Price quote: Over $2.7 B in bets on NCAA tourneys

• David Purdum, ESPN Personnel WriterMar 14, 2024, 12:17 PM ET

  Close

  • Signed up with ESPN in 2014
  • Journalist covering betting market because 2008

An estimated $2.72 billion might be bet on the NCAA males’s and women’s basketball competitions with American sportsbooks, according to an analysis launched Thursday by the American Gaming Association.The $2.72 billion

price quote is nearly two times as much as is thought to have been bet on this year’s Super Bowl($1.4 billion), according to Dave Forman, head of research study for the American Video Gaming Association (AGA ), the Washington, D.C.-based lobbying group that represents the casino industry.Forman stated the AGA’s analysis was based upon the regular monthly sports wagering revenue reports launched by states, and only bets placed on the NCAA tournaments– not conference tournaments– with U.S. sportsbooks were consisted of in the estimate.Editor’s Picks 2 Associated The AGA carried out online surveys in previous years to produce estimates on how much was bet on the competition, consisting of bracket pools. In 2015’s

survey suggested that$15.5 billion could be on the NCAA competition, an estimate that consisted of bracket pools and wagers with unlicensed sportsbooks and bookmakers. “March Madness is the biggest and most traditional betting occasion of the year, particularly with the brackets,”Forman informed ESPN. “But with legal sports betting having actually been around now for five years and offered in practically 40 states, we wished to turn our focus to the legal market.”Forman said no state breaks out the amount wagered on the males’s and females’s games independently, however sportsbooks DraftKings, FanDuel and Tipico each reported considerable year-over-year growth in their betting handles for the ladies’s regular season.Las Vegas gambling establishment owner Derek Stevens stated the wagering action on simply the very first week of the males’s NCAA tournament”blows away the Super Bowl.”Stevens said his sportsbook at Circa in Downtown Las Vegas is sold out for the opening days of the guys’s competition. “It’s definitively the biggest week of the year, and Super Bowl is definitively the second greatest, “Stevens said.A report from research firm Eilers and Krejcik Video gaming launched this week estimates that 35-40 %of the amount bet on the men’s NCAA competition will originate from in-game wagers, and 5%of the deal with will be generated from same-game parlays. Eilers and Krejcik likewise estimated

current restrictions on prop bets including NCAA players in Ohio and Maryland could cut sportsbook earnings by 5-10 %in those states.Defending champ UConn is the betting favorite to win the men’s competition with +450 odds at ESPN BET, and South Carolina(-130 )is the wagering preferred to win the women’s tournament.ESPN’s Doug Greenberg added to this report.