California Golden Bears Odds

Bettors in California will be keeping a keen eye on the University of California, Berkeley football team once online sportsbooks are legalized.

Below you’ll find the most current Golden Bears football odds, what kinds of college football bets you can make, a brief look at the Cal football program and more.

How to bet on California Golden Bears football online

Here are four popular bet types you’re going to find when betting on the Golden Bears football team. For more information, follow the link in each section to visit pages dedicated to each bet type.

California Golden Bears moneyline

The most common bet type is also the best known, although not everyone is aware of its proper name. We’ve all made this bet long before we started getting into the sportsbooks.

A moneyline bet is when you pick the winner of a game. You’ve done this with friends in the past, no doubt, and when it comes to online sportsbooks it essentially works exactly the same as your friendly wagers did. You are given two teams playing in a single contest and you have to pick which one will be victorious. If you’re right, then you’ll have winnings based on your bet amount and the odds at the time you placed it.

When legalization occurs, DraftKings Sportsbook will be one of the most popular betting sites in California; it already is across the nation. DK always has moneyline bets on college football and the California Golden Bears. Additionally, it offers up very competitive odds.

This is an example of a moneyline bet you might find at DraftKings:

• California Golden Bears    -115
• Stanford Cardinal     +145

The oddsmakers at DraftKings have shown us which team is the favorite to win and which is the underdog simply by displaying each side’s odds of winning. Negative odds, such as California’s -115, indicate the favorite. Positive odds, like Stanford’s +145, show us the underdog.

Your payout is calculated based on your bet amount and the odds. Negative odds show us how much we have to wager in order to win $100. In the case of the Golden Bears, you would need to bet $115 to win $100. If you did and you won, you’d get back $215, which is your original stake plus the winnings.

Positive odds, on the other hand, tell us how much we stand to win for every $100 bet. For Stanford and their positive Cardinal betting odds, if you bet $200 and won, you would get paid out $490, which is the original bet amount returned to you, and $290 in winnings.

California Golden Bears point spread

The point spread bet is the most popular bet type for veterans in the industry. The reason, especially in NCAA football, is because moneyline bets can be so lopsided because of a power imbalance between the teams playing. If one is going to dominate, then the odds are not going to carry much value.

The point spread evens the game out a bit for bettors. It identifies the favorite by showing the number of points by which that team must win. If that team fails to win by that amount or more, then bets on the other side would pay out.

On this front, FanDuel rose from daily fantasy sports to a full-fledged sportsbook without much hesitation. FD has a great selection of NCAA football spread bets for California bettors. It also offers some nice NCAA football promotions throughout the season for both new and existing bettors.

An example of a possible point spread bet on the FanDuel sports app might look like this:

• California Golden Bears      -9.5 (-110)
• UCLA Bruins +9.5 (-110)

We see here that the Golden Bears are favored by the FanDuel oddsmakers, who expect the team to win by at least 10 points. If they fail to win by that amount or more, then betting on the Bruins would win.

On either side of the bet are odds set at -110. We know thanks to our example above that negative odds tell us how much we need to bet in order to win $100. So a successful $110 wager on either team would pay out $210, which includes the original stake being returned to you.

California Golden Bears totals

This bet type, unlike the others we’ve looked at, doesn’t require you to choose which team is going to win. Instead, it relies on both teams’ finishing scores to determine winners and losers.

Also known as the over/under, totals bets come from oddsmakers who predict the total combined points for both teams at the end of the game, including overtime. Your job is to determine if you believe the two teams will be able to score over that total amount of points or if they will be held under it.

BetMGM notably offers competitive odds on totals. The BetMGM app features a nice selection of NCAA football bets as well, including on teams based in California such as the Golden Bears.

An example of a college football totals bet at BetMGM could look like this:

• Over 44.5 (-110)
• Under 44.5 (-110)

Here, the oddsmakers have determined that the two teams will combine to score 44.5 points by the end of the contest. You’ll note that there is no such thing as a half-point in football, which means there are guaranteed winners and losers since no one can pick 44.5 points exactly.

Both sides of the bet carry -110 odds, which work the same as our above examples. If the game ends up with a 21-20 score, then the total points will add up to 41, which would mean bets on the under would pay out.

California Golden Bears prop bets

A prop bet is a kind of a “side bet” that you make with a sportsbook about very specific aspects of a game or season. The subjects of prop bets can vary immensely, so make sure you do some homework.

