There are nearly 100 college basketball teams in Texas, a dozen of which play D1 ball and chase March Madness dreams every season. Only two Texas men’s teams (UTEP, Baylor), have ever fully realized those dreams.

It’s not quite at the level of college football, but college basketball is immensely popular across Texas. When legal online sportsbooks go live, Texans will bet big on NCAA basketball.

Here’s where to find the best college basketball betting sites in the state.

Top TX sportsbooks for college basketball odds

DraftKings Sportsbook Texas

DraftKings Sportsbook is now in more than a dozen states and is surely headed to Texas. Its software is easy to use, and a massive marketing effort, combined with a fantastic new player bonus, has increased its popularity across the country.

College basketball game lines and futures odds include:

• Competitive moneylines, point spreads and totals
• March Madness odds and bracket contests (free and paid entry)
• The most live NCAA basketball betting markets anywhere

DraftKings Sportsbook also runs many college basketball promos every season. Last season, the platform ran a DraftKings promo offering 40-1 odds on college basketball moneylines during March Madness.

All you had to do was bet $5 on any college basketball moneyline to win $200 in bonuses. This represented a pretty huge value compared to the standard bonus bet promos available at competitors.

FanDuel Sportsbook Texas

FanDuel Sportsbook has positioned itself as a market leader in more than a dozen states. It’s no doubt setting its sights on Texas next. Its software is well-known among bettors to be a smooth experience for browsing and betting.

There’s a generous welcome bonus and an extensive list of ongoing FanDuel promos, plus:

• NCAA basketball game lines on virtually every D1 game
• College basketball futures odds for winning the National Championship, conference titles and making the NCAA tournament

FanDuel also runs various promos surrounding the college basketball season. Last season, FD offered site credit refunds to anyone who came one leg short of winning a college basketball parlay.

The maximum refund was just $25, though, which made the NCAA basketball promos at Caesars, BetMGM and DraftKings a bit more valuable. Still, that promo was available all season long, giving parlay bettors some insurance against the upsets that are such a big part of college basketball.

BetMGM Sportsbook Texas

BetMGM Sportsbook is also in more than a dozen states and likely targeting Texas. There’s a valuable welcome bonus and a number of ongoing promotions here. Plus, its college basketball game lines and futures odds are as competitive as you’ll find.

BetMGM is also a solid source of college basketball betting information. The Roar blog features a ton of college basketball betting content, and you might find a betting edge or two.

Previous college basketball promos at BetMGM included a $10 live bonus bet for anyone betting $25 or more on a “One Game Parlay.” That’s a small but true value to college basketball bettors compared to what you will find at Caesars, DraftKings and FanDuel.

Caesars Sportsbook Texas

Caesars Sportsbook is now in a dozen states and most likely headed to Texas next. The current Caesars signup offer is enticing, and there are also enough college basketball promos to keep you going all season long.

This includes the valuable Bet $20, Get $200 promo that Caesars ran during March Madness last season, another true value compared to what DraftKings, BetMGM and FanDuel put up.

Caesars also offers an edge to college basketball spread and moneyline bettors. Shop around, and you’ll find Ceasars is quite often a half-point more favorable on the spread and offers better moneyline odds than much of the competition.

Live betting on NCAA basketball games

Live betting adds excitement to the game-watching experience, allowing you to bet on NCAA basketball games in the middle of the action. The sports betting odds change with the game, sometimes instantaneously. That makes sports betting apps the best way to get your bets down.

Live betting on college basketball is available in Texas’ neighboring states, including Arkansas, Louisiana and New Mexico. Plus, you’ll find it nearby in Arizona and Colorado as you await the launch of legal sports betting in Texas.

Get started betting on college basketball online

If you want to bet on college basketball online in Texas, you’ll first need to sign up for an account with a licensed online sportsbook. You’ll have to wait for Texas to license online sportsbooks first, but here are the steps once that happens:

• Click any one of our links to visit an online sportsbook licensed in Texas, taking note of any promo or bonus code.
• Find the tab on the site that says “sign up” or “register,” or download the mobile app from the website and find it there.
• Fill out the sign-up form with all the required information, including the sports betting bonus code or promo code specific to that sportsbook.
• Accept all terms and conditions, and confirm all your information to complete the sign-up process.

