There’s no time like college football bowl season. All the games are high-stakes, there’s an electricity in the air and the NCAA football betting experience is unlike any other. Though gamblers tend to focus mainly on the college football playoff and National Championship during this year-end stretch, there are other tantalizing games being played. One such season finale is the Celebration Bowl. It’s one of the newer additions to the NCAA football’s slate but doesn’t want for interest. Celebration Bowl odds have already been deemed a big draw at sportsbooks.

The Celebration Bowl is due to take place at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Saturday, December 16th, 2023!

We’ve got everything you need to know for an optimal Celebration Bowl gambling experience, from where to bet on it, why it’s important, and college football betting trends that can help you along the way. The Celebration Bowl is a postseason college football game between the champions of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and the Southwestern Athletic Conference. It was first played in 2015, and has quickly become a staple for football fans. Use this guide to get up to speed on everything from betting lines, past results, and key factors to consider when betting on the Celebration Bowl.

Best Celebration Bowl Betting Sites

Figuring out which online sportsbooks make for the best Celebration Bowl betting sites can be a little bit of a chore. Some people will select a home for their gambling at random, mostly because the odds for this game are offered everywhere. That’s a mistake.

This isn’t just about finding the odds. It’s about streamlining and enhancing your experience. Everything from when those lines are published to the customer service to the transaction speed to the promotional gambling programs should be up for consideration when selecting a sportsbook.

But who has that kind of time to sort through all the different options? Well, we do. So we did. We’ve compiled our list of the top destinations not just for your Celebration Bowl betting, but all your college football betting:

College Football Celebration Bowl Odds

Celebration Bowl Futures

Betting on the Celebration Bowl too far in advance is a non-option. Because there are other NCAA football bowl games that are higher up on the pecking order, it’s impossible to know which squads will qualify for consideration. Teams from the Mideastern Atlantic Conference and Southwestern Athletic Conference are slotted into the Celebration Bowl only if they don’t qualify for the college football playoff or one of the New Year’s Six bowls.

Still, you can rest easy knowing that as soon as Celebration Bowl spreads are available, we’ll be posting them here. In the meantime, if you wish to bet on big-picture outcomes, you are free to focus on college football playoff futures and National Championship futures. The odds were last updated on December 13, 2023:

Celebration Bowl Odds

betonline betus bovada
Florida A&M Rattlers TBA TBA TBA
Howard Bison TBA TBA TBA

Check out other college football odds here.

While we hate to be the bearer of bad news, there are a ton of wrinkles preventing bettors from capitalizing on lines in advance of the 2023 college football season. It all comes back to the coronavirus pandemic.

No one truly knows whether the season will take place at its regular time, or even at all. Some schools have already postponed the beginning of their schedule until the spring. You can bet more will follow suit if there aren’t material changes to the United States’ situation.

Regardless of what happens, the college football field is going to look starkly different than it’s supposed to appear. That’s why sportsbooks have pulled all of their future lines. If the season starts on time, the schools that have already delayed their slate of games will automatically be pulled from the bowl-game discussion—and that includes the Celebration Bowl. If the entire NCAA postpones its season until the spring, schools will still drop out of bowl-game consideration by default because they’ll have players who opt to sit out and prepare for the 2023 NFL draft.

The latter is going to be an issue even under the most ideal outcomes. As difficult as all this information can be to interpret, we have to keep it at the forefront of our betting strategies.

Once more, though, you needn’t worry if you stick with us. We’ll have the updated odds for everything under the sun, including potential Celebration Bowl participants, as soon as they’re available.

What's at Stake in the Celebration Bowl?

Celebrating Bowl Betting

Making picks for the Celebration Bowl loses luster for some sports gamblers because it isn't part of the college football playoff. That bracket is made up of six other bowl games:

Two of them each year determine who partakes in the National Championship, the single biggest game of the season. Those pairs change on a rolling basis, with each of these bowl games counting as a semifinals matchup once every three years.

The Celebration Bowl, by comparison, is part of the next tier of bowl games. That list includes all of the following:

Technically speaking, all these bowl games exist on equal footing. But some receive more shine than others. The Outback Bowl and Citrus Bowl, for example, are considered higher-stakes affairs than the Celebration Bowl.

That shouldn't deter bettors from putting money on this particular game. You're still getting the championship treatment from all angles.

To start, the participating teams are engaged. This matchup may not feature the biggest powerhouses—winners of the Celebration Bowl since it started to include North Carolina A&T Aggies and Grambling State Tigers—but this is still their biggest game of the year. They're going to be locked in.

Plus, on top of that, sportsbooks will still roll out the red carpet for wagering types. No, you won't enjoy the selection of props and live bets that you see for anyone of the New Year's Six and the National Championship, but you'll still encounter more nuanced odds, such as player-specific stat lines. These can be anything from the over/under on the number of yards Grambling State's quarterback throws for to which receiver from the Alcorn State Braves has his team's first touchdown reception.

Betting Strategy for Celebration Bowl

Celebrating Bowl Betting Strategy

Allow us to preface this section with this: No college football betting strategy is for everyone. This tip won't appeal to you if you're a high roller. If you're an average-level or lower-end gambler, though, then we're about to outline stands to help drive up your profits when betting on college football bowl games, including the Celebration.

Here's a dirty little secret about these second-tier tilts: They're not as tightly contested as the bowl games that make up the New Year's Six. Make no mistake, they can be. But there tends to be a larger gap in talent between the two participating teams.

As a result, you're more likely to see a moneyline for the Celebration Bowl that reads something like North Carolina (-250) vs. Alcorn State (+175). Now, in major bowl games—specifically the college football playoff—it can make sense to invest in the moneylines of underdogs since the two teams are, again, on almost equal footing and you increase your chances of nearing a 1-to-1 payout. For the Celebration Bowl, however, we recommend parlaying the favorite's moneyline with the moneylines of other favorites in bowl games from the same tier.

Try Parlaying on the NCAAF Celebration Bowl

Consider this potential betting slip: North Carolina (-250), TCU (-350), Michigan State (-475), Auburn (-200), Navy (-500). If you wagered on all these outcomes individually, you're spending a fortune to make very little. The Auburn moneyline offers the best value, and you'd still have to risk $200 just to win $100.

Parlaying all these odds would allow you to earn more than double your money. And while there's risk involved, because a single miss ruins your docket, the downside isn't quite as high as it normally would be. The prospect of upsets is far weaker in the secondary bowl games. You'll want to steer clear of any eerily similar moneylines—like if both teams in the Celebration Bowl are laying -110—but if you compile all the heavy-favorite odds and mash them together, you have a better-than-expected chance of doubling up your investment. You might even make more than that in certain years.

We highly recommend giving this a shot. Even if it's for a small sum. In fact, that's kind of the point for this strategy. It allows, say, a $25-per-bet gambler to really feel their victory without increasing the bad vibes they'll experience in defeat.

Celebration Bowl FAQs

Meet the author

Eric Uribe

Eric has been passionate about sports since he was 10 years old. He brings over 10 years of sports journalism experience to his expert coverage of sports betting. Hailing from the US, Eric leverages his diverse expertise covering sports at all levels – from high sch...