Caesars Sportsbook is one of the old-school originals that hails from the days when Las Vegas was among the only places to bet. Caesars has since transitioned nicely into a national brand with an online sportsbook. Part of what it offers is a nice variety of prop bets for NCAA football bettors to enjoy.

Like all sportsbooks, Caesars posts props that can be fun or serious, and you’ll have more than a few to choose from for each game, depending on the popularity of the contest and the teams playing.

Here’s an example of what a Golden Bears prop bet at Caesars Sportsbook CA might look like:

• Will the Golden Bears have a pick-six in the first half?  Yes (+140) or No (+105)

We can see that the bet is offering up positive odds on both options given that it’s nearly impossible to predict whether a first-half pick-six is going to happen or not. That’s the case with nearly every prop bet.

The more exotic the prop bet, the harder it is to forecast. Keep that in mind when determining how much you want to include prop bets in your online betting strategy.

California Golden Bears coaching staff

The California Golden Bears have been in existence since 1886 and have been through quite a few different coaching staffs during that time. Below, we take a look at the current coaching staff as well as the various head coaches who have come and gone from Berkeley.

• Head coach: Justin Wilcox
• Offensive coordinator: Bill Musgrave
• Defensive coordinator: Peter Sirmon
• Defensive backs: Terrence Brown
• Defensive line: Andrew Browning
• Tight ends: Geep Chryst
• Offensive line: Angus McClure
• Outside linebackers: Vic So’oto
• Running backs: Aristotle Thompson
• Wide receivers: Burl Toler III
• Performance coach: Brian Johnson

Here’s a list of the Cal head coaches since the early ‘90s:

• Keith Gilbertson (1992-1995)
• Steve Mariucci (1996)
• Tom Holmoe (1997-2001)
• Jeff Tedford (2002-2012)
• Sonny Dykes (2013-2016)
• Justin Wilcox (2017-current)

Where do the Golden Bears play their home games?

How to watch and listen to California Golden Bears games

If you’d like to catch Golden Bears football while it is taking place, you have a few options.

You can watch:

• CBS Sports
• Fox Sports 1
• Fox Sports 2
• Pac-12 Network
• ESPN

For streaming services, you can find some games at:

• FuboTV
• DirecTV Stream
• AT&T TV
• Hulu Live TV
• YouTube TV
• Sling TV

For listening to the games, you can tune into:

• KGO 810 AM (San Francisco)
• KLAA 830 AM (Anaheim)
• KAHI 950 AM (Auburn)
• KESP 970 AM (Modesto)

You can also stream the games over the internet via:

• Sirius XM
• TuneIn App Cal Bears Sports Network

A brief history of the California Golden Bears football team

For a team that has been around since 1886, it’s no surprise that Cal has a long and storied history. Below, we take a look at some of the highlights from the past decades to give you a brief look at the Golden Bears’ history.

• 2006: Cal wins its first conference title since 1975.
• 2002: The Golden Bears defeat three ranked teams on the road for the first time in school history, including the first win over Washington in 26 years and the first over Stanford in eight.
• 1982: “The Play” leads Cal to a victory over Stanford, using five lateral passes and running through Stanford’s marching band to score with no time left on the clock.
• 1977: Joe Roth, an All-American quarterback and Heisman Trophy candidate, dies of melanoma just weeks after playing in an all-star game in Japan.
• 1960: Marv Levy becomes head coach of the Cal football team with Bill Walsh as his assistant. Both would go on to become Pro Football Hall of Fame members despite not having a single winning season at the University of California.
• 1947: Jackie Jensen, who played in 1947 and 1948, becomes the first Cal player to rush for 1,000 yards and would be named twice to the All-American team.
• 1937: The National Championship squad known as “The Thunder Team” post seven shutouts and score 214 points. ESPN College Football Encyclopedia would later name this team the best in school history.
• 1920: The Golden Bears claim their first of five national titles. They would add more in 1921, 1922, 1923 and 1937.
• 1920: Cal begins a 50-game win streak that lasts until 1925.
• 1918: Walter Gordon becomes the second African-American player in college football in the country and Cal’s first.
• 1916: Cal joins the Pacific Coast Conference.
• 1904: The Golden Bears begin playing their home games at California Field.
• 1900: The sculpture “The Football Players” is installed on Cal’s campus.
• 1898: The Golden Bears beat Stanford for the first time while outsourcing opponents that season, 221-5.
• 1892: Cal and Stanford play for the first time in a game that has since become an annual matchup called “The Big Game.”
• 1886: Oscar S. Howard helps bring American football to the University of California, playing club teams in the Bay Area as well as Hastings Law College.