AGA: Americans expected to wager $2.72B on NCAA Tournaments

Americans are anticipated to legally wager $2.72 billion on the men's and women's NCAA Tournaments this year, according to a report by the American Gaming Association released on Thursday.

That would represent a 55 percent increase from the $1.4 million the AGA estimates was wagered on last month's Super Bowl, and 2.2 percent of all money legally wagered in the United States in 2023.

When the tournaments begin next week, 30 of the 50 states will offer online wagering with another nine states offering in-person betting. That is an increase of five states from last year, with North Carolina launching legalized sports betting on Monday, joining Kentucky, Florida, Vermont and Maine in the past 12 months.

The men's and women's tournaments will feature a combined 134 games. Selection Sunday is March 17 for both, with the men's tournament beginning with the First Four on March 19 and the women's tournament kicking off with its first round the following day.

The women's championship game is scheduled for Sunday, April 7 in Cleveland, with the men's championship on Monday, April 8 in Glendale, Ariz.

The AGA, a Washington D.C.-based lobbying group that also represents the casino industry, estimated that a total of $15 billion was wagered on last year's tournaments across all forms of sports betting, including bracket competitions. This year's estimate followed online surveys conducted by the group in previous years.

"March Madness is the biggest and most mainstream betting event of the year, especially with the brackets," AGA head of research Dave Forman told ESPN. "But with legal sports betting having been around now for five years and available in almost 40 states, we wanted to turn our focus to the legal market."