College Basketball’s March Madness Betting By The Numbers

UConn won the 2024 tournament

• The University of Connecticut men’s team has won the NCAA Championship two years in a row, beating Purdue in the final.
• UConn became the first repeat champion since the 2006-07 Florida Gators.
• The Huskies won every tournament game by double digits, setting an NCAA Tournament record for average margin of victory (23.3 points).
• UConn covered the spread and hit the Under in every tournament game.
• The Huskies trailed for only six minutes and 22 seconds in the entire tournament.
• UConn now has six national championships, tied with North Carolina for third-most all-time.

U.S. Bettors spent $2.72 billion on this year’s tournament (men’s & women’s)

• That’s 55% more money than was wagered on the 2024 Super Bowl ($1.5 billion).
• This was a big decrease from 2023 ($15.5 billion) but closer to 2022 ($3.1 billion).
• Represents 2.2% of all money legally wagered in the U.S. in 2023.

The Women’s tournament received 190% more bets year-over-year at Caesars

• The National Championship Game was the most-bet women’s sporting event in BetMGM history and received 205% more bets than the 2023 title game.
• Caitlin Clark’s prop bets were the most wagered-on betting markets in the women’s tournament.
• Iowa’s final three games (Elite Eight, Final Four and National Championship) all broke betting records for women’s sporting events.
• Betting on regular-season women’s games was up 250% over the previous year.

18.9 million people tuned in to watch the University of South Carolina women’s team beat Iowa in the final

• Viewership peaked at 24.1 million viewers during the final five minutes of the game.
• 14.8 million people watched the men’s final – the first time the women’s final outdrew the men’s final.
• The women’s championship was the most-watched game in women’s college basketball history and the most-watched basketball game at any level since 2019.
• Viewership for the women’s title game was up 90% from 2023 and 288% from 2022.

The 2024 men’s tournament averaged 9.9 million viewers per game

• This was a 3% rise from last year’s viewership.
• Viewership of the men’s final was up 4% from 2023.
• The women’s tournament averaged 2.2 million viewers, up 121% from 2023.

Barstool’s Dave Portnoy won $2.7 million on a March Madness bet

• Portnoy placed a $600,000 futures wager on UConn winning the 2024 tournament and cashed out with $2.76 million from DraftKings Sportsbook, calling it the greatest bet of his life.
• Portnoy’s wager had +360 odds.
• No. 1 seed UConn was favored to win after winning the 2023 tournament and finishing No. 1 in the AP Poll. 

There are 67 games during March Madness

With 67 games, March Madness has betting opportunities in legal sports betting states.

Whether you’re betting on spreads, moneylines, totals or prop bets (if you’re in a state where college props are legal), there’s no shortage of March Madness wagers.

And in 2023, bettors took advantage.

According to the American Gaming Association, a record 68 million Americans wagered on March Madness in 2023.

• 31 million bettors placed traditional bets online, at a sportsbook or with a bookie.
• 21.5 million bet casually with friends.
• 56.3 million participated in a bracket contest.
• 75% of bettors said 2023 was their first time betting on March Madness.

25% of American adults bet on the NCAA Tournament

• This is largely due to the expansion of legalized sports betting. As of March 2024, sports betting was legal in 38 states and Washington, D.C.

In 2022, the AGA estimated that 45 million people would bet $3.1 billion, with a dramatic increase to 68 million Americans and $15.5 billion on March Madness in 2023.

Those numbers will likely be surpassed in 2024, as five more states have legalized sports betting since the 2023 NCAA Tournament.

Regarding an annual sporting event, the only real rival to March Madness is the Super Bowl.

The AGA estimated that 50.4 million Americans bet $16 billion on the Super Bowl in 2023, increasing to 67.8 million and $23.1 billion in 2024.

The first March Madness brackets were filled out in 1977.

• In 1977, 88 people completed brackets at Jody’s Club Forest bar in Long Island, NY.
• The winner won $880 in what many believe was the first March Madness bracket pool.

In the decades since, filling out a March Madness bracket has become an American sports staple, with the likes of former president Barack Obama participating.

You have lower odds of a perfect bracket than becoming president

• The odds of building a perfect bracket are one in 9.2 quintillion, longer odds than becoming president (1 in 10 million, according to The Daily Beast), dying from being left-handed (1 in 4.4 million) or being struck by lightning (1 in a million).

An estimated 56.3 million Americans filled out brackets last year, per data from Statista.

The average bracket entry fee is $29 and most participants submit two.

No one has ever had a perfect bracket.

Ohio neuropsychologist Gregg Nigl correctly predicted the first 49 games of the 2019 NCAA Tournament before his bracket was busted in the Sweet Sixteen when Purdue beat Tennessee.

Nigl’s streak is the closest anyone’s come to a perfect bracket (that’s been recorded).

In 1939, Oregon beat Ohio State in Evanston, Illinois, to win the first-ever men’s NCAA Tournament.

• The tournament has grown from an eight-team bracket to a 68-team tournament that’s become one of the biggest spectacles in American sports.

In 1951, the NCAA expanded the field to 16 teams. The tournament gradually grew until 1985, when the field was settled at 64 teams.

In 2001, the field was enlarged to 65 teams, which added a game prior to the first round.

The last expansion came when the NCAA added three more teams in 2011, creating the “First Four” round.

To get to the roots of the term March Madness, we have to go back in time. Way back.

The term originated in 1939.

In 1908, Illinois started a high school boys’ basketball tournament with the state’s best teams.

In 1939, Henry V. Porter, the assistant executive secretary of the Illinois High School Association, wrote about the tournament in The Illinois Interscholastic, where he dubbed it “March Madness.” That helped the term get more usage from the state’s sports writers.

