The NCAA Division 1 Men’s Basketball Tournament, which just got underway, is the pinnacle of college sports, an annual all-American rah-rah celebration of athletic competition. The Big Dance. The Final Four. March Madness!
It is also, increasingly, a chance for a lot of people to bet a lot of money.
From the casual fun of picking brackets for an office pool, the tournament has evolved to become “America’s most wagered-on competition,” according to the American Gaming Association, an industry group, surpassing even the Super Bowl in numbers of bets placed. This year the AGA expects the college hoops contest will attract $15.5 billion in bets from 68 million Americans, a huge increase from last year when the group estimated 45 million people would bet $3.1 billion. The driving force behind that stunning five-fold jump, the AGA says: the growing popularity of legal online sports betting.
Read more at Newsweek.com
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