The NCAA Men’s and Women’s basketball tournaments signify one of the three highest and holiest of sports betting holidays. The start of the NFL season brings the resumption of mass interest and the Super Bowl remains the biggest single day of wagering for the gambling industry. But March Madness – now March Madness-es with the mushrooming popularity of women’s basketball – and weeks of games represent one of the most patronized periods by hard-core bettors and dabblers alike.
Also, the culmination of the NFL and college basketball seasons have long stood as the twice-yearly moments when even those who didn’t consider themselves gamblers actually are. Super Bowl Squares and the office pool? That counts.
But now, with sports betting legal and operational in 40 United States jurisdictions, the real thing is as close as a cellular device in much of the country. In others, trips to commercial or tribal casinos are still required, but the reach is undeniable. And the amount wagered is staggering.
The American Gaming Association projects that a record $3.1 billion will be wagered legally on both college tournaments beginning on Tuesday, up from its estimated $2.7 billion last year. Complete national betting totals are currently unattainable because of each jurisdiction’s disparate reporting methods. Also, tribal figures are not required to be reported publicly.
Joe Maloney, the AGA senior vice president of communications, said multiple factors have led to the mushrooming of March Madness betting.
“As we continue to see additional jurisdictions come online, we’ll continue to see that growth,” he explained to Comped.
North Carolina and Maine were the last jurisdictions to launch, coming online in 2024.
“The second thing I’d say is, it’s growth in consumer trust in a legal regulated market,” Maloney continued. “So we’ve continued to patriate bettors out of the illegal market and into the legal market. And so that’s going to be continuing.
“That’ll continue to be an important factor over the next couple of years, particularly as there is a slowed-down pathway and a few additional jurisdictions remaining to come online.”
Maloney said AGA research found that around 75% of sports wagers in the United States were being placed on the black market “soon after legalization” in 2018 and the repeal of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act. That figure had fallen, he said to 50% in 2023 and industry observers generally coalesce on that figure today. A recent Citizens JPM Securities client note, however, set the offshore site/bookie figure at 24% of national sports betting handle, around $163 million in 2024.
“There’s still a lot more work to do and a lot of opportunity,” Maloney said.
A third major component of the expected handle increase, Maloney said, is the continued popularity growth of women’s college basketball. Iowa’s Caitlin Clark and her eponymous “effect” helped spike ratings and handle last season. But a new generation has filled her void since her departure to the WNBA.
“Any number of legal operators last year were all reporting massive increase in interest, in bet count and in handle on the women’s NCAA tournament,” Maloney said. “And they continue to believe that will be the case this year. It truly depends on superstars. But there’s a lot of superstars, still. You’ve got Paige Bueckers at UConn, JuJu Watkins at USC, Kiki Rice at UCLA. You’ve got really good teams in some robust betting states that are poised to make some runs, too.”
Huskies fans are free to partake, as state rules disallowing bets on in-state college teams are waived for tournaments. Sports bettors in California currently have no legal option.
Sports betting launched in North Carolina just in time for the NCAAs last season and has the largest slate of in-state options available – 10 – after the Tar Heels men earned a controversial and surprising bid.
States with legal sports betting and NCAA Tournament teams:
(Betting on in-state/jurisdiction college games is not allowed in the District of Columbia, Illinois, Louisiana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Virginia and Wisconsin. There are no college props bets in Iowa, Maryland, Ohio and Tennessee. Several states ban college bets for in-state teams unless they’re playing in a tournament such as March Madness.)
Arizona: Arizona (M), Grand Canyon (M), Grand Canyon (W)
Arkansas: Arkansas (M), Arkansas State (W)
Colorado: Colorado State (M)
Connecticut: Fairfield (W), UConn (M), UConn (W), Yale (M)
District of Columbia: American (M)
Florida: Florida (M), Florida Gulf Coast (W), Florida State (W), South Florida (W)
Illinois: Illinois (M), Illinois (W), SIU-Edwardsville (M)
Indiana: Ball State (W), Indiana (W), Notre Dame (W), Purdue (M)
Iowa: Drake (M), Iowa (W), Iowa State (M), Iowa State (W)
Kansas: Kansas (M), Kansas State (W)
Kentucky: Kentucky (M), Louisville (M), Louisville (W), Murray State (W)
Louisiana: LSU (W), McNeese State (M), Southern (W)
Maryland: Maryland (M), Maryland (W), Mount Saint Mary’s (M)
Massachusetts: Harvard (W)
Michigan: Michigan (M), Michigan (W), Michigan State (M), Michigan State (W)
Mississippi: Mississippi State (M), Mississippi State (W), Ole Miss (M), Ole Miss (W)
Montana: Montana (M), Montana State (W)
Nebraska: Creighton (M), Creighton (W), Nebraska (W), Omaha (M)
New Mexico: New Mexico (M)
New Jersey: Princeton (W), Fairleigh Dickinson (W)
New York: Columbia (W), Saint John’s (M)
North Carolina: Duke (M), Duke (W), High Point (M), High Point (W), North Carolina (M), North Carolina (W), NC State (W), UNC-Greensboro (W), UNC-Wilmington (M), Wofford (M)
Ohio: Akron (M), Ohio State (W), Xavier (M)
Oregon: Oregon (M), Oregon (W), Oregon State (W)
Pennsylvania: Lehigh (W), Robert Morris (M), Saint Francis (M)
Rhode Island: Bryant (M)
South Dakota: South Dakota State (W)
Tennessee: Lipscomb (M), Memphis (M), Tennessee (M), Tennessee (W), Tennessee Tech (W), Vanderbilt (M), Vanderbilt (W)
Vermont: Vermont (W)
Virginia: George Mason (W), Liberty (M), Norfolk State (M), Norfolk State (W), Richmond (W), Virginia Commonwealth (M), William & Mary (W)
Washington: Washington (W)
West Virginia: West Virginia (W)
Wisconsin: Green Bay (W), Marquette (M), Wisconsin (M)
