Not all betting interest in NCAA football comes from the US. College football’s popularity extends well north of the border into Canada, where legal sports betting is coming into its own.
Below, we’ll show you how to get started betting on NCAA football in Canada along with live NCAA football odds right from online sportsbooks.
Best Sportsbooks for College Football Betting in Canada
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The expansion of legal sports betting in Canada means that there are now some fantastic online sportsbooks for College Football bettors across the nation. Here’s a closer look at the top options:
- BetMGM Sportsbook: BetMGM has a deep menu of options to explore for College Football. The pregame lines are always front and center, but that’s just the beginning. There’s a whole host of alternate lines and game props for games all season long, as well as college football odds boosts and parlay insurance.
- Caesars Sportsbook: The Caesars is basic in terms of appearance, but everything you need for College Football betting is just a click or swipe away. The odds tend to be competitive and there always seems to be a profit boost to take advantage of during NCAAF season, such as 20% more on winning selections.
- BetRivers Sportsbook in Canada: BetRivers has all the legally available NCAA Football betting options you could ever want, as well as a wide selection of game props and alternate lines. Additionally, the site has run an NCAA Football promo in the past, offering a parlay profit boost on 3-or-more leg parlays every Saturday throughout the college football season.
- DraftKings Sportsbook in Canada: A slick platform and clean menus are just two of the calling cards for DraftKings. College Football slates are massive, but you can find what you’re looking for with ease here. Beyond all of the standard bet types, check out the pools section where you can compete against other bettors for big prizes.
- FanDuel Sportsbook: Sorting through a huge schedule of games can be time-consuming, but the user-friendly FanDuel platform makes it really easy to do so. Add in competitive odds and regular college football promos like parlay insurance, and it’s easy to see why lots of NCAAF bettors spend a good deal of time here.
How to set up an NCAA football betting account
The very first step when betting on college football online is creating an account. First things first: find the registration page to sign up.
There are multiple ways to do this, starting with clicking one of our links attached to the legal Canadian online sportsbook of your choice. Another option is to visit the sportsbook homepage and click “Sign Up” or “Join Now.” But if you go this route, be sure to have one of our sportsbook promo codes in hand, ensuring you receive any welcome bonus on offer.
Once you determine which sportsbook you want to join, take the following steps:
- Fill out all required information on the registration page (name, address, email, upload photo ID, etc.) in the designated fields.
- If you got to the sportsbook’s site without using our links, ensure you enter one of our promo codes. This will guarantee you get your bonus at the end of the signup process.
- Go through all the terms of service and agree. Once done, click “submit” or “enter.” This will complete the registration process and instantly trigger your bonus.
- From there, find and click on the “Deposit” button and choose your preferred payment method.
- Enter the amount you wish to deposit and complete the transaction.
- The amount deposited will immediately reflect in your new account. If you’re owed a first deposit match bonus, that will reflect in your account as well.
- Start placing bets!
At the end of your registration process and with each financial transaction, you will receive a confirmation email for your records. Your transaction history will also be available in the sportsbook app. In order to place wagers, you will need to be physically located inside the borders of a province that allows betting.
NCAA Football Odds
See below for the latest NCAA college football odds direct from legal online sportsbooks in Canada. Click on any odds to go directly to the online sportsbook, claim your bonus and start getting your bets down.
How to bet on NCAA football online in Canada
While previously Canada only allowed for parlay betting on college football, single-game betting opens the door to a much wider range of markets. Moneylines, spreads, totals and props are all among the bet options, as they are for many who use online sportsbooks in the United States.
Another benefit Canadian bettors will have is that Saturday college football betting offers games all day regardless of time zone. There will be options no matter your preferred betting hours, whether it’s Big Ten and ACC games starting at 12 p.m. EST or Pac-12 contests that kick off at 10 or 11 p.m. EST.
Live betting on college football
Live betting has become a phenomenon thanks to the online format. With a sportsbook app loaded onto your phone or tablet, live college football lines are just a few clicks away at any moment. Placing in-game bets has never been more convenient or popular, especially during NCAA football games.
The way live betting works is simple. As the game progresses, oddsmakers update the odds to reflect the action. This means bettors can wager on a given game at nearly any point throughout the contest and are no longer restricted to wagering before kickoff or at halftime.
