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Is Betting on College Basketball Legal in Arizona?
Yes, it is legal to bet on college basketball games anywhere in Arizona.
Top College Basketball Programs in Arizona
Arizona Wildcats
The Arizona Wildcats basketball program has historically been one of the best over the last few decades. You can bet on individual games or futures available on legal sportsbooks in the state.
Arizona State Sun Devils
Up the road is the Arizona State Sun Devils basketball team. While not as successful as the Wildcats on the hardwood, they'll look to change their fortunes in the Big 12.
How to Choose an Online College Basketball Betting Site in Arizona
Placing a bet is the easy part. Finding the best Arizona sportsbooks, building a bankroll and implementing strategy is trickier. Consider this your one-stop shop for college basketball betting in Arizona, with all the necessary resources to help everyone from rookie bettors to veteran gamblers when it comes to legal college basketball betting.
Finding the right online sportsbook for college basketball is about personal preference and wagering styles. Our list of recommended college basketball betting sites in Arizona only includes legal, regulated college basketball betting sites. That means they’re all safe and offer a legitimate product with various pros and cons.
Bettors will find some easier to use than others due to visual appeal and layout. One might offer more futures/prop bets than others and game lines vary among each college basketball online sportsbook. We’ll cover some of the most important features so bettors can find the best online sportsbooks that work for them.
How to Bet on NCAA Basketball Online in Arizona
From the Pac-12 to the Big East, getting action on college basketball is one of the most popular ways to wager. The crowds are nuts, there are games nearly every night and bettors have tons of options, including point spread bets, moneyline, total, props, futures, NCAA tournament betting and much more.
The first step is to pick a few college basketball betting sites from our list of recommended sportsbooks that fit your preferred wagering style. You’ll be asked to provide some personal information like name, address, date of birth, and Social Security number at sign-up. The beauty of legal betting is that all these sites are heavily vetted and regulated by a regulatory body and utilize encryption to protect your information.
Once you’ve provided that and finished the registration process, you can make your first deposit and claim the available bonuses and sign-up incentives before placing that first college basketball bet.
Ways to Place College Basketball Bets
While there are many ways to bet on NCAA basketball, here are some of the most popular, fun and profitable
Moneyline
If you want to bet a team to win a game outright, that’s called a moneyline bet. There’s no point spread involved. For example, the Arizona Wildcats could be a -140 favorite over Utah at one college basketball betting site. That means you would bet $140 to win $100. If Arizona were a +125 underdog, you could bet $100 to win $125. All the Wildcats have to do is win the game by any score.
College Basketball Live Betting
Live betting is hugely popular and available throughout the game, with oddsmakers setting new point spreads at almost every stoppage. Let’s say Arizona State is an eight-point favorite over USC, but the Trojans lead 24-20 with 10 minutes left in the first half. Arizona State will probably still be the favorite, but that line might be down to -4 points instead of the original -8. If you still like the Sun Devils basketball squad to pull away, that would be a good live bet to make.
Parlays
If you want to bet on multiple college basketball games, you could place a parlay bet instead. Parlays are a series of bets turned into one bet to maximize profit if they all hit. They can typically include point spread, moneyline or total wagers.
Let’s say you like Arizona State +3.5, Arizona -4 and USC-Washington Over 141. If you placed those bets separately with -110 odds for each, you could bet a total of $330 to potentially win $300. However, if you parlayed them together, you only bet $100 to potentially win roughly $595.
Point Spread Betting
Point spread betting is a way to handicap games and create equal betting interest when teams aren’t equally matched. If Duke is a -7.5 favorite over North Carolina, you could bet on Duke to cover the spread. That means they have to win the game by eight points or more for the bet to cash. Conversely, if you bet North Carolina +7.5, your bet would win as long as the Tar Heels don’t lose by eight points or more.
Totals Betting
Totals betting for college basketball betting sites is about how many points the two teams will combine to score. If Kansas is playing Arizona in the NCAA Tournament, the total could be 145 and you can bet if it will go Over or Under. If Kansas wins 80-68, the Over would hit because the total score is 148. If Kansas won 76-68, the Under would hit because the total score is 144.
Futures
Futures bets are available throughout the college basketball season, with odds changing every week. Futures markets typically include such bets as which team will win the Pac-12 conference, which teams will earn a No. 1 seed or who will win the national championship. You can also bet player futures like the Wooden Award. Futures can be a great way to find value if you do enough research, and the payouts can be very rewarding. For example, a team like Arizona could be +800 to win the conference. If you bet $100 at the start of the season and they exceed expectations and win it all, you’d get $800.
