With basketball season returning in the Hoop State, North Carolinians placing bets before teams hit the court is as sure as a Tim Duncan bank shot.
North Carolina will have legal online sports betting for a full basketball season for the first time after the state legalized the activity in March.
DraftKings, a legal sportsbook in North Carolina, provided the North State Journal insights of where its North Carolina customers have been placing bets in different futures betting markets across college basketball. The insights detail the top 10 wagers by the percentage of the total handle (amount of money wagered) and the percentage of total bets in various markets from the time they opened to Friday.
The NSJ obtained splits for the men’s and women’s national champions and Wooden Award winners before the college basketball season got started Monday.
In the men’s national champions market, North Carolinians are putting their money on Cooper Flagg and the highly touted Duke squad. The Blue Devils, ranked No. 7 in the preseason AP Poll, received a market-high 38% of the handle while having +1000 odds to win it all. UConn, the defending back-to-back national champions with a market-high +900 odds to win it all again, received a second-most 21% of the handle, followed by Alabama (8%) and North Carolina (7%).
The percentage of bets placed on the possible national champions tells a different story, though. While Duke received the most money, a significant majority of the bets (41%) went to Alabama, which made the Final Four last season. The Crimson Tide were the only team to receive over 15% of the market’s bets, as the next closest team was UConn (14%).
There doesn’t seem to be much faith in the Tar Heels and the Wolfpack, who made last year’s Sweet 16 and the Final Four, respectively. Despite returning ACC Player of the Year and first-team All-American RJ Davis, North Carolinians only put 7% of the market handle and 3% of the bets on UNC. It looks even worse for NC State which received just 2% of the handle and 1% of the bets, but at least it’s market-worst +13000 odds to win the national championship better matches its splits.
On the women’s side, North Carolina is spending the most money on Paige Bueckers and UConn to reclaim the throne. The Huskies are tied with Juju Watkins and USC with the second-best odds (+450) to win the national title, but they’ve received a market-high 45% of the handle. South Carolina, the defending national champions, have the market-best +180 odds to repeat, but the Gamecocks are second in handle percentage with 26%.
Once again, North Carolina isn’t too confident in its own women’s teams. NC State, also a Final Four team last year, just received 3% of the handle to win it all while Duke only garnered 1%.
Looking at the percentage of bets, North Carolina put most of its bets on the Gamecocks, who received a whopping 86% of the state’s bets. The next closest team was UConn with 10% of the bets.
In regard to the men’s Wooden Award winner, the Tar Heel state showed love for UNC’s Davis. Davis has the market’s best odds to be named the county’s most outstanding player at +700, and he received the second-highest handle share of 18% alongside Alabama’s Mark Sears. As the two will get to face off once again on Dec. 4, Sears’ betting share of 11% placed actually edged Davis’ betting share of 9%. However, Purdue’s Braden Smith, who has +6500 odds to win the award, took the crown in both handle percentage (23%) and betting percentage (19%).
For any North Carolina fans that still have love for Arizona’s Caleb Love, the former Tar Heel received just 2% of the market handle and 4% of the bets.
The splits for the women’s Wooden award is a lot more top heavy though. North Carolina bettors are all in on Watkins and Bueckers as the two look to be the most anticipated players to watch following Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. Watkins is still far ahead of Bueckers in the market splits, however. The USC sophomore holds 60% of the market handle and 54% of the bets placed despite having the second-best odds to win the award (+175). Bueckers has the best odds of +150, but she holds just 31% of the handle and 27% of the bets.
Another interesting trend, though, is Iowa State’s Audi Crooks receiving a third-best 12% of the market bets despite only receiving 1% of the handle share to win the Wooden Award. Last season, Crooks averaged 19.2 points per game while shooting 57.7% from the floor, the best field goal percentage by an NCAA DI freshman in 2023-24.