The Men’s NCAA Tournament adopted the name in 1982.

In 1982, Brent Musberger, a former Chicago sports writer calling NCAA Tournament games for CBS, used the term “March Madness” in a broadcast, popularizing it nationally.

The term has become synonymous with the NCAA Tournament since, even if it took a contentious legal battle to get there.

37 teams have won the NCAA Tournament.

While there are over 350 schools in men’s Division I basketball, there have only been 37 teams that have won the NCAA Tournament.

UCLA has the most championships.

Of those 37, 15 have won multiple tournaments, with UCLA leading the way with 11.

Ten of those titles came from 1964 to 1975 under legendary coach John Wooden.

No. 1 seeds win the most.

Regarding seeding, No. 1 seeds have had the most success, winning 24 of 38 championships since 1985 (the modern bracket era), including 12 of the last 16.

However, all four No. 1 seeds were out of the 2023 NCAA Tournament before the Elite Eight.

The biggest upset in March Madness history has happened twice.

In 2018, UMBC defeated Virginia in the Round of 64—the first time a No. 16 seed beat a No. 1 seed in the men’s NCAA Tournament.

History repeated in 2023 when No. 16 seed Fairleigh Dickinson beat No. 1 seed Purdue.

The lowest-seeded team to win was No. 8 Villanova in 1985.

While 17 teams that were a No. 7 seed or lower have made it to the Final Four, the Wildcats and 2014 UConn (a No. 7 seed) are also among the lowest-seeded teams to win a title.

Five No. 11 seeds have advanced to the Final Four, but none have reached the championship round.

No. 9 seed Florida Atlantic made the Final Four in 2023 but lost to San Diego State.

Of the 68 teams participating in March Madness, 32 earn automatic bids by winning their conference.

The other teams earn “at-large” bids, awarded by the Division I Men’s Basketball Committee.

Winning a conference doesn’t automatically correlate with a high seed.

While the winner of the Big Ten or SEC might earn a No. 1 seed, the winner of a smaller conference like the MAC or Big South will usually be a double-digit seed.

The four lowest-seeded automatic qualifiers play each other in the First Four, as do the four lowest-seeded “at-large” teams. The four winners advance to the Round of 64.

Some First Four teams have gone on to succeed in the NCAA Tournament, with the most recent example being Fairleigh Dickinson in 2023. After defeating Texas Southern in the First Four, the Knights beat No. 1 seed Purdue in a historic upset.

With 68 teams playing in 67 games across the country in the span of a few weeks, the NCAA Tournament is a complex logistical undertaking.

Look at the schedule for the 2024 NCAA Tournament:

• First Four: March 19-20, Dayton, Ohio
• First/Second Round: March 22-24, Brooklyn, New York
• First/Second Round: March 21-23, Charlotte, North Carolina
• First/Second Round: March 22-24, Indianapolis, Indiana
• First/Second Round: March 21-23, Omaha, Nebraska
• First/Second Round: March 21-23, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
• First/Second Round: March 22-24, Spokane, Washington
• First/Second Round: March 22-24, Salt Lake City, Utah
• First/Second Round: March 22-24, Memphis, Tennessee
• East Regional: March 28-30, Boston, Massachusetts
• South Regional: March 29-31, Dallas, Texas
• Midwest Regional: March 29-31, Detroit, Michigan
• West Regional: March 28-30, Los Angeles, California
• Final Four/Championship: April 6 and 8, Phoenix, Arizona

That’s 14 locations that will host multiple games, all of which will be near-sellouts.

The NCAA made $1.14 billion in revenue from the 2022 NCAA Tournament, which represented almost 90% of their total revenue.

There’s also plenty of money in the tournament’s television rights.

The NCAA earned $873 million in broadcasting and licensing in 2023.

In 2010, the NCAA signed a 14-year, $10.8 billion deal with CBS Sports and Turner Broadcasting to have the tournament broadcasting rights.

In 2016, they agreed to an eight-year extension worth $8.8 billion.

Per the agreement:

• First Four games are broadcast on truTV.
• The first and second rounds are split between CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV.
• The Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight games are on CBS and TNT.
• The Final Four and National Championship switch between TBS and CBS.

The 2023 NCAA Tournament Finals had 14.7 million viewers.

In 2023, the NCAA Tournament Championship Game between UConn and San Diego State had 14.7 million domestic viewers, a relatively low audience for the tournament final.

The 2023 Final Four averaged 12.34 million viewers, down 17% from 2022.

While viewership was down 7% for the entire tournament, it was up 20% on March Madness Live (the NCAA’s streaming app) from 2022. Consumers are moving away from linear television.

Last year’s viewership decrease could have been due to the lack of star power.

While UConn and San Diego State were quality teams, they didn’t hold the prestige as traditional blue bloods like Duke, North Carolina and Kentucky.

Additionally, big-name teams like Purdue, Virginia and Arizona all lost in the first round.

Cinderella teams may make great stories, but they don’t translate to big ratings.

In 2020, the NCAA Tournament was canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the first time the event had been canceled since inception.

The tournament, which would have started on March 17 and featured a National Championship Game in Atlanta, was canceled on March 12.

On March 10, the Ivy League became the first conference to announce the cancellation of its conference tournament due to Covid-19, costing Yale its automatic bid to the tournament.

The NCAA initially said it would go on with its winter sports championships (with limited attendance), but it decided to postpone and ultimately cancel the tournament.

NCAA athletes on rosters during that year were given an extra year of eligibility, which came to be known as the “Covid year.”

The tournament resumed in March 2021 with attendance restrictions.