Have you been thinking about betting on March Madness but want to put yourself in the best position to win? Does it feel like, no matter what you do, every year, the big tournament doesn’t break exactly the way that you’d hoped? There’s nothing like betting on the Madness. Even Super Bowl betting takes a back seat to this. These are some of the best ways to improve March Madness betting 2025 and beyond.
These are just some of the ways you can give yourself a better chance. Always remember: the best betting tip, without question, is to never bet more than you can afford to lose. That’s the only way you can get knocked out of the game (as well as a host of other problems). Follow this, and you’ll have as good an opportunity as anyone to have your own “one shining moment” when they cut the nets down in April 2025.
What are the March Madness 2025 Odds?
As of this writing, the men’s NCAA tournament is a long way off. So, none of the odds have been set yet. That said, the odds for this tournament will be in flux, fluctuating right up until the moment that the game starts. That’s true for the tournament, yes, but also for each individual game.
The field itself won’t be set until the middle of March. Then and only then can you get real, solid odds on each and every single game. But, (and this is important) that doesn’t mean that you have to wait until then to begin your research. Far from it. Indeed, you don’t even have to wait for the season to start to begin your research. Many of those who end up winning do their research starting before the season, looking at how teams recruited, what their schedule is going to be, and so forth.
So much can affect every single game, every single odd, line, and so forth. Player injuries, players leaving school early, winning streaks, how the teams are seeded, and so forth. The more information you know about each and every single team, the better a chance you’ll have to be a big winner once the tournament actually begins.
Now, this doesn’t mean that you have to quit your day job, so to speak, to begin researching the best NCAA players right this moment. But, it does mean that you may want to begin researching long before “Selection Sunday” or anything of that nature.
Also: look at what offshore sportsbooks like ours are offering at different points. Some of the most profitable bets for the tournament are those which are “locked in” long before the tournament starts. For example, look at “Futures” bets.
These could include which teams are going to make the tournament, in what seeding, win what conference, and so forth. The earlier you check these, the earlier you can lock in odds that are favorable to you.
After all, if you know the team that is going to be the Cinderella come tournament time in November, then you could make a lot more money betting on them then than when everyone else bets on them when they get on a roll around the tournament.
You can also check the odds shortly before gametime, as those will be the most accurate. It all comes down to what best fits your betting strategy.
What Types of Bets are Available for March Madness Betting 2025?
There are more ways to bet on men’s basketball than ever before. In the old days, you may have been locked into a grid in your office, or something like that. Today, the options are more plentiful than ever. You have more opportunities than anyone in any prior generation to not just bet on these games but to win with them, too.
The first and still most popular way to engage in March Madness betting is, of course, the bracket. Nothing is like the bracket. The bracket is perhaps the single most commonly-known site of sports betting in America. There are plenty of reasons for that, not the least of which is that anyone can fill one out and it’s so, so difficult to be able to get it right.
For example, at our site, we have many different ways to bet the bracket. Of course, you can just choose the traditional bracket, as so many other places do. If you’re like plenty of folks that we know, you bet on many different kinds of brackets, so as to maximize your odds should certain scenarios happen.
Case in point, many folks will do a “chalk” bracket. That’s one where the picks are “chalk,” a colloquialism for “the favorites will win most of the games.” That kind of bracket could have plenty of one and two seeds advancing to the Elite 8 and beyond.
Consequently, you may also have a bracket that’s the opposite, that’s a lot of “upsets.” That’s one where the one and two seeds tend to go down early, and many 12 seeds (or even lower) find ways to power through, shocking the world.
College sports are, of course, about college: about the bettor’s alma mater, their rivals, and so forth. Many will have a bracket that has their home school, no matter their ranking, to go very far in the tournament. Or, alternatively, you could have your school’s biggest rival (regardless of their ranking) go down rather early. It’s up to you.
The tip for when choosing a bracket: find a good promotion. You can bet a bracket just about anywhere. But, if you do get your bracket right, you want to be able to get as much as possible for it. So, find a promotion where you can get big money for getting your bracket right. That’s exactly what you’ll be able to find here at our site. We have so many different bracket promotions when the tournament comes around that you’ll be able to find one that’s right for you and your needs.
In fact, we even tend to have “second chance” brackets. Picking all the way from the play-in games through the championship game is challenging, to say the very least. To give more players more opportunities to win, we also usually offer a “second chance bracket,” which is where you bet from the Sweet 16 onward. That way, even if all the teams you picked get knocked out during the first weekend, you still have a chance to be a big winner.
Bets on The Individual Games
Beyond the brackets themselves, we make it possible to be able to bet on every single game in the tournament. That means you can bet on every game from the first weekend to the second weekend, to the Elite 8, to the Final Four, to when someone cuts down the nets. But, on top of that, you’ll also be able to bet on all of the “play in” round games as well.
You don’t have to wait for the madness to be able to bet on college basketball tournament games at our site, either. Each conference has a tournament, usually to determine who has an automatic bid to the tournament. Sure, those aren’t the biggest deal in the biggest conferences (as plenty of those teams have automatic bids) but, those are still games between eternal rivals that can determine seeding (which goes a long way towards determining who is playing in those later March Madness games).
But, for the “mid-majors,” so to speak, these tournaments mean even more. One team, usually, is going to the tournament. The others are going home and, in many cases for the players, away from basketball for the rest of their lives. You can win big bucks by betting on these teams to win their conference (and that research can pay off when they’re playing in the big tournament, too).
