The Division I Men's Basketball Tournament generates the most revenue for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the first weekend of March Madness is the most heavily wagered sporting event in the United States.
The American Gaming Association released their projections for wagers on the tournament last week and found "more brackets will be completed than ballots that were cast for Obama or Romney in 2012." Here is the AGA's breakdown of bracket submissions for the 2015 NCAA Tournament:
-Over 70 million brackets are expected to be submitted
-Nearly 40 million Americans will fill out a bracket
-The average person will submit nearly two brackets
-The average bet per bracket will be $29, which will total around $2 billion in such bets
But aside from the brackets, which have become commonplace for so many throughout the United States, there will also be an additional $7 billion wagered on the tournament, both in legal and illegal sports bets, totaling $9 billion for the event. The AGA projects $240 million of that amount will be wagered in Nevada sports books with the rest coming illegally or in the other states (Delaware, Oregon and Montana) where sports betting is legal.
"Sports betting has played a major role in making March Madness the big-time event it is today," said Geoff Freeman, president and CEO of the AGA. "With more people filling out brackets than casting a ballot for President Obama - who makes his NCAA predictions in the Oval Office each year - it's clear that Americans embrace gaming."
The AGA gathered all of this information from a poll conducted by GfK Custom Research North America, which consisted of a 1,000-person sample of an equal number of male and female adults. Each participant was interviewed and had their responses weighted to provide a reliable representation of the total population.
Back in January the AGA projected $3.9 billion would be wagered on the Super Bowl between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots, which is the most watched sporting event in the United States. Their $9 billion estimation will blow the Super Bowl out of the water, but it must be noted that there are 67 games played throughout the NCAA Tournament.
Nonetheless, Nevada sports books have averaged $294.6 million for college basketball bets in March over the past five years, and with sports betting becoming more and more popular, that number will likely continue to increase.
