March Madness might still be synonymous with office pool victories and bracket-busting heartbreaks, but an almost-equal number of professed sports bettors would rather wager on the famed collegiate basketball tourney than fill out a bracket.
Covers surveyed 2,500 basketball fans who wager on sports and asked them to decide between completing a March Madness bracket – one of the most storied traditions for any college basketball fan – or wagering on the event. The results might surprise some:
Just under 54% of respondents chose bracket-mania over wagering – and there's reason to believe the gap will close even further as existing states expand their approved NCAA betting offerings, while not-yet-legal states add sports betting to the mix.
Equally fascinating: Fewer fans are keen on both filling out a bracket and making NCAA hoops wagers over the course of the tournament:
- 49.4% of respondents said they were planning on betting and completing a bracket this year, compared with 59.6% who have done both in the past.
- 31% of those surveyed will only commit to a March Madness bracket, compared with 24.4% who exclusively opted for a bracket in previous years.
- 19.6% of participants will only be betting on the 2024 tournament, up from 15.9% who stuck to wagering over bracketing in years past.
Clearly, interest in doubling down on one's "skin in the game" is waning – but why?
It's possible that more casual participants would simply rather be able to focus on one area of gamification. After all, tracking all of the bracket madness while also trying to make smart NCAA basketball bets can be a larger time commitment than people are willing to make.
It's also possible that many bettors were clobbered by last year's unexpected results and are taking the "once bitten, twice shy" approach to the 2024 tournament. Only one top-two seed reached the Elite Eight in 2023, while the Final Four featured No. 4 UConn, No. 5s San Diego State and Miami (Florida) and No. 9 Florida Atlantic.
Given the kind of betting action the top seeds see come tournament time, you could hardly blame snake-bitten bettors for avoiding the action this year in favor of a good old-fashioned bracket challenge.
Fans want local options? You bet they do
Unfortunately for some U.S. bettors, betting on in-state teams isn't an option – and that can be a real bummer for those who see March Madness betting as a way for them to have a financial investment in their school of choice (on top of the emotional one).
Just over 11.5% of our survey respondents live in states where they can't bet on their hometown teams; we asked if they would wager on them if such action were legal:
While that result might not seem surprising, it's interesting to note the growing maturity of the U.S. betting public on full display in the answer to our next question:
Only 28% of respondents would blindly follow their beloved team into whatever matchup is next, while a whopping 44.3% are making their choices based on the value of the betting lines and totals. This is the clearest indication yet that even less experienced bettors are drawing the line on when to drop money on a favorite team bet.
Women's March Madness: More watchers, fewer bettors?
Between a wildly successful WNBA season and the rabid interest in women's collegiate basketball in 2024, fans should expect record-breaking numbers for this year's women's March Madness tournament. And that's without even considering the buzz surrounding all-time leading college scorer Caitlyn Clark, LSU mega-star Angel Reese and the unbeaten South Carolina Gamecocks, among others.
A whopping 65% of our respondents say they'll watch some of the women's NCAA tournament – but the breakdown of responses is eye-opening:
While it's encouraging that nearly two-thirds of participants will be watching, it's a little surprising that more people who usually watch are skipping the 2024 event than those who don't usually watch but will be checking out this year's March Madness chaos.
It's also notable that, for nearly a quarter of those surveyed, not even the presence of Clark, Reese and others is enough to convince them to watch even a minute of the action.
As for the betting angle, while viewership could reach new heights, that won't necessarily translate to a boon for the sportsbooks:
Is it the paucity of markets when compared with men's tournament offerings? Is it the lack of overall knowledge of women's basketball leading bettors to hesitate? Or is there just not that much interest in wagering on the women's game?
Whatever the case, betting on women's March Madness is likely to remain sparse, though it wouldn't surprise anyone to see overall handle rise given the increased popularity. And with 65.4% of respondents saying they'd be more inclined to watch a women's March Madness game if they had action on it, even a modest bump in handle could mean even bigger viewer numbers overall.
Methodology
We surveyed 2,500 American college basketball fans across all 50 states from March 1-10; demographic data breaks down as follows:
| Age | Percent |
|---|---|
| 28-43 | 51.4% |
| 44-59 | 24.3% |
| 18-27 | 18.7% |
| 60-69 | 4.4% |
| 70+ | 1.2% |
| Gender | Percent |
|---|---|
| Male | 66.1% |
| Female | 33.5% |
| Non-binary | 0.5% |
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