Related pages:

• Tonight’s Baylor basketball odds
• Tonight’s Houston Cougars NCAAB odds
• Tonight’s Texas basketball odds

How to read college basketball betting lines

Looking for the best college basketball bets to make online? Here’s what a typical NCAA basketball betting line will look like for all the main bets:

	Spread	Moneyline	Total
Texas	+6.5 (-110)	+225	Over 140.5 (-110)
Baylor	-6.5 (-110)	-275	Under 140.5 (-110)

• Spread bets: You’ll find NCAA basketball spreads up front with the odds in brackets. Texas is a 6.5-point underdog to Baylor here, which means bets on Texas cash out if they win or lose by fewer than seven points. It also means bets on Baylor only win if Baylor wins by seven or more.
• Moneylines: Then, there’s the moneyline. Texas is a +225 underdog to Baylor, which means bets on Texas pay $225 for every $100 bet if they win. Bets on the Baylor Bears as a -275 favorite pay $100 for every $275 down if they win.
• Over/unders: Finally, there’s the total with the odds in brackets. This is where you bet on the combined final score landing over or under the 140.5-point line. The over pays on 141 points or more, and the under hits on 140 points or fewer. Either way, the -110 odds dictate winning bets pay $100, plus your bet back, for every $110 bet.

Can I bet on NCAA basketball futures or props?

Futures are where you bet on teams to win titles, as in nationally or for a conference. Futures markets launch in the offseason, and the odds change all year long alongside a team’s chances of winning. You lock in the odds as currently posted when you place a bet, and the odds are typically better the earlier you bet.

Then, prop bets tend to concern stat lines and statistical milestones for individual players. Scoring, rebounding and assist markets are the typical prop markets for college basketball games. The availability of these types of prop markets in Texas will depend on the shape sports betting laws take in the state. Several states do not allow college sports player props.

March Madness betting in Texas

The NCAA tournament, otherwise known as March Madness, has become a veritable holiday in sports betting. D1 ball includes more than 350 schools in 32 conferences, each of which crowns a tournament champion in early March.

These 32 conference tournament winners receive automatic March Madness bids. Then, the NCAA Selection Committee selects another 36 at-large teams to compete, seeds the entire field and ultimately decides the Round One matchups, plus who will have to play their way in through the First Four games.

Ultimately, 64 teams will play 67 total games over three weekends in this single-elimination tournament in late March and early April until a champion is crowned. You can bet on each March Madness game individually or go the traditional NCAA tournament betting route by filling out a complete tournament bracket ahead of the First Round and entering it in a free or paid contest.

Several free March Madness bracket contests run by big U.S. sportsbook brands are already open to people in Texas. More free and paid contests should land here when Texas legalizes sports betting.

How is NCAA basketball betting different from NBA betting?

There are a lot more teams in college basketball than in the NBA. While there’s a lot of parity in the NBA, there is a huge disparity between the haves and have-nots in the college ranks. Because of that, oddsmakers are forced to post bigger spreads and moneyline numbers for NCAAB games. For example, NBA point spreads often show margins of only a few points. Meanwhile, college basketball spreads can balloon to double digits.

College basketball games are also shorter, with two 20-minute halves compared to four 12-minute quarters in the NBA. That leads to lower-scoring games and lower total lines, although the tightness of college games is really matchup-dependent.

Read more:

• NCAA basketball betting vs. NBA betting

Sportsbook rules for NCAA basketball

Sportsbooks have rules for specific situations that may arise in college basketball betting. Sportsbook betting rules are published online and should be easy to find. Read these rules before you bet on college basketball, and nothing a sportsbook does will surprise you.

Some of the basic rules for college basketball include:

• Official NCAA stats are used to settle bets
• All bets are off on canceled or postponed games
• Bets concerning single halves are not settled until that half is complete
• Full-game and second-half bets include overtime unless otherwise stated