American gambling news
March Madness Betting Volumes Set To Reach Record-Breaking Levels in 2021
New research from the American Gaming Association (AGA) shows some interesting statistics and it’s good news for online sports betting operators.
Estimates predict huge increases in the number of people betting on March Madness, the three-week long, a single-elimination, seven-round college basketball tournament.
Three times as many Americans planned to wager on this year’s March madness via online sportsbooks compared to 2019.
In 2019, the AGA reported that 5.8 million people and over $8.5 billion, combining both legal and illegal bets, was gambled on March Madness in 2019. This figure is expected to rise to 17.8 million people wagering online on this year’s event.
Betting Facts & Figures
- 8.3 million bettors are expected to place a March Madness bet at a physical sportsbook, which is up 79% from 2019
- 45% of American adults are now living in a state with legalized sports betting
- 47.4 million American adults plan to bet on March Madness (that’s more than 20% of the population)
Unquestionably the pandemic is a major factor in this dramatic growth of anticipated bettors, as is the expansion of the legal betting market and the increase in the popularity of sports-betting.
Darren Moore of Vegas-Odds.com said, “There are now over 73 million more Americans within 14 new legal jurisdictions who can now legally place bets on March Madness this year compared to 2019 which has sportsbooks seeing unprecedented levels of activity. ”
March Madness Brackets
With legal online gambling now allowed in 25 states, wagering on the NCAA tournament looks set to be a slam dunk for sports betting operators and may sound the death knell for the friendly office pool.
However, 36.7 million Americans have said that they still plan to fill out a bracket this year – down 8 percent from 2019.
For many people the office pool has become a little boring and actual gamblers realise they need to place traditional wagers if they hope to win a few dollars.
The AGA’s report predicts a big increase of traditional NCAA bets on the game lines and Futures markets is expected this year with 30.6 million Americans expected to make such bets, which is up 17.8 million from two years ago.
March Madness Schedule
March Madness has already begun but things are slightly different this year due to COVID-19. For the first time, the entire tournament is being held in a single state, Indiana.
- March 18-19: First Round
- March 20-21: Second Round
- March 25-26: Sweet 16
- March 27-28: Elite Eight
- April 3: Final Four
- April 5: National Championship
The National Championship final will take place at the Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis.
At the time of writing, the Gonzaga Bulldogs are favorites to take home the NCAA championship trophy with their NCAA Futures odds showing a 17% chance, followed by Florida State University (11%) and Baylor University (8%).
Other March Madness Facts & Figures
- The odds of predicting all 63 March Madness games correctly is 1 in 9.2 quintillion! (That’s 9,200,000,000,000,000,000)
- The longest streak of winning NCAA tournament bracket selections to start the tournament currently stands at an amazing 49, with an Ohio player correctly picking the entire 2019 NCAA tournament into the Sweet 16.
- Betting with friends/colleagues remains popular – March Madness will likely generate $4.6 billion of wagers from 40 million people betting with friends and colleagues through a total 149 million brackets, the AGA said.
- Regulated Vs International Sportsbooks : The remaining $3.9 billion of wagers will come mostly by way of international websites and bookmakers, though 4.1 million people will also place legal bets through licensed U.S based casinos and sportsbook operators.
- 42% of fans said they followed college basketball more closely this season, with 70% of those following more closely attributing their increased attention to the increased availability of sports betting.
Welcome to our weekly roundup of American gambling news again! It was again an eventful week in the USA, despite the still-active virus attack.
Here, we are going through the weekly highlights of the American gambling industry which include the latest news, new partnerships and new acquisitions. Read on and get updated.
Latest News
Caesars Entertainment’s Atlantic City resorts have reached the impressive milestone of distributing one million masks to its employees and customers. During the Harrah’s Resort’s 40th anniversary festivities, Harrah’s longtime customer Angelina Lanza received the one-millionth mask.
The Indiana Gaming Commission is expected to revise its order requiring Caesars Entertainment Inc. to sell the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond by the end of the year. Sara Tait, Executive Director of the Indiana Gaming Commission, said that the commission likely will defer Caesars’ mandatory divestment of the state’s most popular casino for at least one additional year.
The Kansas Lottery has temporarily put a stop to in-person claims due to a rise in Covid-19 cases in the state. Customers who want to claim on a winning ticket will now have to do so by mail. Any prize of over $600 must go through the Lottery’s headquarters. The process requires customers to fill out the back of the lottery ticket, sign it and send it by mail with a printed claims form.
A state agency has launched a one-year study on gambling addiction in Illinois. Results from the report will be used by the Illinois Department of Human Services to help direct future strategies to prevent problem gambling and increase access to treatment and services.
Travis J. Iles, Commissioner of the Texas State Securities Board, has announced a series of enforcement actions against fifteen fraudulent online investment scammers. The enforcement actions highlight a key tactic of fraudulent investment platforms – using the internet and social media to broadly recruit new victims into the schemes.
Partnerships
Golden Matrix Group Inc. has entered into a partnership with Playtech plc. Under terms of their deal, Playtech will have the exclusive rights to distribute GMGI’s newly-developed suite of Esport, peer-to-peer betting games and GMGI’s successful AI player acquisition and retention system throughout Playtech’s extensive global network. Also, Golden Matrix will be granted non-exclusive rights to distribute Playtech’s most popular games through its vast operator network. Playtech gaming software distributed by GMGI will include live dealer games, slots, table games, bingo and poker.
Kindred Group’s Unibet has expanded its comprehensive product offering in Pennsylvania by launching online live dealer tables from Evolution, the leading provider of live casino solutions. Unibet already has a close relation with Evolution in New Jersey and Europe. Unibet will now offer multiple live Blackjack and live Roulette tables in Pennsylvania, with other live games coming later this year.
TransAct Technologies Incorporated has announced that it has been selected by the all-new Circa Resort & Casino in Las Vegas to support the opening of their new gambling floor. Circa has chosen TransAct’s industry-leading Epic 950 and Epic Edge printers for use in all of their 1350 slot machines.
Acquisition
Canadian gaming and esports company GameSquare Esports has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) to acquire 100% of the issued and outstanding shares in Reciprocity Corp, a privately held gaming and esports company. Under the terms of the LOI, GameSquare Esports will issue 43,750,000 common shares of GameSquare to the shareholders of Reciprocity.
Compliance
Nuvei Technologies Inc., a subsidiary of Nuvei Corporation, has received approval to support the sports betting and iGaming industry in West Virginia. With the approval, the Company will be allowed to operate as an iGaming supplier in compliance with the codes outlined in West Virginia’s Interactive Wagering Act and provide services for sports betting operators under West Virginia’s Sports Wagering Act.
Landcadia Holdings II Inc. has secured regulatory approval from the New Jersey Casino Control Commission to acquire Golden Nugget Online Gaming Inc.
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