Moneyline bets, spreads and totals are the most common live betting options, but some sportsbooks may offer live props as well. In order to successfully place in-game bets, you will need to be physically present inside a province that offers legal sports betting. Exact positions are tracked with geolocation software, and bettors will be unable to submit bet slips otherwise.
How to read college football betting lines
Before you can win any money, you must be able to read sports betting lines and understand how the different bet types work. Using an example from DraftKings Sportsbook, we’ll break down the different kinds of single-game bets.
Moneylines
Moneylines are the most common single-game bet out there, and they are also the easiest to understand. This is because betting on the moneyline means simply picking which side you think will win the game. If the team you select winds up victorious, regardless of score, the bet is a winner.
Once betting lines are created by oddsmakers, one team is the favourite and the other is an underdog. The favourite has a negative symbol next to its line, while the underdog sports a plus sign.
To quickly determine the risk and payouts of moneyline bets, think of the odds relative to the number 100. To bet favourites, you must risk whatever the moneyline is to win $100. With underdogs, the moneyline represents what you stand to win if you risk $100.
Using our example, Delaware is a massive favorite over New Hampshire. A moneyline bet on Delaware means risking $560 to win $100, or $56 to win $10. Wagering on New Hampshire requires a $100 risk to win $390 or a $10 risk to win $39.
Spreads
College football teams are not all created equal, so point spreads are put in place by oddsmakers to even things out from a gambling perspective. No longer is the bettor merely deciding which side will win the game; rather, the point spread dictates how much a team must win or lose by to yield a successful wager.
The favourite has a negative sign next to its odds and must win by more than the point spread in order to “cover” the number. Underdogs show a plus symbol and may lose the game so long as the margin of defeat does not exceed the point spread.
To determine the potential risks and rewards of betting this way, you must consider the line accompanying the point spread. From there, calculating what you stand to win or lose is similar as in a moneyline bet.
Back to our example, where Delaware is a 10.5-point favourite. A wager on this team requires a victory by 11 points or more for the bet to be graded a winner. At -104 odds, the bettor must risk $104 for every $100 in profit.
On the other side, New Hampshire is +10.5 and can either win the game or lose by 10 or fewer points to “cover” the spread and win the wager. With -118 odds, a bettor would need to risk $118 to win $100.
Totals
Wagering on the total, also referred to as the over/under, is hugely popular and very simple to understand. All that’s required is deciding whether the combined score of both teams will go over or under a predetermined point total set by oddsmakers.
Similar to point spreads, the total is accompanied by a betting line that can be used to calculate potential wins and losses.
The total for Delaware vs. New Hampshire is set at 35 points. A bet on Over 35 (-112) means staking $112 to win $100 or $11.20 to win $10. Taking the Under 35 (-109) requires a $109 risk to win $100 or $10.90 to win $10.
Futures
Futures are exactly what they sound like: wagers that will be completed, well, in the future. Rather than the bet being won or lost at the end of a single game or day, the result is settled at some point down the road. Depending on the type of market you’re betting on, this could mean waiting days, weeks or months.
In college football, there are several futures markets that are available before the opening week, and many of them remain open throughout the season, with the NCAAF odds constantly updating to reflect the results of games.
While many of the options are team-related futures, there are also futures markets available surrounding players. The list is included but not limited to:
- Division Winner (in conferences with multiple divisions)
- Conference Winner
- To Reach College Football Playoff
- National Champion (College Football Playoff Winner)
- Odds on Heisman Trophy winner
Many bettors enjoy futures because they have the potential to be lucrative. The odds are much longer than with typical moneylines, spreads and totals, so the futures payouts have the potential to be much larger. These markets can also provide a rooting interest over a long period of time.
Props
Proposition bets, commonly referred to as props, have exploded in popularity with the rise of online sports betting. A prop bet can be categorized as any wager that isn’t a traditional moneyline, spread or total. In general, props are not directly tied to the outcome of the game, though some newer markets do involve the eventual result as part of the bet.
Rather than focusing exclusively on the final score, most props focus on specific areas of the game. The most common examples are team props, player props and game props. Markets involving team and player statistics are widely offered, but bettors can also dig much deeper into specific halves or quarters of each game.
Thanks to props, there is now a much wider range of options when it comes to betting on college football. While some props come with modest payouts similar to those of spreads and totals, others have much larger odds and can make for a big payday.
