Shall We Dance?
NCAA Men's Basketball Tourney Starts Right Fricken' Now
Welcome to the least-productive Thursday and Friday of your year.
Look at you, sitting there at Buffalo Wild Wings, wondering why you’re sitting there at Buffalo Wild Wings. (Big TVs. Lots of big TVs, that’s right.)
And why you ordered a salad.
And how your bracket/well-researched future bet is already trash.
Stay strong. You are part of a movement. According to the American Gaming Association trade group, $2.72 billion will be wagered legally on the NCAA men’s and women’s college basketball tournaments this year.
(Avengers: Endgame grossed $2.79 billion)
Sports betting is legal and underway in 40 United States jurisdictions. While that very specific AGA estimate can and will never be proved, we know that we will bet a lot on what’s cemented itself as the busiest event for American bettors and sportsbooks.
And the most exhilarating.
“In the first couple of days, there's a lot of people out there looking at underdogs. That's when they usually pop, in that first Thursday and Friday,” DraftKings director of race and sportsbook Johnny Avello said. “I think the Thursday and Friday, personally, are probably two of the most exciting days of the tournament because of that factor, those type of upsets.
“As we go in deeper to the tournament, it'll be a lot of chalk bets. The money certainly gets bigger as the tournament goes on. Less teams, more money bet on each individual game. That's the way the tournament has kind of panned out.”
NCAA Odds, Intel
AP Photos: Brant James illustration
Kentucky, Florida, North Carolina Bettors …
Shall we dance?
The Playbook hears that college basketball is quite popular and steeped in tradition in Kentucky and North Carolina. Some good teams have emanated from those enclaves, apparently.
And the sport is of higher quality in Florida than the peninsula dwellers deserve because any Gator would trade both Billy Donovan basketball national titles for another football trophy.
Seminoles? Hurricanes? Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V (If they’d experienced one of those shining moments). And no, this doesn’t count)
The FAUs - Final Four last year! - and Stetsons are just hoopin’ their best lives.
With that as a prelude, sports bettors in North Carolina, Kentucky, and Florida have their first chance to make legal sports bets on the NCAA Tourney.
Spectrum Center in Charlotte figures to be a very large mobile sportsbook lounge this week with the top-seeded Tar Heels in residence. Send selfies.
Unsurprisingly, North Carolina and Kentucky bettors have displayed a homerish streak with their national champion future bets, at least at bet365. It’s reasonable to extrapolate that this is happening at all sportsbooks there.
According to our friends - and subscribers! - at bet365:
Top-seeded defending national champion UConn has pulled 27.4% of the national title futures bets in all of their markets combined.
UNC, top-seeded in the West, is at 13.8% nationally.
Kentucky, third-seeded in the South, is at 7.8% nationally.
And here’s bet365’s state breakdown for championship futures:
North Carolina-specific Odds
More Blue Devils Odds
Brant James illustration
Call 1-800-GAMBLER if you have a gambling problem. 21+: All content herein is intended for audiences 21+.
Wrigley Field
Harry Caray almost certainly would have hung out in the new DraftKings sportsbook at Wrigley Field.
It’s not exactly overlooking the ivy, but it’s in the …. general vicinity.
Sportsbooks inside or connected to venues remain rare, as in Capital One Arena and Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., Commanders Field in Landover, Md., and Footprint Center in Phoenix.
The Reds/BetMGM are moving theirs out of Great American Ball Park because of a lack of business.
Stats That Win SP Props
The baseball season is poised to begin, which means fans of that sport are planning their betting strategy for 2024. MLB player props are among the most famous baseball bets, with sportsbooks offering odds on many statistical categories.
This baseball betting guide identifies the best stats for making your starting pitcher prop bets for the 2024 MLB season. We also recognize the most valuable tools for finding information to help your baseball betting.
It’s Almost Time
On Tuesday, the Playbook did a little work-study at an Orioles-Blue Jays spring training game in Dunedin, Florida. It’s our (my) favourite Grapefruit League venue by a kilometer, especially with upgrades in the outfield that make for panoramic deck views into TD Ballpark.
It was quaint seeing an ad for theScore Bet on the outfield wall, and kind of humorous that it was joined by Tim Horton’s.
Ontario is gonna Ontario, even in Florida.
Oh, and I caught a foul ball and got a standing ovation when I gave it to a kid (as quickly as I could). Swear.
EDITOR’S NOTE: MLB Opening Day officially arrives on March 28 after the Dodgers and Padres got an early start in South Korea this week.
NBA League Pass Adding Betting Info
In-game prop bets should become easier to place for subscribers of the NBA subscription stream service.
According to a release by Sportradar, the exclusive global distributor of NBA data, gamblers in states where sports betting is legal can opt to have sports betting content “such as point spreads, over-unders, and money lines … seamlessly integrated into the NBA’s live streaming platform, elevating the in-play betting experience.”
Betting from League Pass isn’t yet available. However, links allow viewers to access DraftKings or FanDuel sportsbook apps.
Image: Sportradar
Odds …
and enders …
The NCAA has launched a sports betting awareness campaign ahead of the NCAA tournaments, but it’s kind of hard to tell who the ads are targeting or if it’s a CYA
Maine stopped betting on stuff last month
Fanatics Sportsbook will soon launch in Arizona …
… so this is the perfect time to read the Gaming Today Encyclopedia Bet-anica
By BRANT JAMES, Gaming Today Senior Writer