NCAA Tournament Betting Systems & Strategy: The Value of Contrarian Betting During March Madness

NCAA Tournament Betting Systems & Strategy: The Value of Contrarian Betting During March Madness article feature image
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Photo by Zach Bolinger/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images. Pictured: A general view of the interior of Lucas Oil Stadium

The NCAA Tournament is here, which also marks the point in which casual sports bettors start paying attention to the college hardwood.

Recreational bettors overwhelmingly prefer football to basketball while those seasons overlap, but with Selection Sunday in the books, college hoops handles will explode over the next week.

Think about it — how many friends, family members and co-workers normally talk about college basketball as much as they will over the next couple of weeks?

With the increase in interest also comes an influx of casual money, which mostly ends up falling on the best teams, favorites and overs.

Public money rarely affects lines in the college basketball regular season, but once tourney gets underway, sportsbooks need to be cognizant of getting too heavy on any single wager, even if it's simply due to one-sided casual action.

As a result, the profitability of contrarian betting is amplified during the NCAA Tournament and buying back unpopular sides can be a valuable strategy, specifically when odds are moving simply due to overwhelming public money.

This strategy is the crux of a winning College Basketball PRO Betting System that takes advantage of extra line value created by lopsided action from uneducated bettors.

Let's take a look at this historically-profitable NCAA Tournament betting system.

NCAA Tournament Betting System

The Action Network's NCAA Tournament Contrarian PRO Betting System is about as simple as it gets.

Through the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament, which is when the most public money will be in the market, fading the public (teams receiving less than 50% of the bets) is uber-profitable in games that are expected to be close (defined as a spread of up to eight points).

Teams that fit this criteria are 85-62-5 (58%) against the spread (ATS) since 2005.

Now, a word of caution.

Betting percentages are based on The Action Network's college basketball public betting data, and these can fluctuate wildly, especially early in the week as the sample size of bets grows.

So if you do plan on betting this system, be sure to take advantage of our latest Dominate the Madness Promotion that offers a whopping 80% (!) discount off the normal Action PRO price.

That breaks down to $1.67/month for an entire year.

As an Action PRO subscriber, you'll have access to each of our PRO betting tools, including live matches for all of our winning systems.

Simply log in, track your matches, place your bets, and you're done!

Dominate the Madness: Get 80% OFF

See who the pros are betting in March

Projections for every tourney game

Access to 4 winning NCAAB systems
About the Author
Sports bettor and Editor at The Action Network.

Follow PJ Walsh @PJWalsh24 on Twitter/X.

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