There aren’t nearly as many options for college games as we see for NFL contests, but depending on the site, there are still some choices offered on Saturdays including:
- Team totals
- First or second-half moneyline, spread and total
- Quarters moneyline, spread and total
- Alternate spreads and totals
Betting on college football playoff & bowl games
The NCAA football year concludes with bowl season, which serves as the postseason for Division 1-A, also known as the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS).
The goal of each team’s season is to earn a bowl invitation, with some games having a much higher profile than others. At the end of the season, the top four teams in the country are invited to the College Football Playoff (CFP) to determine the champion for that season. The CFP is the equivalent to the Final Four in NCAA basketball.
In total, there are between 30 and 40 bowl games, and each one presents dozens of betting opportunities thanks to the standard game lines and various props. The amount of offerings only increases as we move toward the biggest bowl games, also known as the New Year’s Six, which include the:
- Rose Bowl
- Fiesta Bowl
- Orange Bowl
- Sugar Bowl
- Cotton Bowl
- Peach Bowl
All of the above games hold great prestige, but every year, two of the six represent the national semifinals of the CFP. That honour rotates between the six bowls every year, so all of them constantly share the spotlight. The winners of the two semifinal games meet in the College Football Playoff National Championship the following week and are crowned champion of the season.
The CFP title game is akin to Super Bowl betting from a sportsbook’s point of view, as there are many more betting options offered at this point compared to a regular-season game. When the semifinals and championship come around, bettors have literally hundreds of markets to choose from.
NCAA football betting tips & advice
Profiting from college football betting isn’t easy, and it becomes even more difficult when you go in without a plan. Keep the following NCAA football betting strategies in mind if you’re looking for guidance.
- Reverse line movement: Reverse line movement takes place when the majority of bets are on one side of a betting line but the odds shift in the opposite direction. It can be a sign that the most well-respected bettors (professionals, also called “sharps”) are on the side opposite the public. This happens in all sports but can be more telling in college football, especially when looking at a high-profile game.
- Focus on specific conferences: With so many teams and conferences to cover, it can be beneficial to narrow your focus to one or a few specific conferences and bet only on teams from those leagues. After a few weeks of closely following, you may develop a targeted expertise on a set of teams that you can more comfortably bet on as the season progresses.
- Be selective, and manage your bankroll: There are dozens of games each week, most of them taking place on Saturday, and you’re not going to be able to bet them all. You may look at the board and have more ideas than your bankroll can finance. Set a limit for how much you want to spend, and go with the wagers you like the best. That said, don’t give in to betting on too many games. That could make it more difficult to turn a profit in the end.
Why NCAA football betting is great for beginners
When a beginner starts betting on games, the ideal sports are the ones that cause the least confusion. College football is a sport we’d recommend to new bettors for a couple of reasons.
It’s easy to follow. The betting markets for college football (and the sport itself) are very easy to understand. The scoring is not very complicated, and it won’t take long for a new bettor to understand exactly what they need to happen over the course of a game.
Moreover, college football is not a daily sport. The Saturday slate can be a little overwhelming, but in other sports such as basketball, games are on every single day. Going over betting lines on a daily basis, as opposed to weekly, may be tough to handle in the beginning.
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Canadian sportsbook odds vs. Vegas odds
Even though the concept of single-game betting is the same in person and online, there still could be some difference in Canadian sportsbook odds and the lines we commonly see at the casinos in Las Vegas.
You aren’t likely to notice any stark contrast between the two when looking at traditional single-game markets. There will naturally be variance in the exact line or the spreads, and totals could differ by a half-point or so, but that is the case anywhere. Even two Canadian betting sites could have odds that don’t match up entirely. The noticeable difference comes when you dip into other markets.
There are generally more betting options available when it comes to the online format, partially thanks to alternate lines. Bettors are able to turn the oddsmaker’s line into any spread or total they desire, with the odds updating for each half-point that is bought or sold.
Buying points means moving line in your favour. As a result, bettors are required to risk more. Selling points involves making the line more unfavourable in exchange for a larger payout than the standard line, which usually sits around -110. Sportsbooks in Las Vegas aren’t offering nearly as many choices when it comes to alternate spreads and totals, so this is where the odds can look very different.