Some Betting Strategies to Keep in Mind
Everyone has their own strategy for betting on the madness. There’s nothing more frustrating than doing all of your research to pick the best teams only to find that the winner of your office pool was the person who picked the teams based on their favorite color uniforms. But, the more reach you do, the more strategies you have in mind, the better prepared you’ll be to be able to win and win big throughout the tournament.
Favorites Win Late, Underdogs Win Early
First, there are no “hard and fast” rules when it comes to the tournament. Every year is different. Really, every game is different. Even when it seems like an “ironclad” rule can disappear in a moment. After all, if you had read an article written just a few years ago about betting strategies for March Madness, they would say something like “No 16 seed has ever beaten a one seed.” Now, it has happened and has even happened multiple times.
That said, while there are no rules that are set in stone, there are trends. There are things which happen more commonly than other things. That doesn’t mean that something which has happened multiple times in the past is going to happen again. But, by knowing what has happened and when, you make yourself more prepared to be able to make the right bets for you.
Case in point: teams that are higher ranked really do tend to win the tournament than other teams. You’ll note we wrote “win the tournament” and not “win in the tournament.” The truth is that, for the most part, one and two seeds are the teams that tend to be standing tall in the final game.
This isn’t always true, of course (just recently, the UConn Huskies won the tournament and did so as a 4 seed) but, for the most part, it’s the higher-ranked teams that tend to be standing tall while “one shining moment” plays.
However, that doesn’t mean that these are always the teams which do well at the very beginning of the tournament. Remember, one and two seeds can lose and fairly early, too. Others of the “higher seeds” are even more likely to lose.
See, the more research you do into how the field is set, the better able you’ll be able to make bets on it. Case in point: look at the 10, 11, and 12 seeds. These teams are almost invariably underdogs to the 5, 6, and 7 seeds. This makes sense when you think about it, after all, the 5, 6, and 7 teams are higher ranked. But, that doesn’t mean they’re better teams.
Often, the 5, 6, and 7 teams are those that received at large bids from major conferences but didn’t tend to win their major conferences. So, you could be looking at the third, fourth, fifth (or even lower) seeded teams from the ACC, the SEC, the Big 12, Big 10, and so forth.
By that same token, the 10, 11, and 12 teams are often those that won mid-majors, those smaller schools that only got in because their tournament had one (and only one) automatic bid for the big tournament.
So, you’ve got a smaller school that’s playing its best ball all season (having won their conference tournament) up against a team that may have more talent but is coming in on a loss (or even more). That’s just one of the many reasons that 10, 11, 12, and even lower seeded teams win in the first round all of the time.
That said, there are some rules that are more common than others. For example, find out which team is the number one overall seed, the team that is higher ranked than everyone else. (If you’re confused, the Selection Sunday show will almost invariably tell you). Then, bet on this team to make the Elite 8. Only twice in the last decade-plus has this team not done so.
Now, this is a good example of how betting on the big tournaments works: that means there’s roughly an 80% chance that this will happen. Does this mean that it’s 100%? No. Absolutely not. There is always, always risk inherent in gambling. That said, this is a safer pick than most, better odds than you’re going to be able to find in most.
Other Types of Betting Tips
Check for the props. Most people, when looking at betting on the men’s NCAA tournament, they tend to ignore the prop bets. The truth is that, other than the Super Bowl, no betting event has as many prop bets as the Madness. So, find the props that you like.
One particularly popular prop: “first to 15.” This prop is great for many reasons, not the least of which is that your research can tell you something about it. Check which teams start fast, and which tend to start slow. Even if it’s a higher seed against a heavy underdog, some of the bigger teams will start a bit lagging against a team that is on national TV for the first time this year (if not in their lives).
Speaking of heavy favorites against underdogs, be on the lookout for big, steep point spreads. Sometimes, there are huge lines where one team is just expected to annihilate the smaller one. Yes, if you have a good feeling about one team blowing out the other that badly, sure, bet it, but also remember: the best teams really want to win this entire tournament.
So, the sooner they can take their starters out, resting them for the greater tests to come, they may do so. There are no such things as “style points” in the Madness, so they won’t care if they win by 25 or 30. However, if you bet that big line, it could mean quite a bit to you indeed.
The Stats to Look At for Picking Champions
If you’re doing your research, and, if you’re like many who are looking into your betting, you’re unsure which stats to look at. While each year/team is different, one of the absolute best bets to look for when picking a champion is to look at their defensive efficiency as well as their offensive efficiency.
Yes, the teams that win championships tend to have all kinds of offensive threats. But, they also usually have great defense, too. To narrow down which teams are going to win it all, look for the teams that are in the top 20 in terms of both defensive efficiency as well as offensive efficiency. Teams that tend to finish outside of the top 20 in both are the ones who usually don’t cut down the nets.
How Can I Place a Bet on the Madness in 2025?
First, you want to make sure that you get your bets in at the right time. Selection Sunday is March 16th, 2025. That’s when the initial brackets come out.; That’s when we all see which teams are going to play where and when. Then, with the matchups set, you can pick which teams you’re going to bet on, how far they’re going to go, and so forth.
If you lose in the brackets early, if all of the teams that you pick (or a significant portion of them) are out of the tournament early on, that doesn’t mean that you’re done. Far from it. Instead, you can bet on the games as they go, picking game by game. You can still be a big winner even if your team has gone out of the tournament very early on.
Beyond that, you can use our site to find all of the games that you want to bet on. We have all kinds of promotions going on, game by game, so that you can bet and win throughout the tournament. From the initial tip of the first play in game through the final half of the championship game, we have all of the betting that you’re going to want right here.
Point spreads, over/unders, odds, props, brackets, and so much more – if there’s a way to bet on these games, you’ll be able to do it right here at our site. Good luck in the Madness!
