March Madness betting Maryland

March Madness betting explained Maryland

Right out of the gate, it’s important to understand that the overwhelming majority of teams that end up winning the March Madness championship are incredibly balanced.

Every year a team catches fire, starts shooting out the lights from beyond the three-point line, and quickly becomes a fan favorite for folks hoping to play a March Madness futures bet before the tournament kicks off.

And, almost like clockwork, almost every year, those red-hot teams end up flaming out during the Sweet 16 (if not even earlier). The same can be said about the defensive lockdown teams with no real offense in the game.

No, if you want to put smart money on a team to bring home the hardware at the end of the tournament, it’s a good idea to go for someone that has fantastic fundamentals on both sides of the ball.

The more balanced the team (all things being equal), the better their chances are of beating the bracket and winning at all!

Ignore the March Madness “experts”

Every single sports site on the planet is going to want to tell you how to bet March Madness – and no small amount of celebrities, politicians, artists, and “Regular Joe’s” are going to try and tell you how to bet too.

There’s real temptation to want to sort of follow the crowd and put your money down where everybody else is. But that’s not what you’ll want to do – not if you’re serious about winning more March Madness bets in Maryland than you lose, anyway.

Instead, you’re going to want to follow the “sharp money” (the money put down by big-time bettors that study these games before they risk any of their cash), fade the public and celebrities, and instead go where the analytics tell you to.

Advanced stats of March Madness

Advanced stats are available for pretty much every single sport under the sun these days, and college basketball betting is no different.

Some argue that advanced stats and metrics are sorts of “stealing the soul” of our favorite sports and pastimes. But bettors that really want to cash in on great March Madness betting lines are going to want to soak up just as much of that information as humanly possible – whenever possible – to make the right moves more often than not.

Now, granted, advanced stats and metrics aren’t going to turn you into a 100% March Madness betting machine in Maryland.

But they are going to give you an edge and advantage over bettors that are really only “going with their gut,” the kinds of folks that fall in love with the Maryland Terrapins no matter who they are playing in the tournament – and the kinds of folks that usually find more losers on their betting slip than winners.

Learn everything you can about the new NET rankings from the NCAA, crunch numbers (especially when you have in-season matchups from two teams that find themselves in the same bracket, too), and lean on analytics to help you out.

Sure, you might lose 40% of your games this way (by following election stats only when betting the Moneyline) – but that means 6/10 times you’re coming home a winner. Not bad!

Home court matters in the College Basketball world

It is really important to pay attention to the teams that have to travel during the March Madness tournament when you are making wagers.

One of the biggest mistakes that newbies to March Madness betting in Maryland make all the time is ignoring the “home-court” advantage just because nobody plays in front of their own crowd at their own, legitimate home-court.

However, what does happen is that some teams have to travel clear across the country to play a game against another team that only has to drive right down the road (and gets to sleep in their own beds for the most part). That makes a world of difference when we are talking about college basketball.

Always try to focus on travel itineraries, see when teams are leaving and when they are arriving, and shade the teams that have to travel further distances (especially overnight) and favorite teams that aren’t traveling all that far at all – or have a history of travel not making much of a difference during their games.

March Madness – Covering the Spread

Over the last 10 years, eight of the eventual March Madness championship teams ended up covering the spread in every single game that they played during the tournament. If that doesn’t fire off March Madness betting fireworks, what will?

Teams that cover the spread are regularly outperforming expectations established by March Madness betting lines, particularly books coming out of Vegas – bookies that aren’t in the habit of making mistakes or losing lots of money.

Find a team through the first two rounds that keep covering the spread (especially teams that weren’t necessarily expected to). Then, it might not be a bad idea to drop some money on them to cover the next spread, to win the money line, and maybe even to get into the Final Four or the championship game.

History (especially over the last decade) says that these kinds of teams are the ones that have the juice to go the distance!

College coaches can make or break a March Madness

Coaching at the NBA level really doesn’t have that big of an impact on day-to-day game results. The NBA is, more than anything else, a superstar-driven league. Nothing could be further than the truth at the college level.

Sure, you have some perennial powerhouses like UNC, Duke, and the UConn Women’s Basketball team that almost always have superstars of the college game on their rosters and often run right through the competition.

But a lot of that also has to do with the legendary coaching that these teams have had over the last 20 years, too. A handful of coaches (coaches like the retiring Roy Williams, for example) can literally make or break a team’s chances of going the distance during the tournament.

If you’re going to be doing serious betting on March Madness games, you absolutely NEED to know who’s sitting on the bench, who has been responsible for caller plays, and who has been molding this team throughout the season.

When you’ve got someone like Coach K on one sideline and a rookie coach on the other, the odds are pretty good that Coach K is going to come out on top 99 times out of 100.

Of course, making money with these kinds of wagers only works when you find a sportsbook that offers great March Madness betting odds, event betting in Maryland, and betting lines to take advantage of.

With so many different online bookies with great sports markets to create an account with, finding the right one can feel like a bit of an uphill challenge. Here are a couple of things you want to think about to find the right sportsbook (as well as a couple of recommendations for our favorites here in Maryland).

Betting options

Straight out of the gate, you’ll want to find bookies that offer a lot of March Madness Maryland online sports betting action for you to jump on board.

Almost all of the top books out there are going to offer March Madness action, especially with this being one of the most popular sporting events to bet on even by people that usually don’t put any money on sports, to begin with.

Find a sportsbook that lets you bet March Madness futures, March Madness favorites, and books that let you play around with parlays and teasers, too. The more options, the merrier!

Up to Date Lines

While most quality sportsbooks get their lines out and up-to-date ASAP, there are still a couple of sportsbooks (including some operating here in Maryland) that aren’t quite as timely or as up-to-date as they could or should be. Avoid those sportsbooks at all costs.

You should be able to get your wagers in at least 24 hours or more before tipoff of the March Madness games you’re interested in. Any sportsbook that makes you wait until an hour or two before tipoff is usually just trying to put players under pressure to make wagers they wouldn’t have otherwise.

Steer clear.

User Friendly

Great sportsbooks in Maryland are super user-friendly, with interfaces that are clean, modern, and easy to navigate – regardless of whether or not you are trying to bet online through your computer or over your phone/tablet.

User-friendliness is a huge sign that a sportsbook takes their customer experience seriously, is professional across the board, and wants to offer as safe of a platform for their users as possible, too.

Fast Payouts

Winning big on March Madness betting line action isn’t going to amount to much if you have to wait until August to get your hands on your payoff.

Luckily, that shouldn’t be a problem with quality books these days. Most are going to let you pull your money out through your bank account, via online payment processors like PayPal, or other (almost) fast payouts in Maryland services.