College Basketball Betting Sites in New Jersey
Except for games involving New Jersey schools and other games held inside the state, you can wager on every single game in the NCAA men’s basketball season at online sites and sports betting apps in NJ. Most NJ sites will post lines for every college basketball game across all 364 teams and 32 conferences. The sites will also offer NCAA futures markets, allowing you to wager on the next National Championship winner, teams to make the Final Four, and other related events.
Check our full guide to wagering on college basketball in the state below.
Best college basketball wagering sites
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NCAA Division 1 men’s basketball tournament (March Madness)
The 2027 NCAA Division 1 Men’s Basketball Tournament, also known as March Madness, will begin on March 16 with the Opening Round in Dayton, Ohio, and at a second site yet to be announced. In the past, the event began with the First Four, but now the tournament has been expanded from 68 to 76 teams, meaning more games will be played to determine the 64 teams. It will conclude with the championship game on April 5 at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan.
On March 14, 2027, the NCAA will announce the names and seeding of the 76 teams competing in the tournament. This process includes automatic bids for each of the 31 conference tournament champions and 45 at-large bids selected by the NCAA Selection Committee. The committee also seeds the field and places the teams into four 16-team regions: East, Midwest, West, and South.
As noted, there will be an Opening Round this year. A total of 24 teams will participate, playing 12 games to determine who advances to the “First Round” (i.e., the Round of 64). The 24 teams will consist of the 12 lowest-seeded automatic qualifiers and the 12 lowest-seeded at-large teams.
It should be an exciting time once those Opening Round games get underway. Be sure to check out the best March Madness sites then for NCAA tournament promotions.
Meanwhile, are the dates and sites for the 2027 NCAA Division 1 men’s basketball tournament:
Opening Round
March 16 and 17, 2027
Dayton, OH, plus a second site TBA
First and Second Rounds
March 18- 21, 2027, at these locations:
- Charlotte, NC
- Fort Worth, TX
- Louisville, KY
- Minneapolis, MN
- Omaha, NE
- Pittsburgh, PA
- Sacramento, CA
- Spokane, WA
Regional Semifinals and Finals (Sweet 16 and Elite Eight)
March 25-28, 2027
- East Regional: New York, NY (Madison Square Garden)
- West Regional: Los Angeles, CA (Crypto.com Arena)
- Midwest Regional: Kansas City, MO (T-Mobile Center)
- South Regional: San Antonio, TX (Frost Bank Center)
National Semifinals and Championship (Final Four and NCAA Championship)
April 3 and 5, 2025
Saturday, April 3, and Monday, April 5, in Detroit, MI, at Ford Field.
March Madness bracket challenges
As tourney time approaches, expect sites to offer free March Madness bracket contests with hundreds of thousands in prizes available to anyone in the US. Brackets are a fun way to get in on all the March Madness action. All you have to do is pick a winner for every single March Madness game and hope you’re better at it than everyone else.
March Madness second-chance bracket contests 2027
If your bracket gets busted early, you still have some chances to partake in the fun. Second-chance March Madness pools begin with the Sweet 16 and roll through to the title game. Check your preferred site(s) for more details.
Our three favorite March Madness bracket challenges
As a reminder, you cannot place a bet on any New Jersey college basketball programs, regardless of where their games take place during March Madness. You also can’t wager on any games that take place within New Jersey, although the 2026-27 tournament schedule doesn’t currently include any games in NJ.
However, these bracket challenges are one way you can “pick” your favorite in-state schools to advance during the Big Dance. Plus, you have the chance to score some major prizes along the way.
FanDuel Sportsbook
FanDuel Sportsbook ran a free Bracket Battle challenge in 2026 with a $100,000 prize pool, double the operator’s previous year’s offering. Rather than simply picking a Final Four, players submitted a full bracket and earned points for every correct pick throughout the tournament, climbing a leaderboard as the rounds progressed. Expect FanDuel to run a similar contest in 2027.
