March Madness Betting in Colorado

Betting on March Madness is big business, to the tune of staggering sums of money. According to the American Gaming Association, Americans will bet over $10 billion on March Madness this year in pools or at legal sportsbooks.

Now that Colorado has legal online sportsbooks, you can bet on the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament as we move closer to the 2023 Final Four. Here’s what you need to know about March Madness betting along with real-time odds right from Colorado online sportsbooks. See the best March Madness odds boosts & promos in the toplist below.

Best March Madness Betting Sites

Live March Madness game odds

See below for updated March Madness odds from individual Colorado online sportsbooks – both live game lines (point spreads, monyelines, totals) and futures odds for teams to make the Final Four or win the National Championship. Click on any odds to go right to the online sportsbook, claim your bonus, open your account and get your March Madness bets in.

March Madness bracket contests

Filling out a bracket is a huge part of the enjoyment of March Madness. There are contests of all shapes and sizes, ranging from small office pools all the way up to massive online tournaments that pay out real prizes. Brackets start getting filled out soon after they are released on Selection Sunday. Participants in competitions must fill the entire bracket out before the first game tips off.

You receive points for correct picks, and some pools give more weight to selections that prove to be right in the later rounds. At the end of the contest, the player with the most points wins the pool, while some contests pay out several top finishers. Below find the best March Madness Bracket Contests open to Colorado bettors:

Best Free March Madness Contests

$30,000 DraftKings Survivor Pool

Not your typical March Madness bracket pool, a survivor pool will be familiar to NFL betting fans. Instead of picking the whole tournament, start to finish, you simply pick one team per day to win their matchup.

If your team wins, you move on to the next round. If your team loses, you’re out of the pool. If you advance, you simply need to pick a new team to win the next day. Repeat until you either:

• Make it all the way to the end, in which you’ll win a share of the first-place prize
• No longer have any new teams to pick and you’re out

Check the full terms and conditions and enter for free on DraftKings via the link/button below.

Free $16k Second Chance Bracket

If your bracket gets busted during the tournament’s first weekend, DraftKings has a contest you won’t want to miss. Beginning March 23, you can enter a free bracket for a chance at a $16,000 prize pool.

How does March Madness work?

There are 350 colleges across the US that play at the Division I level, but only 68 of them qualify for March Madness. So how do teams make the cut? At the end of the college basketball regular season, conference tournaments get underway. The winners of those 32 tournaments receive automatic invites to the dance.

The remaining 36 teams are chosen by the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee. All of the teams selected are revealed on Selection Sunday, which is a made-for-TV event that airs once all of the conference tournaments are in the books.

Top teams that excelled during the regular season are easy choices, but it becomes less clear-cut the further we move down the ranks. The committee naturally does the best that it can to make fair selections, and it has plenty of tools at its disposal to do so.

Among the biggest is a rankings system known as NET, which stands for NCAA Evaluation Tool. It includes a number of metrics, and the best of the remaining teams earn bids when all is said and done. Once the field of 68 is set, it’s time for the NCAA to fill out the bracket that it will release to the public. There are 15 teams assigned to each of four geographic regions: East, South, Midwest and West.

That’s 60 teams, leaving the eight remaining teams to play in the opening round, which is also known as the First Four or play-in games. The winners of those four contests advance to the first round and assume their place in the respective regions.

The first round of the tournament takes place on Thursday and Friday. There are 16 games on each of those days, with the winners advancing. Over the weekend, there are another 16 games, with the winners moving on to make up the Sweet 16.

There’s a slight pause before the action gets back up and running the following Thursday and Friday. The winners of the Sweet 16 games advance to the weekend to play in the Elite Eight, which is also known as the regional final round.

The winners of those four games advance to the Final Four, which is the semifinals of the entire tournament, on the following Saturday. Final Four winners then go on to play in the men’s national championship game, which is held on Monday. Add it all up, and there are 67 games in March Madness. It’s a wild ride that presents plenty of betting opportunities along the way.

What bets can you place on March Madness?

There are a number of ways to get in on the action of March Madness. You can bet on the individual games, place a wager on the winner of the tournament and even place live bets as the action plays out in real time.

Here’s a look at the major bet types you’ll come across.

Moneyline: This is a simple bet in which you’re just picking the winner of a game. Favorites will have negative odds, while it’s positive odds on the underdog side.

• Virginia Tech +130
• Duke -120

Point spread: Oddsmakers install a spread on each game that essentially represents a projected margin of victory. You can take the favorite minus the points or the underdog plus the points.

• Indiana +2.5 (-110)
• Michigan State -2.5 (-110)

Totals: These are wagers that revolve around the total points scored in a game. Oddsmakers set an estimated number, and bettors decide if they expect the total to be over or under that number.

