stingy with their point spreads with the popular teams so there is little opportunity there. However, there is great value in the less popular teams if their willing to take the chance on them.