DraftKings Sportsbook
DraftKings Sportsbook brought back its fan-favorite Zero Right Bracket Challenge in 2026, this time presented by Pepsi. The concept remains delightfully counterintuitive: instead of picking winners, you try to pick a bracket where every single team you select loses. It’s free to enter, and players who got zero picks correct were in the running for $100,000. Look for DraftKings to run the Zero Right Bracket again in 2027.
bet365 Sportsbook
bet365 Sportsbook ran its $10 million perfect bracket challenge again in 2026, with the same structure as previous years. Every eligible customer got one free entry, and anyone who nailed a perfect bracket would have taken home the $10 million grand prize. For the rest of us, bet365 still awarded prizes across the top 5,000 brackets, with $100,000 going to the highest-scoring non-perfect entry. Expect the same format to return in 2027.
In addition to bracket challenges, sites will offer various promotions for March Madness. Explore our list of the best NJ sports betting promos available.
College basketball beginners’ guide
There are several simple ways you can bet on college basketball games at retail and online sites, including:
NCAA basketball moneylines
NJ books will most likely set moneylines for every college basketball game on this season’s schedule. The lone exception, again, is wagering on games that take place in New Jersey or involve in-state schools.
Wagering on moneylines is as easy as it gets. Pick the team you think will win and lock in the bet at either positive or negative odds that are posted for each team. These odds tell you how much you’ll get paid if your bet wins.
The favorite is the negative number, representing how much you’ll need to bet to win $100, plus your bet back. The underdog is the positive number, representing how much you’ll win for every $100 you bet.
NCAA basketball spreads
College basketball spreads are much like point spreads in NFL games. NJ sites display a line showing the number of points they believe the favorite will win by. In order to determine a winning wager, that line must be factored into the final score.
The sites will post spread lines on most college basketball games. You must pick a side and either deduct the number from the favorite’s final score or add it to the underdog’s before determining if you’ve selected the winner. In other words, you need to pick the winner with the posted spread at the time you placed the bet.
NCAA basketball totals
College basketball totals are the same as the over/under in NFL games. Sites set a line on the total number of points both teams will combine to score. You bet whether the final score will be over or under that number.
NCAA basketball parlays
NJ sites offer players the opportunity for bigger college basketball paydays if they’re willing to combine two or more college basketball bets into a parlay.
Parlays pay better than individual game bets. The catch is that you must win every single wager that is part of the parlay to win anything at all.
NCAA basketball live betting
Most sites offer in-play wagering on college basketball. Live wagering allows you to place basic bets during a game in real time at odds that are continuously adjusting.
Live NCAA basketball wagering also includes a few prop bets, like winning the half or whether the total score will end up even or odd.
NCAA basketball betting FAQ
UCLA last won the NCAA Men’s Division 1 basketball championship in 1995 but with 11 national titles it still holds the record for the most NCAA Championship wins.
The North Carolina Tar Heels have made the Final Four 21 times, the most of any team in NCAA history. From those 20 appearances, the Tar Heels have won six championships, the last time in 2017.
There’s no tried and true secret for betting on college basketball. If you want to be a college basketball betting winner, you develop your strategy by watching games and devouring as much information as you can. Scour the injury reports, study how sites are setting lines, and look for edges you can exploit.
There isn’t any, really. In fact, most of the lines in Vegas and on NJ sites are similar. The fact is that local betting markets adjust their lines accordingly. So, there may be heavy betting on Villanova locally, and it may be enough to move the lines at local books. But Vegas still won’t budge, and that’s the big difference between local lines and those from Sin City.
Second half NCAA lines are new lines that are set at halftime, allowing you to bet on the performance of the teams in the second half of a game.
New Jersey lawmakers prohibit betting on local college teams and local college games to prevent corruption. The idea is to prevent corruption and protect the integrity of local college sports, rather than a betting ban, although there has been debate about the practical effectiveness of such a restriction.
Get started wagering on NCAA basketball
As we inch closer and closer to March Madness, now is as good a time as any to sign up and check out the different promotions. Operators release special NCAA Tournament promos, too, so keep an eye out for that as we get closer to the First Four. In the meantime, keep your finger on the pulse so you’re ready for NCAA basketball betting in New Jersey once the season starts and especially once the tournament gets underway.
