The NFL may be the most popular sport in America, but college football isn’t far behind.
In the United States, a large number of people wind up supporting their alma mater when they graduate from college. For many, college athletics is closer to their hearts over a professional team.
Because college football has become so popular, every legal book will take lots of different action in these games. If you’re wondering how to bet on the sport, you’ve come to the right place.
Where to Bet on the College Football
How to Pick a College Football Betting Site
As stated above, there are so many legal sportsbooks to choose from that offer lines on college football. Below is a list of some criteria sports bettors will use to decide which platform to use.
User Interface
For casual sports bettors, the user interface is one of the most important things. As long as the interface is clean and easy to understand, the casual sports bettor will be happy just to bet.
If you’re looking for an accessible interface and are only wagering a small amount of money on a given day, this could be one area that helps you decide which sportsbook to use.
Welcome Bonuses
There’s so much competition between sportsbooks that every single legal book will offer a welcome bonus to give you an extra incentive to come onboard. The catch is, once they get you onto the app, they’re expecting you to give the money back and then some with your wagers.
If making free money is something you’re interested in, welcome bonuses are huge when deciding on a sportsbook.
Promotions
Existing customers will appreciate the sportsbooks with promotions for highly-bet college football games. Sportsbooks including Caesars, DraftKings, and FanDuel continue to roll out different promotions on a weekly basis to keep their customers engaged in the college football market.
If used correctly, you can guarantee money with most of these promotions. Finding sportsbooks that offer promotions that can be hedged is a big deal for many sports bettors.
Odds
If you’re an existing sports bettor, you understand the importance of line shopping. If you don’t, allow us to explain.
Line shopping is essentially finding the best odds for your preferred wager so you can make the most money when your college football wager wins. This is important for people who wager on a daily basis and look to make sports betting a secondary income.
The better the lines, the more profit one will receive in a large sample size.
Payment Methods/Speed
If you’re looking for the best payment options, this would be the criteria for you. Every legal site has most of the same payment options, but some sites take longer to process than others.
Finding a sportsbook that puts the money into your bank within a day is crucial for those looking to make a quick buck and then dip.
Betting Types
You will be able to find a moneyline, total and spread wager for any college football event on any major sports betting app. However, there’s lots of money to be made on game props, player props and other types of wagers.
For instance, if you’re someone who enjoys team totals, you’re going to want to find a book that offers these types of bets, as not every book has this type of market.
How to Place a College Football Bet Online
- Browse through all of the sportsbooks that are legal in your area and carry college football.
- Find the sportsbook you want to wager with and select The Game Day promotion link on that specific sportsbook review page.
- Once you find the sportsbook that suits you, read the welcome bonus and make a deposit on the sportsbook accordingly.
- Make sure you understand all of the rules and regulations on the sportsbook before completing sign-up!
- Start with a bankroll for the college football season with money you’re able to lose without panicking.
- Place your best college football bets on the sportsbook and get excited for Saturdays!
How to Find Value When Betting
Sports betting is a financial market. Every legal sportsbook privately comes up with their own lines because they want to be unique in comparison to every other sportsbook.
Because sportsbooks try to be unique to other books, every sportsbook has different odds listed for the same wager. It’s important to find the wager you’re looking to bet on with the best odds.
You can do this by going to The Game Day’s live odds section. From there, you can find the wager you’re looking to bet on and the sportsbook that offers the best lines for that specific wager.
Let’s say Alabama is on the road against Florida, for example. In this scenario, we’ll say Alabama is favored by 13.5 points at most books at (-110) odds. On almost every single legal book, Alabama -13.5 is (-110) except for DraftKings, which has Alabama at (+100).
In this scenario, you would bet on DraftKings and take Alabama -13.5 at (+100) to give yourself the greatest potential payout. This kind of betting is positive expectancy betting, where you continue to get better lines than the actual market.
How to Read NCAAF Betting Odds & Lines
Let’s stick with the Alabama vs Florida example. At -13.5, Alabama has odds of (+100), while Florida has odds of (-120) at +13.5.
A “-" next to the odds means there’s a greater than 50 percent chance your wager will hit. A “+" before the odds means there’s a 50 or worse percent chance that the wager hits.
If you were looking to profit $100 on (-150), for example, you would need to bet $150 to win $100.
Whenever there’s a (-110), (-150), (-200), etc. it means that this wager is a favorite. A (+150), (+200), (+300), etc wager means this wager is an underdog.
Types of College Football Bets Online
We talked about how many sports bettors’ main criteria is bet types at a sportsbook. Let’s talk about each bet type that can be wagered on in college football.
College Football Moneyline Bets
In college football, a moneyline wager is the most common wager. All you have to do is pick which team you think will win the game.
If the team is (+150), they’re underdogs to start the game. This doesn’t mean the underdog will lose, it just means that oddsmakers expect them to. If you bet an underdog to win, the payout is greater than betting a favorite because the percentage the underdog wins is against you from an oddsmaker’s view.
College Football Spread Bets
In college football, there are some extreme mismatches and games that just aren’t close when it comes to skill level on each side. Sometimes an FBS school will take on an FCS school, which is often a huge talent gap.
For every college football game, there is a spread along with the moneyline wager we just talked about above. If you think an underdog will keep it close but might not win the game outright, you can bet on the spread.
We’ll stick with the Alabama vs Florida example. You can take Florida +13.5 or Alabama -13.5 in this game. This means that if Florida loses by 13 or less, Florida +13.5 is a winner. However, if Alabama wins by 14 points or more, that wager is the winner.
Sometimes the moneyline price is too inflated on both sides. It’s bad practice to wager on a (-600) moneyline since the return is so minimal, and it’s unlikely you’ll win a (+550) moneyline underdog.
