American adults expected to wager $2.7bn legally on March Madness
Industry trade body’s projection represents just over 2% of the handle regulated sportsbooks managed throughout 2023
The American Gaming Association (AGA) has forecast that Americans will legally bet $2.72bn for the 2024 men’s and women’s March Madness tournament.
Should this figure come to fruition, it would be the equivalent of 2.2% of the total handle wagered by adults in the US in 2023, the trade body said.
In a series of tweets on X, formally Twitter, the AGA explained that to calculate its wagering estimate, it “leveraged its proprietary Commercial Gaming Revenue Database.”
The association added: “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.”
In quotes given to ESPN, AGA’s head of research Dave Forman said the AGA wanted to focus on bets placed on the legal market.
He said: “March Madness is the biggest and most mainstream betting event of the year, especially with the brackets.
“But with legal sports betting having been around now for five years and available in almost 40 states, we wanted to turn our focus to the legal market.”
Since last year’s men’s tournament, won by University of Connecticut, several states have launched or introduced sports betting including North Carolina, Kentucky, and Maine.
Following Selection Sunday, operators DraftKings and FanDuel both have the UConn Huskies as favorites at +400 to repeat their 2023 success; Houston Cougars are second favorites at +500 and +600, respectively; and Purdue Boilers are in third at +600 with DraftKings and +700 with FanDuel.
Duke Blue Devils are the outsiders +3,500 with DraftKings and +4,000 with the FanDuel.
For the women’s tournament, South Carolina Gamecocks are favorites with FanDuel at -115, with LSU Tigers and Iowa Hawkeyes both being offered at +600.
The AGA has reminded bettors to “have a game plan” and wager responsibly when playing on this year’s March Madness – with the tournament coincidentally taking place during problem gambling awareness month.
AGA data from 2023 predicted $15.5bn would be wagered on the college tournament, however this included legal and illegal books, bets among friends, and bracket contests.