Public parlays March Insanity favorites’ success into winning weekend

• David Purdum, ESPN

  • Staff WriterMar 25, 2024, 12:00 PM ET Close Joined ESPN in 2014 Journalist covering betting market since 2008

After an upset-filled preliminary, favorites in the males’s tournament had a big weekend, winning 15 of 16 games outright, going 11-5 versus the spread and replenishing the wagering public’s bankroll ahead of the Sweet 16.

The 15-1 straight-up mark for wagering favorites is the second-best record in the round of 32 considering that the NCAA competition expanded to 64 groups in 1985. (Favorites went 16-0 in 2019.) The run of favorites over the weekend– including an 8-0 mark Saturday– proved expensive for sportsbooks, some of which saw their benefit from the first two days of the tournament erased.

“Saturday was a hell of a day for the clients,” Craig Mucklow, vice president of trading for Caesars Sportsbook, said Sunday afternoon. “What the book won Thursday and Friday, the clients got all back yesterday.”

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Fanatics Sportsbook was a “small loser” after the very first 4 days of the males’s competition, a representative told ESPN. Saturday was “half as bad” as an NFL Sunday when a bunch of favorites win, Mucklow said. John Murray, executive director of the SuperBook in Las Vegas, compared it to a “bad college football Saturday.”

“Saturday was pretty awful,” Murray said. “We were up a good number halfway through the day, but you could see the liabilities building. We needed Texas [vs. Tennessee] or Oakland [vs. NC State] to separate the parlays, however both failed. By the time we got to the last game, we were stuck.

“Everyone parlays all the favorites … they aren’t supposed to all win,” he included. “We carry on.”

March Madness notables: Tar Heels love, Sweet 16 lines and wagering updates

The Michigan State-North Carolina game brought in the most cash bet and produced the biggest loss for Caesars Sportsbook of the first 4 days of the tournament, Mucklow said. The Tar Heels burnt out Michigan State, quickly covering the 3.5-point spread in an 85-69 win. Fanatics Sportsbook also indicated North Carolina’s win over the Spartans as its greatest loss over the first four days.The state

of North Carolina released its legal online betting market earlier this month, and Mucklow said there’s been a great deal of love for the home teams. “The North Carolina wagering public is similar to the New York public; they love their teams and then follow it up with money,” he said.BetMGM also reported heavy wagering interest on the Tar Heels and North Carolina State, which reached the Sugary food 16 as an 11-seed. Because Thursday, the Tar Heels have brought in more bets– and more cash bet– to win the tournament than any other group at BetMGM.Supporting the Tar Heels in the NCAA tournament under coach Hubert Davis has actually been a successful bet to start his profession. North Carolina is 8-0 against the spread under Davis in the tournament.One team from North Carolina that did not receive assistance from the wagering public was Duke. BetMGM and Caesars indicated heaven Devils’win over underdog James Madison as one of the much better outcomes of the weekend for the house.Most wager males’s games at ESPN BET Michigan State vs. North Carolina Oregon vs. Creighton Gonzaga vs. Kansas

Texas A&M vs. Houston James Madison vs. Duke Sweet 16

lines by means of ESPN BET [as of Monday

] Thursday

Clemson vs. Arizona(-6.5(-120),

151.4 )San Diego State vs. UConn(-10.5

(-115 ), 135.5 )Alabama

vs. North Carolina(-3.5(-120), 173.5 )Illinois vs. Iowa State(-2.5,(-105), 146.5)Friday

NC State vs. Marquette(-6.5 (-115 ), 150.5)
Gonzaga vs. Purdue (-5.5 (even ), 154.5(
-115 under)Duke vs. Houston (-3.5 (-120 ), 133.5(
-105 under )Creighton at Tennessee (-2.5, 143.5)

– Favorites went 18-14 versus the spread on Thursday and Friday
, but there were 11 straight-out upsets by underdogs, tied for the
third-most in a single year in the Round of 64. There were 13
outright upsets in the opening round in 1989 and

2001, according to ESPN Statistics and Information.Editor’s Picks

1 Associated The 2 biggest upsets, point-spread smart, were managed by Yale and Oakland, who were each 13.5-point underdogs to Auburn and Kentucky, respectively. It was the first time because the competition expanded in 1985 that 2 teams from the exact same conference (SEC) lost when each favored by at least 13 points.

“We had an amazing atmosphere for the Oakland-Kentucky game,” Murray of the SuperBook stated. “The crowd was actually into that a person. For sure, the most significant roars of the weekend were when the Wildcats went down.”

Odds to win the NCAA males’s basketball tournament

through ESPN BET [as of Monday]

UConn Huskies (+210 )
Houston Cougars (+500 )
Purdue Boilermakers (+600 )
Arizona Wildcats (+900 )
North Carolina Tar Heels (+1100 )
Tennessee Volunteers (+1200 )
Marquette Golden Eagles (+1500 )
Iowa State Cyclones (+2000 )
Duke Blue Devils (+2200 )
Creighton Bluejays (+2500 )
Gonzaga Bulldogs (+2500 )
Alabama Crimson Tide (+3000 )
Illinois Combating Illini (+4000 )
Clemson Tigers (+7500 )
NC State Wolfpack (+7500 )
San Diego State Aztecs (+7500 )

* ESPN staff writer Doug Greenberg added to this column.