If you love college football – and who doesn’t love the magic of a Saturday game day with the bands, the traditions, and the football – then you love being in Colorado. The state is home to three FBS schools and some of the best traditions in the sport.
The University of Colorado won a national championship in 1990 and has been playing its rival, Colorado State, since 1893 – just three years after Army and Navy began their historic football rivalry. And speaking of, the Air Force Academy calls Colorado home, and in its three-way series with Army and Navy, Air Force has won the Commander in Chief’s Trophy a series-high 20 times.
College football has been big in the Centennial State for decades, and now so is college football betting.
College Football Season Structure
Like the NFL, college football was made for sports wagering. The lion’s share of games take place on Saturday, giving bookmakers, analysts, and bettors a full week to dissect the upcoming games and point spreads. If you didn’t know who LSU’s new quarterback was on Monday, you certainly do by Saturday morning.
But unlike the NFL, the college football “preseason” is loads of fun. It’s when teams play out of conference, so we get some of the great rivalry games – like Florida vs. Florida State and Colorado vs. Colorado State.
After three or four games against non-conference teams, conference play kicks off. And depending on how well teams do in conference play, and how they’re ranked by the College Football Playoff Selection Committee, they can make a postseason bowl, or make the College Football Playoff and have a shot at winning the National Championship.
College bowl season is like the never-ending Christmas, with 40 great matchups from mid-December through the first week of January.
Where to Bet College Football in Colorado
Legal sports betting went live in Colorado on May 1, 2020, and the market spent all of the following summer expanding as fast as possible. If you want to place your college football bets in person, there are two cities you need to visit – Black Hawk, just outside of Denver, and Cripple Creek, which is in the mountains west of Colorado Springs.
All retail sportsbooks in Colorado are located inside the following casinos:
Black Hawk
- Monarch Casino (BetMonarch)
- Ameristar Casino Black Hawk (Penn National)
- Golden Mardi Gras Casino (DraftKings)
- Isle of Capri Casino (William Hill)
- Red Dolly Casino (Elite Gaming)
- Saratoga Casino (Betfred)
Cripple Creek
- Wildwood Casino (BetWildwood)
- Johnny Nolon’s Casino (ISI)
It’s fun to be inside a sportsbook on a college football Saturday, but it’s not always convenient. Maybe you’d prefer to be at your favorite sports bar. Or your couch at home. That’s where Colorado’s extensive list of online and mobile sportsbooks come in.
- Betfred
- BetMGM
- BetMonarch
- BetRivers
- BetWildwood
- DraftKings
- FanDuel
- FOX Bet
- SBK
- Sky Ute Sportsbook
- theScore Bet
- William Hill
All of the above sportsbooks can be used directly on your mobile device to place college football bets, and all of them offer a variety of bonuses and incentives that you won’t find at a retail sportsbook.
When you shop for the sportsbook that is right for you, you’ll find several that offer college football pick ’em pools. For around $5, you can make picks on between 10 and 20 games, and the top finishers split the pot.
If you’re going to place wagers on any of the local Colorado teams, you’ll often see odds boosters for their specific games, or promotions around big events, like the Rocky Mountain Showdown or Air Force playing the other service academies.
Types of College Football Bets in Colorado
When betting on college football, there are several typical bets you’ll play.
Point Spread: This is the most popular and most basic of sports bets and a favorite when betting football. The point spread represents the margin of victory in which the favorite must win to “cover the spread.” Bets on the spread usually pay -110 for both the favorite and the underdog, giving the sportsbook its “juice” – which is where it makes its money.
Moneyline: The moneyline represents the odds of a football team winning the game without the use of a point spread. If the line on CU says -150, they are the favorite, and if you bet $15 on them to win, your bet will win $10. On the flip side, if the Buffs pay +150 on the moneyline, a $10 bet pays $15.
Totals: Also known as an over/under, this is a bet on the combined total points scored by both teams. Like with a point spread, you place your bet on whether the amount will be over or under the posted line. Who wins the game will not matter.
Parlays: When you hear about someone betting a college football parlay, they’re usually taking any of the above single-game bets and combining them into a large bet of three or more different bets. A parlay can be all from the same game, or all from different games, and if you hit all of your bets, you will win big. But that’s the problem with parlays. You must hit on all of your bets; otherwise, you lose.
Futures Bets: A futures bet is a bet on a college football event that takes place far in the future. This can include an early bet on which team will win the National Championship, to which teams are going to win their respective conferences.
Live College Football Betting in Colorado
Another reason to favor internet and mobile sportsbooks over retail sportsbooks is live betting. It’s also called in-play or in-game betting, and it makes that phone you carry in your pocket the most powerful betting device ever created.
There was a time that all bets had to be in before kickoff. Not any more. With live betting, the action never ends, as you can bet on games already in progress and at any point during the game. The odds and spreads are constantly changing, so you can bet on quarter and halftime lines, small events like specific drives and plays, and even specific play calls.
None of this can be done at a retail sportsbook in Colorado. The bets change by the second, and standing in line to wager with a teller isn’t feasible. But each of the online offerings in the state, and especially the mobile sportsbooks, are built with the speed and flexibility that make live betting a college football game so appealing.
Tips for Betting College Football in Colorado
Unlike with the NFL, which has only 32 teams and all bookmaking eyes on it all week long, you can find games at the college football level that present good value. Games where a point spread might be off just a little because no one can know everything about 130 FBS teams.
You won’t find these holes when betting on Alabama vs. LSU. But if you do your homework on some mid-major teams that hover just below the national radar, deals can be found.
To make this work even better for you, pick a conference to become a specialist in. When you have knowledge on a collection of teams that not many other bettors have, you’ll spot the favorable lines before anyone else does, and before a flood of bets changes those lines.
Spend time studying the intangibles. These aren’t professional football players. How they will respond to different scenarios is much different.
A freshman quarterback was just playing high school football in front of 500 fans a year ago. Now he’s playing in front of 100,000 fans in the biggest game of his life.
The differences in how players respond to big situations in the NFL is small. In college football, the swings in player poise can be huge.
Things to Avoid When Betting College Football in Colorado
Don’t get too focused on statistics. You can often look at the statistical leaders in the NFL and spot the best players and the best teams. That’s because the competition is all very good, and how someone does against one team can be tied more directly to how they’ll do against another.
But in college football, there are huge disparities in talent. When LSU plays Georgia Southern to kick off its season, it’s impossible to look at the statistics generated by that game and use them to project performances in the future.
If you’re going to use stats, only use them from similar opponents. And also know that the smaller the sample size, the more unreliable they are.
Never, ever bet more games than you’ve researched. It’s hard to resist. So many games to play, and it’s fun to have action on the early East Coast games as well as the late West Coast starts.
If fun is more important than profit, bet as many games as you want. But if the idea is to win money each week, keep your wagering in check.
FAQ About College Football Betting in Colorado
Who is eligible to open a sportsbook account and place college football wagers in Colorado?
Anyone who is at least 21 years old can open a sportsbook account in Colorado. But to legally place bets on college football at a Colorado sportsbook, you must be physically inside the state lines.
Is it legal to bet on Colorado college football teams at a Colorado sportsbook?
Yes. Unlike some other states, Colorado sports betting laws allow bets on local college teams and college sporting events taking place inside the state. However, it is illegal to make proposition bets involving individual college athletes. Legally operating sportsbooks in the state will not offer college propositions.