The American Gaming Association estimates that US players will spend around $8.5 billion betting on the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) basketball tournament, March Madness, in the next three weeks. It is expected that 47 million Americans will place bets.
This is the first time in the tournament’s history that legal sports betting will be allowed outside the borders of Nevada. This is due to the the landmark ruling by the Supreme Court in May last year, where the higher authority said that the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) was deemed unconstitutional.
Since the ruling, several states have adopted legal sports betting, including New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Delaware, Rhode Island, Mississippi and New Mexico. At least 23 other states have bills in their legal pipelines which would allow their residents to enjoy sports betting.
Bill Miller, the president and chief executive officer of the AGA said: “During this year’s tournament – the first in post-PASPA America – sports fans are expected to bet 40% more than they did on this year’s Super Bowl.”
The AGA released a report titled “March Madness Betting by the Numbers”.
Some of the highlights of the report:
- 47 million of American adults will wager $8.5 billion on the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.
- 40 million adults will fill out a bracket.
- Duke is the favorite to win (29%), followed by Gonzaga (9%), North Carolina (8%), Kentucky (7%), Virginia and Michigan (both 5%).
- 2.4 million people are expected to wager illegally with a bookie and millions more online (most likely at illegal offshore sites).
- 4.1 million people will wager at a casino sportsbook or use a legal app.
March Madness is an annual, single-elimination tournament that determines the men’s national champion of the NCAA Division 1. It incorporates 67 games that are spread across three weeks of nail-biting sports entertainment. Gamblers place a variety of bets, including point spreads, moneyline bets, futures and totals.
