Sportsbooks eye record haul for March Madness betting

The NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments will attract huge attention in the sports betting industry over the next three weeks. A total of 136 teams will play 134 games over the period well-known as March Madness.

For sportsbooks, the NCAA tournament is collectively much bigger than the Super Bowl. The American Gaming Association estimated that $2.72B could be wagered legally on this year's NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments. The AGA analysis was based on recent trends and monthly sports betting revenue reports released by states. The estimate only includes U.S. sportsbooks. The increase in popularity for parlays and in-game betting is anticipated to boost hold rates for sportsbooks this year on top of the extra volume of raw bets.

Another new development with college basketball in 2024 is the increasing betting handle on women's regular season games. Sportsbooks DraftKings (NASDAQ:DKNG), FanDuel (FLUT), BetMGM (MGM), and Tipico all reported significant year-over-year growth in betting handles for women's NCAA games this season amid high interest in South Carolina's undefeated season, media exposure on Iowa's Caitlyn Clark streak of smashing scoring records, and the growing story of USC freshman JuJu Watkins.

Since last year's tournament, sports betting has grown in various forms to Nebraska, Kentucky, Maine, Florida, Vermont and most recently in North Carolina. Of interest, data from location tracker GeoComply indicated a very strong start in basketball-heavy North Carolina, including 5.3M geolocation checks in the state during the first 48 hours that sports betting was live. North Carolina is the 9th largest state in the U.S. by population and is forecast to have a top six total addressable market of potential sports betting customers.

Sector check: Shares of DraftKings (DKNG) are up 18.5% on a year-to-date basis, while Flutter Entertainment (FLUT) is 3% higher since listing in the U.S. Other companies that could benefit from a sizzling NCAA tournament sports betting handle include Caesars Entertainment (CZR), Penn Entertainment (PENN), MGM Resorts (MGM), Entain (OTCPK:GMVHF), Rush Street Interactive (RSI), and Wynn Resorts (WYNN).