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March Madness: Here's how many people are expected to bet on the Big Dance this year

Reggie Wade
·Writer
·3 min read

After a COVID-19 induced hiatus in 2020, millions of fans will be glued to the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament on March 18. Millions won't just be watching, they'll be waging on the Big Dance as well. According to the American Gaming Association (AGA), 47.4 million American adults will wager on the tournament this year, about the same number as in 2019.

While the overall number of Americans betting is flat from 2019, there have been significant shifts in how people plan to bet on the tournament this year. Bracket betting is expected to decline but more traditional sports bets placed online or at a brick-and-mortar sportsbooks are expected to more than double.

According to the AGA:

  • 36.7 million Americans will fill out a bracket, down 8% from 2019.

  • 30.6 million Americans will place more traditional bets on this year’s tournament, up from 17.8 million in 2019.

  • 17.8 million will place a bet online, up 206% from 5.8 million in 2019.

  • 8.3 million will place a bet at a physical sportsbook, up 79% from 2019.

  • Gonzaga University is the betting public’s favorite to win the tournament (17%), followed by Florida State University (11%) and Baylor University (8%).

“Many of these office pools that used to take place in person are not happening right now,” AGA president and CEO Bill Miller told Yahoo Finance. But he told Yahoo Finance that the expansion of legal sports betting has made wagering on games more accessible and more mainstream.

“March Madness, or if you think about the Super Bowl and people buying squares and those sorts of things, I think sports betting is mainstream. I think that the thing that has prevented it from truly becoming mainstream is that regular folks didn't have access to or interest in going to a local bookie who’s illegal,” he said.

Since the 2019 tournament, 65.4 million more Americans have gained the opportunity to bet safely in legal markets in 13 new jurisdictions.

Dustin Gouker, head of content at Legal Sports Report, tells Yahoo Finance that New Jersey paved the way for legalized sports betting. In 2018, the state successfully argued before the Supreme Court that the federal ban on sports betting was unconstitutional. Now the Garden State has the largest sports betting market in the country. Sports betting is now legal in more than 25 states and Washington D.C., with 21 legal markets operational.

“I think there’s just going to be pent-up demand for betting and watching the tournament. Last year it went away at an inopportune time. The pandemic started right before it, and now it is just a little bit back to normalcy for the sports world in general and the betting world,” Gouker said.

LAS VEGAS, NV - MARCH 09: BYU guard Brandon Averette (4) tries to dribble around Gonzaga forward Anton Watson (22) during the championship game of the men's West Coast Conference basketball tournament between the BYU Cougars and the Gonzaga Bulldogs on March 9, 2021, at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, NV. (Photo by Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS, NV - MARCH 09: BYU guard Brandon Averette (4) tries to dribble around Gonzaga forward Anton Watson (22) during the championship game of the men's West Coast Conference basketball tournament between the BYU Cougars and the Gonzaga Bulldogs on March 9, 2021, at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, NV. (Photo by Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

**American Gaming Association Methodology**

This survey was conducted on behalf of the AGA by Morning Consult between March 3- 5, 2021, among a national sample of 2,200 adults. The interviews were conducted online, and the data were weighted to approximate a target sample of adults based on age, educational attainment, gender, race, and region. Results from the full survey have a margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points and higher among subgroups. Bettors include those who expect to place a bet online, with a bookie, with a casino sportsbook, casually with a friend, or participate in a bracket contest.

Reggie Wade is a writer for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter at @ReggieWade.

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