The national college basketball tournament, known as March Madness, is a boom to sportsbooks and this year is no different. Domestic online sportsbooks will vie for new customers with enticing promotions and signup bonuses while seeing increased volume from their current customers.
Slam Dunk Season
Two major sporting events generate the most gambling activity during the calendar year. The Super Bowl is a one-day betting bonanza while March Madness stretches throughout the month and bleeds into April. This year the First Four tips off on March 19-20, while the championship matchup takes place on Monday, April 8th at State Farm Stadium in Phoenix.
A private company called Optimove, which develops Relationship Marketing software seeking to build long-term relationships with customers versus short-term transactions, has identified three key factors sportsbooks must follow to optimize the influx of interest and gambling activity surrounding March Madness.
- March Madness is a catalyst that increases the overall number of bettors.
- First-time depositors (bettors) are more likely to bet at the beginning of the March Madness tournament than at the end, as 50% bet in the first 35% of the tournament.
- As players bet more days in the tournament, they wager more.
Leveraging Data
The American Gaming Association (AGA) estimates approximately $2.72 billion will be wagered legally on the men’s and women’s March Madness tournaments.
The AGA stated, “To calculate its wagering estimate, the AGA leveraged its proprietary Commercial Gaming Revenue Database. The analysis is based primarily on historical state regulatory data related to college basketball handle and the continued growth of the overall sports betting market.”
“March Madness is one of the best traditions in American sports — and America’s most wagered-on competition,” said AGA President and CEO Bill Miller in last year’s statement. “Critically, the expansion of regulated sports betting over the past five years has brought safeguards to more than half of American adults who can now bet legally in their home market.”
Bigger Than the Super Bowl
There are 67 men’s and 67 women’s games during their respective national tournaments and only one Super Bowl contest. Therefore, it is not surprising that March Madness reigns supreme as the most highly wagered event. Estimates were that $1.5 billion was legally bet on last year’s Super Bowl between the Chiefs and the 49ers.
And while that figure does not include the legion of Super Bowl squares and wagers with local bookies, as well as unregulated online sports betting sites, neither does the $2.72 billion on the March Madness tournaments account for those same unregulated outlets, as well as the staggering number of March Madness pools.
Dr. James Whelan, executive director of the Tennessee Institute for Gambling Education and Research, said, “People are very dedicated to their college allegiances, even if they never went to college there. They’re dedicated to it. And that, emotionally, can color how people engage in betting, as well as engage in putting pressure on others related to betting.”
“When we talk about college students, the history shows that college students are much more likely to experience harms, or problems due to their gambling than do other age groups or most adults,” Dr. Whelan added.
