Best March Madness Betting Sites in NC

Online sports betting is live in North Carolina, in time for March Madness. That’s great news considering that North Carolina is a March Madness state. In fact, it may very well be the March Madness state.

With the University of North Carolina and Duke, the state boasts two of the best programs in NCAA tournament history. In terms of NCAA tournament game wins, UNC is second with 130, and Duke is third with 118. Those two programs are also two of the top four in terms of National Championships (North Carolina is third with six; Duke is tied for fourth with five.)

That’s why March Madness betting expectedly shines right here in North Carolina when the Big Dance comes around.

Looking for the best NC sports betting sites for March Madness betting? Want to know all your March Madness betting options beyond traditional bracket contests? How about the best odds for March Madness games and NCAA Championship futures? You’ll find all that and more right here.

Latest live odds for March Madness in North Carolina

Top offers and sportsbooks for betting on March Madness

How to download an app and bet on March Madness online in North Carolina

With legal sports betting in North Carolina, Tar Heel state bettors can bet on March Madness online. The options start with Championship and Final Four futures that are available all year long. From there, the possibilities extend to bracket pools, individual game lines and NCAA tournament outrights once the March Madness field is set.

Of course, if you want to bet on March Madness online, you’ll need to sign up for an account with a licensed online sportsbook first. Here’s how:

• Click a link to a licensed online sportsbook on this page;
• Click on anything that says ‘Sign Up‘ ‘Join’ or ‘Register’;
• Fill out the forms with all required information, including any NC sportsbook promo or bonus code listed here;
• Accept all terms and conditions.

After that, you make a deposit, browse through all the March Madness betting lines, and fill out a bet slip to place a March Madness bet. Remember, you can pick March Madness winners all year long and then sort out your bracket and all the individual game lines once the field is set.

How to bet on March Madness futures

You can bet on March Madness Championship and Final Four futures all year long. Pick the team or teams you think have a shot at the National Championship or even the Final Four in these March Madness futures markets.

Odds are posted for the next season right after the current one ends and are available all year round. They will change alongside a team’s chances, but you lock in your odds at the time you place the bet. That means the earlier you get a bet down on a National Championship or Final Four contender, the more you stand to win. By contrast, if you wait until a perennial favorite is in the Sweet 16 already, your potential payout on backing them to win it all will be hugely reduced.

How to bet on pre-tournament props

There may also be pre-tournament March Madness prop bets available at North Carolina sportsbooks. These will allow you to bet on things like:

• How many teams from each conference will get into the tournament;
• Seeding, including where certain teams will be seeded and who will get a #1 seed;
• Over/under on the least number of regular-season wins it’ll take to get into the tournament.

How to bet on the First Four

The First Four are four play-in games between the four lowest-seeded automatic bids and four lowest-seeded at-large bids from Selection Sunday. The winners take up the last four places in the Round of 64.

The first year for the First Four was 2011 with the tournament field essentially expanding by four to 68 teams. The First Four is held in Dayton, Ohio, generally at least two days ahead of the start of the first round.

You can bet on these games like any other March Madness game. Plus, many bracket contests now include the First Four.

Popular March Madness bet types

Broadly speaking, there are really just three ways to bet on March Madness: bracket contests, futures and game lines. Let’s dig into the possibilities below.

• Bracket contests: The traditional way to bet on March Madness, bracket contests are available at legal sportsbooks and through office and bar/restaurant/social club pools. You fill out an entire 67-game bracket (if you include the First Four) before the tournament starts. You enter your bracket in a free or paid-entry bracket contest. Pick more winners than anyone else in the contest to win. Top entries generally share in whatever prize pool is created or awarded, with the lion’s share going to the best bracket.
• Futures: Bet on any team to win the NCAA tournament, make the Final Four, or advance to a specific round at licensed sportsbooks. March Madness futures are available all year long, and odds adjust as the season progresses. The earlier you bet on most favorites, the better the odds.
• Game lines: March Madness game lines are available for every tournament game. Within that category, here are some different types of game lines.
  • Spreads: Point spread betting is where you pick a game-winner on the scoreboard with a point spread line factored into the final score. For a favorite to win a spread bit, they’ll need to win by a certain margin. Likewise, an underdog need only lose the actual game by fewer points than the set spread to win this bet.
  • Moneylines: Moneyline betting is where you pick the outright winner of any NCAA tournament game. Pick the winner and get paid according to the odds at the time you placed the bet, no matter how much they might change after.
  • Totals: Wager on a game’s final combined tally landing over or under a line set by sportsbooks.
  • Props: Bet on March Madness player and team performance and stat lines.
  • Parlays: Parlay betting combines two or more March Madness bets into one, boosting the odds versus the individual bets. But you must win all your linked bets to win anything at all.
  • Live to bet: Wager on March Madness game lines and props after the game has started at odds that change in real time.

March Madness betting vs. March Madness brackets

You have choices when it comes to March Madness betting. You can fill out a March Madness bracket and enter it in a contest. But that means picking winners for all the NCAA tournament games. That’s 67 games if you count the First Four and 63 if you don’t. That’s a big commitment … too big for some.

You can also bet on tournament games individually. Do March Madness your way, betting only on the games where you see an edge.

Of course, there’s a third choice as well. You can do it all. Betting on individual game lines doesn’t mean you can’t enter a bracket contest or vice versa.

In fact, March Madness game betting can be a great way to hedge the bets you’ve made in a bracket contest or counteract mistakes you made in busted brackets.

Once they’re here, NC online sportsbook will offer you the chance to bet on March Madness game lines for every game. Plus, the sportsbooks will host a ton of paid and free-entry bracket contests. So fill out a bracket or two, bet moneylines, spreads and totals for tournament games, and have a ball betting on March Madness.

March Madness betting rules

Every sportsbook publishes rules for betting on NCAA basketball and how it handles situations that may arise during March Madness. Read these terms and conditions before betting. That way, nothing unexpected should occur with your March Madness bets.

Most of the wagering rules surrounding March Madness include things like:

• Overtime counts for game bets unless otherwise stated;
• Overtime does not count for second-half bets unless otherwise stated;
• Player props stand as long the players involved take part in the game or tournament at some point and are void if they don’t;
• Official NCAA data is used to settle bets.

March Madness details

March Madness officially kicks off with Selection Sunday, where the field of 68 teams is announced, and the brackets are set. Here is the schedule of events for the 2025 tournament. This is preliminary and subject to change.