The upcoming March Madness basketball tournament will reportedly feature 136 NCAA teams and 134 games to represent a huge opportunity for bettors and operators to further boost the sports betting handle across 38 states with legalized sports wagering operations. As the Associated Press reports, the sports betting handle and the number of states allowing either retail, online, or both forms of betting have been rapidly growing since 2018, when the US Supreme Court ruled to legalize gambling operations in the country.
Post-PASPA Sports Betting Expansion:
The proliferation of sports betting legalization measures in the US has reportedly started from a single state that allowed gambling operations before the 2018 court decision. You could bet it was Nevada, with the ”entertainment capital of the world” tailoring the gambling environment according to the state preferences. Other states seemingly followed the US Supreme Court decision and the Nevada approach to launch sports betting operations according to the state-specific NCAA sports betting environment.
Since 2018, 38 states have launched some form of sports wagering, with 30 states and Washington D.C. allowing online betting, according to AP. The same source reports that the upcoming March Madness tournament will feature an expanded number of states with legal wagering than the 2023 tournament. North Carolina has recently launched online sports betting operations to facilitate legal bets on the 2024 NCAA games but also to continue the constant wagering expansion across the States.
Since the University of Connecticut won the 2023 men’s March Madness competition, more than 10 states have launched sports betting or expanded their existing wagering operations. As reported by AP, North Carolina was followed by Nebraska, Kentucky, and Florida, where the Seminole Tribe launched online sports betting in December 2023.
NCAA Sports Betting Rules Vary Among the States:
However, the rules for sports betting differ from state to state. As reported by AP, some states do not allow bets on home college teams – such as Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont – or individual player’s performance, or so-called proposition bets -such as Maryland and Ohio. As reported, state authorities consider that such a practice could put extensive pressure on players and affect their mental health. Also, the AP reports that the bets on a player’s performance including a number of points, rebounds, or assists are allowed in some states, while other states ban these wagers to prevent players from aligning their game performance with some specific bet requirements.
2024 March Madness Expected to Handle $2.7 billion in Bets:
As reported by the AP, the 2024 edition of the NCAA March Madness tournament starts on March 19 with the men’s games, while the women’s competition starts on March 20. The fans are counting the hours to hear the referee’s whistle blowing at the start of the first game and the mind of the college basketball fans for the next two weeks. The operators reasonably expect that the revenue levels will be not less mad than the whole rush and haste around the tournament; The American Gaming Association (AGA) estimates $2.7 billion in bets will be placed on the NCAA competition through legal sports books.
David Forman, the American Gaming Association vice president of research, reportedly commented: “March Madness is the biggest kind of individual event of the year for sports betting.” Indeed, AP reports that 134 games of March Madness tournament are likely to draw much more bets than the Super Bowl being the most important – but a single – sporting event of the year.