NCAA Tournament: Two tips from a pro for betting on the Big Dance

Love it when the announcers know the point spreads and totals for the games they are covering. Don’t have to have legal tender on the line to have some fun with it.

Kevin Brown and Dan Dakich were calling the American Athletic Conference championship game for ESPN and Houston was up by 33 when Kiyron Powell threw down a dunk with less than two minutes left.

That ended the drama, Dakich pointed out as Houston led, 86-51, with less than two minutes left. The over/under was 135.5.

Get ready for March Madness when touts will be screaming Arkansas is the lock of the year and commercials will run sign-up promos with propositions that are impossible to lose. Remember, these are meant to separate you from your money.

» READ MORE: Join the Madness! Fill out your 2021 NCAA Tournament bracket.

Sports bettor Jack Andrews, who is in the planning stages of launching an educational website devoted to the profession, was asked for a couple of tips for novice bettors.

First, avoid those wild multi-team parlays the sportsbooks spend a lot of time advertising how lucrative they are.

“A parlay is going to compound that house edge against you and make it more like a lottery ticket that you’re playing than sports betting,” Andrews explained.

“For a new bettor, I know they all want to bet a little and win a lot. But they’re going to be better off if they would just bet teams individually throughout the course of the day rather than make this huge parlay in hopes they can hit this longshot.”

Andrews isn’t saying longshots can’t be fun, but think about a hedge. Mix in a $20 straight bet mixed with a $5 multi-team parlay.

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Rather than play Alabama at 20-1 or Villanova at 45-1 to win the tournament under the latest odds, consider a money-line play on each game and doubling up as the team advances.

It requires more work and diligence, but Andrews said the odds are in the bettors’ favor.

“If you can see their path and eyeball what the money lines should be, you’re going to find that rolling the money line is always going to be better,” Andrews said.

“And the flexibility that it offers is to take a little money off the top each time to secure profit.”

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Andrews’ website, Unabated.com, promises to offer information for any type of bettor and will not be any one of the hundreds that tout plays or filter customers to sportsbook partners.

“It’s going to be a lot different than anything out there, which is what we’re aiming for,” said Andrews, whose partners included noted player Rufus Peabody. “It’s going to be tools and education. The tools that we’ll have will appeal to recreational bettors that want to be a little bit better. Or they will appeal to people who are taking this very seriously and don’t already have these tools on their own.”