With the March Madness betting already well underway, the idea of bracket-busting is probably already a fantasy of the distant past, and the focus has shifted to now saving some dignity and winning some individual plays down the stretch. While you may have been burned with some tough picks early on, consistency is the key to turning it around and making a profit. Cinderella wins usually come early in the tournament, so with those largely out of the way, we can concentrate on the sports betting favorites.

Two key statistics to look at are offensive efficiency and shooting from beyond the arc, as two key traits of NCAA winners from past years. The March Madness tournament games usually are close until the very end, and for teams that struggle to score down the stretch or can’t get shots to go in the clutch situations, they really don’t stand a chance at surviving at this level. Remembering that the higher seed does not mean that the team is any better is another aspect of betting on the Madness that is really important, as the tournament has many highs and lows, and even though the favorites may win the game, that doesn’t mean that they will cover the number. Never fall for the double-digit favorite in a March Madness betting tournament. Double digit underdogs have gone 58-47-3 ATS since 2000-01, not including this year’s tournament, so it makes sense not to give up too many points in any pay head matchup.

With the March Madness betting tournament right around the corner, one of the most important things to consider is the games featuring ranked teams against unranked opponents, and the disparity between how you expect that game to play out and the actual sports betting point spread. So often when it comes to this time of the year there are games in which the unranked team is either listed as the favorite or as a “pick’em” option, and while it may seem at first glance as though the line is nowhere near where it should be, the truth is that it is where it should be according to those with the most knowledge of the game.

For a Betonline bookie to list an unranked team as the favorite against a ranked team, they would have to have inside knowledge of something that gave them a reason to do just that. One of the most common college basketball systems that the professionals use is to find these types of games and put money on the unranked team, going against the public perception and believing that the oddsmakers know more about the game than anybody else. They regard these lines as “trap lines”, acknowledging how easy it is for a player to get caught up in the hype of a ranked team and overlook key factors working against them. As is the case with any system, there are bound to be some losses along the way, but the bottom line is that as long as you win more games than you lose you will make a profit, and that is what betting on college hoops is all about.

Regardless of where and when, the sports betting player is always looking for an advantage. Whether it is inside knowledge about a given team or matchup, or a specific trend that can be played to their advantage, in the end it is about doing everything it takes to make a profit. Long before college football used the BCS ratings and its Strength of Schedule meter, sports bettors referred to it as the Average Opponent Power Rating, or AOPR. AOPR is a very simple way at looking at the opposition a team has played, with teams that have higher AOPR numbers having played tougher competition, and those with lower numbers having played lesser competition. This power rating, in theory, is an excellent way to compare two teams a long with the pay head bookies odds.

In order to find the AOPR of a given team, simply add up the power rating of each opponent and divide the number of games. For instance, if Duke had played the following teams:

North Carolina (90)
Florida State (82)

Then the formula would be (90+82= 172/2 = 86), with Duke’s AOPR being 86. Now, based on the record the Blue Devils have assembled for the season, and their AOPR, we can compare how they have done against the team’s they have played, and apply it to their next matchup. We can also limit the numbers we use to conference play, or home and away games. Other factors such as the amount of points scored compared to the amount of points allowed can also be brought in to play along with AOPR, and the system can be expanded. In the end, AOPR is another advantage players can use when playing college hoops on the sites listed on Betonline.

March Madness betting may be the best time of the year for players, especially the first weekend of the tournament when upsets are always a threat, and it can either make or break you. Here are a few tips to consider before making your picks.

Get Off To A Good Start

A good start is essential to a successful NCAA Tournament when it comes to making betting picks, because if you get behind, you’ll end up making bad choices for the rest of the Tournament trying to play catch-up.

The Depending No.12 Seed Pick

But one thing you can always count on the Tournament is that a No.12 seed will beat a No.5 seed in the first round, and you can usually find some good value for that particular seed. The No.12 seed has won over 33% of their first-round games, which is the best among the bottom the bottom seeds, so do your research and make sure you find the best possible pick.

