Bet on College Basketball in New Jersey
Except for games involving NJ schools and other games held inside the state, you can bet on every single game in the NCAA men’s basketball season at online sportsbooks and sportsbook apps in New Jersey.
Most NJ sportsbooks, online and off, will post lines for every college basketball game across all 351 teams and 32 conferences. The sportsbooks will also have NCAA futures markets available where you can bet on the next National Championship winner, teams to make the Final Four and more.
Check our full guide to betting on college basketball in New Jersey below.
Best College Basketball Betting Sites in NJ
Live College Basketball Odds
See below for posted college basketball odds at NJ online sportsbooks. To see the full NCAA college basketball feed, head to our live betting odds page and select “NCAAB” from the drop-down menu. Click on any odds to go directly to the sportsbook and claim your bonus/register a new account.
NCAA Basketball preseason AP Top 25 poll
Both the Associated Press and USA Today polls rank the top NCAA Division 1 men’s basketball teams prior to the start of and every week throughout the season. Check the current AP Top 25, updated every Monday.
You won’t be able to bet on Seton Hall games or Seton Hall futures in NJ. The school is based in South Orange, NJ, and therefore subject to the state’s sports betting restrictions that prohibit gambling on local college basketball teams.
That means if Seton Hall goes on to make the NCAA Tournament, the team’s games won’t be on any NCAA tourney brackets in New Jersey and there won’t be any lines posted on its games.
NCAA Division 1 men’s basketball tournament (March Madness)
The 2023 NCAA Division 1 Men’s Basketball Tournament, also known as March Madness, will begin on March 14. It will finish with the championship game on April 3 in Houston.
On March 12, the NCAA will announce the names and seeding of the 68 teams set to play in the tournament. This process includes the automatic bids given to each of 32 conference tournament champions and 36 at-large bids picked 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.
Plus, the four lowest-seeded conference tournament winners and four lowest-seeded at-large teams are asked to play in the First Four to get in the 64-team, first-round field.
See here for more on the best March Madness betting sites in NJ.
Here are the dates and sites for the 2023 NCAA Division 1 men’s basketball tournament:
First Four
March 14/15, 2023
Dayton, OH
First and Second Rounds
March 16 and 18, 2023
Birmingham AL, Des Moines IA, Orlando FL & Sacremento CA
March 17 and 19, 2023
Albany NY, Columbus OH, Denver CO & Greensboro NC
Regional Semifinals and Finals (Sweet 16 and Elite Eight)
March 23 and 25, 2023
East Regional: New York, NY
West Regional: Las Vegas, NV
March 24 and 26, 2023
Midwest Regional: Kansas City, MO
South Regional: Louisville, KY
National Semifinals and Championship (Final Four and NCAA Championship)
April 1 and 3, 2023
NRG Stadium, Houston, TX
March Madness bracket challenges
Come tourney time, expect NJ sportsbooks to offer free March Madness bracket contests with hundreds of thousands in prizes available to anyone in the US. Highlights for the 2022 tourney include:
- DraftKings $30k Survivor Pool: Pick a winner from each day of the tourney and advance to the end for a chance to win.
- BetMGM $100k Bracket Challenge: Earn points for your correct picks with the chance to win $10 million for a perfect bracket.
- FanDuel $5k Bracket Pick’em: Make your picks as the tourney plays out with the highest-scoring entries winning cash prizes.
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 2023
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. DraftKings has several to choose from, including:
- Free $20k 2nd Chance Bracket Presented by State Farm: Earn points for correct picks with the top-scoring brackets winning cash prizes.
- Free $20k KFC 2nd Chance Survivor Pool: Pick a winner from each round and make it to the end to share in the prize pool.
College basketball betting beginners’ guide
There are several simple ways you can bet on college basketball games at retail and online sportsbooks in NJ, including:
NCAA Basketball Moneylines
NJ sportsbooks will most likely set moneylines for every college basketball game on the schedule this season. The lone exception, again, is wagering on games in New Jersey or those involving in-state schools.
Betting 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 sportsbooks come up with a line displaying the number of points they believe the favorite will win by. In order to determine a betting winner, that line must be factored into the final score.
NJ sportsbooks 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 just the same as the over/under in NFL games. NJ sportsbooks 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 sportsbooks 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 you must win every single wager that is part of the parlay to win anything at all.
NCAA basketball live betting
Most NJ sportsbooks offer in play college basketball betting. Live wagering allows you to place basic bets during a game in real-time at odds that are continuously adjusting.
Live NCAA basketball betting also includes a few prop bets, like winning the half or whether the total score will end up even or odd.
NCAA 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. However, the best strategies for wagering on college hoops are supported by facts. The difference between those who win and lose betting college basketball is information.
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 sportsbooks are setting lines, and look for edges you can exploit.
Make informed bets and put the knowledge you have gained by studying college basketball to work for you.
There isn’t any, really. In fact, most of the lines in Vegas and NJ sportsbooks are similar.
The thing is that local betting markets move local lines. So, there may be heavy betting on Villanova locally, and it may be enough to move the lines at local sportsbooks.
But Vegas still won’t budge, and that’s the big difference between local lines and those from Sin City sportsbooks.
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. It’s a bit of a toothless regulation, considering it’s just as easy to bet on NJ schools across state lines. Plus, keeping all the betting action open and upfront would probably do more to prevent corruption and protect the integrity of local college sports than a betting ban.