March Madness betting trends
According to the American Gaming Association (AGA), Americans gamble over $10 billion on March Madness games each year. Up until this season, approximately $9.7 billion of the money was bet illegally.
Considering that New Jersey and six other states have joined Nevada in launching legal sports gambling ahead of the 2019 NCAA Tournament, that amount is about to change significantly.
Although, the AGA also estimates 10% of Americans age 21 and older, near 24 million individuals, bet nearly $3 billion on March Madness mounts through office pools and the like.
Office pool brackets are contrary to the law in most states. This type of NCAA March Madness betting is ingrained in American culture the numbers aren’t likely to change.
Taking it further, Forbes Magazine estimates the percent of individuals that will place at least one bet throughout the globe on the NCAA Championship could be more than 100 million.
The road to March Madness
Before the road to March Madness truly starts college basketball teams play with a season of up to 29 games.
The NCAA selects A total of 68 teams to play or play with their way to the NCAA tournament.
The first 32 are automatic bids awarded to the teams that win their respective conference championships, held after the regular season.
Incidentally, you can bet on regular season and conference tournament games in NJ sportsbooks too, given the games don’t take place in NJ or involve NJ-based schools.
The 36 teams have been bids.
The at-large bids are usually awarded to top-ranked teams and others that had an outstanding regular season but failed to win a conference championship.
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