Cream Rises To The Top

After the first weekend of the Tournament, things calm down and you’ll usually start seeing the best teams start to show their quality. You can also bet on a No.1 seed at least to make the final on Championship Monday, and a top seed has won the last three NCAA Tournaments. The saying goes, “the cream rises to the top”, and the best of the best will usually prove their worth as the Tournament progress, so take that into account when going to your online sportsbook.

College football betting players are getting through the bowl season, but the hoops campaign started not too long ago, and here are some tips to get you to March Madness.

Look At Non-Conference Schedules

Taking a look at a team’s non-conference schedule will tell you a lot about a team, and it’s not necessarily the wins, but how they play. For example, Michigan State has struggled through their non-conference schedule, but they’ve also play some great teams, including the No.1 team on the road, and this is to prepare them for tough times in their conference, as well as when the Tournament rolls around.

Head-To-Head

This comes in handy when it comes to conference play as teams play each other annually, and some teams just have an edge over a team, whether it’s because of coaching, players, or fans, some teams just have another squad’s number. Looking at the head-to-head history will give you an idea of how the game will go.

HomeCourt Rules

In college hoops, as well as football, homecourt advantage is larger than in the pros because these are kids playing in front of thousands of people, and the crowd is going to affect how they play. Home teams get fired up and can go on runs to put a game away early, while away teams just try to stem the tide and stay in it until the closing stretch. Still, check out home and away records before going to your sports book.

One of the oldest NBA betting systems is making a return as fans handicapping can now determine a point spread. Originally this NBA online betting system was called the Holiday system as it wouldn’t take effect until after Christmas and New Years. Essentially at that point 25 games or 30 percent of the season has been completed, and you can tell which teams are great and which are bad. Here is a look at the classic version of the system.

Classic Version:

Step one of the classic NBA betting system requires us to take the winning percentages of each team in the game we want to use and subtract them from each other. From here we subtract the lower percentage from the higher percentage. Here is an example

LA Lakers have a winning percentage of .750 and the Toronto Raptors have a winning percentage of .450, the difference between the two teams is 300.

What’s more we should consider that this system uses approximately 20 games when the system is in play. Having made note of this we can now move on to the second step. In step two, we are to divide the winning percentage differential between the Lakers and Raptors by the amount of games each team has played which in this case is 20. Here is how it appears

300 / 20 = 15

Essentially the 15 represents a total of 15 points on the spread between the Lakers and the Raptors. From here we would allow three points to the home team, which would mean that if the Lakers are at home they would be a -12 point favorite. Yet if the game was in Toronto they would then be an -18 favorite.

Players that wager on NCAA college football betting are already familiar with the system that the BCS uses to make their rankings, but long before they were using that method that included using the strength of the team’s schedules to determine the standings, a similar type of method was being used. Instead of calling it Strength of Schedule as it is referred to now, players referred to it as the Average Opponent Power Rating, or AOPR. That power rating was used to determine which team was better than the other, as team’s with higher AOPR’s had beaten better competition than those with lower AOPR ratings. This was a useful tool for players because it helps to determine appropriate spreads, and can give them a betting edge.

An example of how the method can be used is as follows. Say that the Indiana Pacers are playing the Toronto Raptors. The Pacers have an AOPR of 85, and on average score 68 while allowing 64. The Raptors have an 82 AOPR, and score 76 compared to allowing 74. The first thing to do is divide the higher AOPR by the lower, to determine how much easier the weaker team’s schedule has been. In this case, the number is 1.037, which means the Pacers have had a 3.7 percent more difficult schedule. Then, players take the total points scored by both teams, and divide it by the league average, adjusting it by taking away or adding the 3.7 percent to remove strength of opponent factor. Then, players take that number, and multiply it by points allowed. In this case, the Pacers number would be 73, while the Raptors’ would be 66, meaning the predicted final score would be 73-77 Indiana. Although it is not the simplest concept, it could give sports betting enthusiasts the edge they need.