Prop Bets
College basketball betting sites offer various game and player props. For player props in a given game, you could wager on things like total points over/under 19.5 points or total rebounds over/under 8 for an individual. You can also bet game props like whether the game will go to overtime.
NCAA Basketball Betting Strategy and Tips
Finding the right sportsbooks is an important part of betting on college basketball games. But once those formalities have been squared away, things like bankroll management and betting strategy are just as crucial. Following the college basketball news cycle, staying on top of rosters and studying the lines are just a few things players can do to help their chances. There are also a few tried-and-true methods that can be effective with college basketball betting sites.
Home-Court Advantages
Not all home-court advantages are built the same. Some arenas are downright raucous, while others are more subdued with a lot of fans dressed as empty seats. Do your best to identify the various home-court advantages and weigh them against a point spread. And pay attention to the calendar – for a team like Michigan State, the Breslin Center isn’t nearly as intimidating an environment during winter break when most of the “Izzone” student section won’t be around. However, it can be downright insane for a February night game against Wisconsin.
Be Realistic With Overs
There’s nothing wrong with betting overs in college basketball at your favorite sports betting site. Just don’t fall in love with them. Sportsbooks know the public is all about betting overs and may alter the total by a point or two as a result. And this isn’t the NBA – college basketball sees its shares of shootouts, but game totals in the 120s and 130s aren’t all that uncommon.
Don't Bet With the Public
When everyone you know is on the same side of a college basketball game, it might not be a great sign. Fading the public and simply going the opposite direction of popular opinion can pay dividends. Sportsbooks wouldn’t be in business if teams like Duke and Gonzaga covered every game.
Focus on Conferences
There’s nothing wrong with betting a marquee Tuesday night Big Ten matchup or hammering Duke vs. North Carolina. But these will be the tightest point spreads because those games will attract the most attention. You might be better off paying close attention to the Western Athletic Conference or the Big Sky. Midway through the season, you might start to spot a few weak point spreads in the conferences with lower betting handles at a given sports betting site.
Shop the Lines
This one is easy. Once you find a college basketball game you want to bet, you should check out the point spread at each college basketball betting site. Let’s say you want to take USC moneyline over Arizona State. One college basketball sportsbook might have it USC -130 and another might have it USC -125. Obviously, you want to take USC -125 because you’re risking less to win the same amount. That $5 might not seem like a lot in the moment, but it makes a huge difference throughout the course of a full season.
Live Betting Strategy
Sometimes it’s better to wait and watch a bit of the game before making a wager. Sometimes underdogs jump out to an early lead because they’re shooting out of their minds, and you know they won’t sustain it. That would be a great time to jump on the favorite on the live betting line, with better odds than you would have gotten before tip. That’s just one of many ways to take advantage of in-play sports betting.
When Does the College Basketball Season Start and End?
The college basketball season begins with non-conference play and preseason tournaments in early November. Most teams will play around 27 games before conference championships begin in March, with automatic NCAA Tournament bids at stake. March Madness officially takes place for three weeks beginning in mid-March, concluding with the Final Four and National Championship game in early April.
NCAA Tournament
March Madness is one of the most heavily-bet sporting events in the world. It’s the best time of year for college hoops junkies and nothing beats filling out the bracket and placing a few futures wagers before the action begins. Once it starts, the games are nonstop and consume even the general news cycle. Making things interesting by wagering with your favorite betting site makes it even sweeter to take in.
Get Started Betting on NCAA Basketball
College basketball gambling is a fan favorite for a reason. The most important thing for bettors is making sure they find the right sportsbooks for them, managing their bankrolls, and trying to employ some strategy.
We’ll continue to provide the latest Arizona betting updates, with plenty of additional resources to help you do things like reading betting lines, calculate parlay payouts and use strategy with other sports like Arizona NFL bets, NBA, MLB, NHL, Arizona college football, golf, UFC and much more. If you're ready to place a bet, choose your Arizona college football betting site, sign up and have some fun.
AZ College Basketball Betting FAQ
Once you pick your favorite sites, you need to register with some personal information. Once sign-up is complete, you can make an initial deposit, cash in on bonus offers and enjoy betting the board.
Author
Dan writes about college football, golf and other sports for BetArizona.com. He also works full-time as a handicapper for Bookies.com after spending three years covering Tiger Woods’ comeback and the PGA Tour for Golfweek.
