Sweet Sixteen Betting
When the smoke clears from the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament, you're left with the Sweet Sixteen. By this point, most of the low seeds have fallen and there are a lot of marquee matchups between powerhouse schools. Of course, you may still have a few Cinderellas left among the remaining 16 teams. So all in all, Sweet Sixteen betting offers a little something for everybody. That said, let's discuss more about wagering on this March Madness round and how it offers a great chance for bettors to win money.
Seizing the Opportunity
If you're looking for a great opportunity to make money on the NCAA Tournament, betting underdogs in the Sweet Sixteen definitely offers this chance. According to About.com sports betting expert Allen Moody, research done over a nine-year period showed that while higher-seeded teams went 49-23 in straight-up bets, these favorites also went just 28-39-5 against the spread (ATS).
Teams that were favored by seven points or more went an incredible 22-1 in straight-up bets, however, they were only 12-11 ATS. As you can see, the moneyline is definitely a good proposition here, but you should be careful with the spread.
What's definitely a good Sweet Sixteen opportunity, according to Moody, is picking lower-seeded teams that are either favored or underdogs by 3.5 points or less. These teams are 16-10 in straight-up bets and 17-8-1 ATS.
More Time, Less Options
As you can see from the nine years of statistics that we just discussed, Sweet Sixteen betting can definitely be profitable. However, one drawback is that you won't find many soft lines at this point in March Madness since bookmakers are only dealing with eight games. So they've got more time to analyze lines that will draw action on both sides without having to be moved one way or the other as much.
But it's worth mentioning that you can still find some value here because eight games is a fair number. And like the bookmakers, you'll be able to better focus since there are less contests to worry about. This is especially the case when you consider that there are over three full days in between the Round of 32 (ends Sunday) and when the Sweet Sixteen begins (Thursday).
Prop Bets and More
Since Sweet Sixteen games are, on average, more high profile than the Rounds of 64 and 32, you can count on seeing a lot more betting opportunities. This is especially the case with live wagering and prop bets, where there's no end to the amount of wagers that are available. So you'd like to bet on which team scores the first basket? This is no problem because there's likely to be a wager for it at multiple sportsbooks. The same goes for just about anything else you can think of that would be fun to bet on.
The key is to remain focused during the Sweet Sixteen and pick your games wisely. We don't recommend wagering on more than two games on each of the Sweet Sixteen days. This way, you'll be able to do more in-depth research and make quality and hopefully winning bets.