The spread keeps it 50/50, which many bettors appreciate.
College Football Totals
Totals are another common college football wager, and they’re simple to understand. Here, you’re betting on how many points both teams score in the game.
If the total is set at 55.5 points, if you take the Under, you’re looking for a combined score (when added up) of 55 points or less. If you take the Over, you’re looking for 56 points or more to be scored combined between both teams.
Before wagering on the total, please understand that overtime counts towards the wager. If you have the Under 55.5 in a 27-27 game that goes to overtime, you will eventually lose that wager in overtime. After all, you are betting on the combined final score.
College Football Teasers
A teaser is a combination of multiple betting selections in one betting slip that involves changing the spread or point total of a game by six points. Just like a parlay, if one wager in the teaser loses, the wager is finished.
There is an advantage to betting college football teasers. You can add an additional six points to a spread or total of a college football game. Each wager in the teaser is expected to hit based on where oddsmakers put the lines.
College Football Parlay Betting
A parlay is almost the same thing as a teaser. You must wager at least two selections combined into one. Adding two or more selections will increase the odds dramatically depending on how many selections are added into the parlay.
Again, if one leg of your parlay loses, the entire bet loses, no matter if all of the other bets in your parlay won. This is like playing the lottery, and is a common way for sportsbooks to make a ton of money.
College Football Round Robin Betting
A round robin bet is similar to a parlay because, again, you are combining multiple wagers into one bet slip. The difference between a round robin bet and a parlay is that you will start by adding all of your favorite bets into your bet slip and you won’t parlay all your bets into one.
To get a round robin, most sites will give you an option when you are adding different bets into your betting slip.
If you are looking to wager on three games in college football, you can have all of your wagers doubled up. One wager will have two separate two-team parlays with the other two wagers. In case one of your bets goes wrong, you still have a chance at winning with the other two bets parlayed.
This is a great way to hedge your bets in college football.
College Football Prop Betting
This is a market where you don’t have to worry about the actual outcome of the game. When betting on props, you’re worried about outcomes that don’t matter when it comes to who won the game or how many points were scored.
Prop betting is betting team totals or picking players to score touchdowns. It can also be used for betting how many passing, rushing or receiving yards a particular player might have.
Sometimes prop betting is like putting together a fantasy team. If this is your style, prop betting in college football is for you.
College Football Futures Betting
Futures wagers are often bet on before the season begins, but can be wagered on later in the season as well. When it comes to college football futures markets, you can bet on teams to win a particular conference or win the College Football Playoff at long odds.
Extreme value can be had here, but you’ll have to wait on your ticket for a long period of time. If you think you have solid insight on a wager, it could be worth it.
You can also wager on the Heisman award and other awards that are given out at the end of the season.
College Football Live Betting
College football is so popular that sportsbooks will allow bettors to bet on the game as it’s happening. If a player gets injured or a team starts figuring out their defense, you can make adjustments along with the coaching staff and bet on what you see happening in the game.
On most sites, you will be able to live bet college football in between each play, as the markets continue to adjust robotically to what’s happening on the field. You can get some great value this way, but having real knowledge about what’s taking place on the field at a given time is essential.
How Bowl Games Work
For teams that don’t make the College Football Playoff, they can play in a postseason bowl game as long as they are eligible, with the right amount of wins and so forth.
Most of these games are on neutral fields, but knowing that one fan base will make the trip over the other is crucial. Having fans back in the stands is massive to begin with, but betting on teams that have a loyal fanbase is one tip to consider when betting on bowl games.
You can also see how teams perform on a neutral field and view trends.
How College Football Playoffs Work
The College Football Playoff includes the top four teams chosen by a committee. Eventually the playoff will widen and there will be more than four teams, but for now, the current format is staying.
The No. 1 seed plays the No. 4 seed, while the No. 2 plays the No. 3. Both winners in those two games wind up playing in the National Championship game. You will usually see Alabama in the playoff and also playing for the championship.
One tip to look at during the College Football Playoffs is which coaches are in it. Usually veteran coaches are the ones that get the job done. It’s also important to see how each team stacks up analytically.
How the National Championship Game Works
The National Championship game is between the two teams that ended up winning their semi-finals games in the group of four stage.
Betting on the National Championship is extremely similar to betting on any other game. There will be more markets to wager and the public and sharps will wager a lot more money than you’ll see on a regular-season game.
Don’t complicate it. This is just another game in college football. Read the stats and analytics and find ways each team can have success or failures against one another. Once you come to a conclusion, stick with it and don’t let anyone sway your opinion. Own your pick.
How the Senior Bowl Works
The Senior Bowl is where the top players in college football travel to play for NFL coaches in order to get drafted into the league. You must be invited into the game and also have to be a senior, hence the “Senior” bowl.
Seniors don’t have any more eligibility and have to leave college for a professional career. Those who still want to play football have a chance to showcase what they’ve got to NFL coaches to try to increase their draft stock to continue playing the sport that they love.
This game is incredibly hard to wager on as it’s basically an all-star game. You’ll never know which players will be in on certain snaps and what not.
Place College Football Bets You Like
College football is one of the most exciting sports in the world. It’s not the NFL where kickers can nail 66-yard field goals. Instead, you might get a freshman kicker that misses a game-tying 26-yard field goal.
That’s the excitement you get out of college football. They’re not professionals, but the passion on the field and in the seats is all worth it.
Enjoy college football and place bets that you truly believe will happen. Break it down on paper and in your head and if the scenario makes sense, place the wager you like.
Have some fun with it. You can wager small and just have something to cheer for or you can try to make a secondary income out of betting on college football. That’s all up to you.
The options to bet on college football are always going to be endless.