• Over 151.5 (-110)
• Under 151.5 (-110)

Props: These are additional wagering opportunities for each game on things that may or may not happen from a team or player perspective:

• Which player will score the most points in the game?
• What will be the final margin of victory?

Parlays: You can tie together multiple game bets on a single betting slip, and the result is a parlay. The potential return rises with each game added to the ticket, but so do the odds of hitting the parlay.

• Virginia -165
• Texas Tech -260
• Maryland -275
• Total parlay odds: +203

Futures: These are bets you can place on something that has yet to happen, such as the winner of the tournament or one of the specific regions. Odds will be listed for each team still in the hunt.

• Gonzaga +200
• Dayton +250
• Ohio State +400

Live betting: You can still place wagers after the action has gotten underway. The live betting market is fast-paced, and you’ll find a number of opportunities to choose from:

• Updated moneyline odds on the winner of the game.
• How many total points will be scored in the first half?

March Madness betting tips

The sheer number of games on tap is part of what makes March Madness so special, but it can also make it seem a little intimidating from a betting perspective. When you have so many choices in front of you, it can be tough to decide where to begin.

Keep your cool and remember to pick your spots. There’s no reason to bet on all of the games. Instead, you can zero in on the ones you like the most and focus on breaking those contests down. Once you have some games selected, here are some betting tips you can use.

1. Understand the odds and line moves

Each game will have odds attached, and you can quickly gain a sense of the overall strength of the two teams involved just by looking at them. In addition, keep an eye on any movement in the odds from the time they are released until you’re ready to place bets. This can be a great clue on market sentiment for the game.

2. Respect higher seeds

Teams seeded one through four have a good track record of success in the early rounds. That doesn’t mean that upsets won’t happen, but it does mean that you shouldn’t try to force them. The top teams in the nation are where they are for a reason. Be sure to understand their overall strength in relation to their opponents.

3. Recent form

Speaking of upsets, one great way to spot games that have potential to break in this fashion is by studying recent form. Under-the-radar teams that are flying high heading into the tournament could find some success against powerhouse programs that have struggled of late, for example.

For each game on the docket, there are reams of stats to consider. You also won’t have a hard time finding opinions on which side will win.

On stats, focus on things that really matter, such as overall shooting percentage, defensive efficiency and depth of the rotations. As for opinions, feel free to consult trusted sources, but be sure to stick with your instincts when it comes time to make final decisions.

College basketball teams in Colorado

There are five Division I men’s college basketball programs in the state of Colorado. Here are some key details for each of them.

Air Force Falcons

• Location: Colorado Springs
• Home games: Clune Arena
• Conference: Mountain West
• Head coach: Joe Scott
• March Madness appearances: 1960, 1962, 2004, 2006

Colorado Buffaloes

• Location: Boulder
• Home games: CU Events Center
• Conference: Pac-12
• Head coach: Tad Boyle
• March Madness appearances: 1940, 1942, 1946, 1954, 1955, 1962, 1963, 1969, 1997, 2003, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016

Colorado State Rams

• Location: Fort Collins
• Home games: Moby Arena
• Conference: Mountain West
• Head coach: Niko Medved
• March Madness appearances: 1954, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1969, 1989, 1990, 2003, 2012, 2013

Denver Pioneers

• Location: Denver
• Home games: Magness Arena
• Conference: Summit League
• Head coach: Vacant
• March Madness appearances: None

Northern Colorado Bears

• Location: Greeley
• Home games: Bank of Colorado Arena
• Conference: Big Sky
• Head coach: Steve Smiley
• March Madness appearances: 2011

Betting on March Madness in Colorado

In May 2018, the US Supreme Court ruled on a long-running case regarding the legality of a federal sports betting ban. The high court felt that it was a matter for individual states to decide for themselves. It was the proverbial green light, and many states were quick to act. Today, a number of states offer legal and regulated sports betting, including Colorado.

Users can bet in person at retail sportsbooks, online with major operators or on the go with sports betting apps. After legalizing sports betting in November 2019, Colorado officially launched the state’s first sportsbooks on May 1, 2020. The launch began with just a few apps, but with a number of casinos and sports betting licensees in the state, Colorado is set to offer a very robust and competitive market of both online betting apps and retail sportsbooks.

That includes the state’s brick-and-mortar casinos, as well as a number of major online operators such as DraftKings, FanDuel and PointsBet. Now that apps are live, you can sign up to play online quickly and easily. You can click through on our exclusive links to create your account, and you’ll be eligible for some excellent bonus and bonuses just for doing so. After you enter a few simple pieces of information such as name, email address and password, your new account will be created instantly.

From there, take the time to download the app for your device so you can bet on the go. On the main website, you’ll find instructions for both iPhone betting apps and Android betting apps. Download the app for your device, log in on mobile, and you’ll be all set.