Each year, college basketball enthusiasts eagerly anticipate the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, commonly known as March Madness. Beyond the excitement of the games, the tournament has become a focal point for a variety of betting activities, ranging from office bracket pools to individual game wagers.
Estimating the total amount wagered during March Madness is challenging due to the diverse forms of betting and the mix of legal and illegal activities. For the 2026 men’s and women’s tournaments, the American Gaming Association (AGA) projected $3.3 billion in legal wagers at U.S. sportsbooks, up from $3.1 billion in 2025 and $2.72 billion in 2024. Those projections leave out illegal bets, office pools, and casual wagers among friends. The AGA’s last estimate that counted all of those, from its 2023 survey, put the total bet on March Madness at around $15.5 billion.
With the expansion of legalized sports betting across the United States, the amount wagered legally on March Madness has seen significant growth. The AGA’s projection of legal wagers on the tournaments rose from $2.72 billion in 2024 to $3.3 billion in 2026. Las Vegas is a small part of that now: by the Nevada Gaming Control Board’s figures, Nevada sportsbooks took about $563 million on all basketball in March 2026, college and NBA together, and kept $36.8 million of it.
Bracket pools remain a popular way for fans to engage with March Madness. Participants fill out brackets predicting the outcomes of each game, often competing in office pools or online contests. While precise figures are hard to determine, it’s estimated that billions of dollars are wagered through these informal channels each year. For instance, the AGA’s 2023 survey put the total bet on March Madness, bracket pools and other informal bets included, at around $15.5 billion, with 56.3 million Americans in bracket contests.
I was recently introduced to NCAA Tournament player pools, and I have to admit, it’s probably my favorite form of gambling when it comes to the big dance.
Player pools are where you pick players from different teams and earn points based on how many points they score throughout the tournament. Set up a snake draft just like you would for fantasy football or other fantasy sports, and pick players, it’s that simple.
The key to winning these player pools is to pick players who will be playing a lot of games in the NCAA Tournament. So, it’s not surprising to see players from No. 1 seed teams go early and often in the draft.
These player pools likely will be paying out the top three places or more depending on the amount of entrants. You can also do a payout to the highest individual scorer of the tournament. That keeps a lot of people alive for a prize at the end if they picked one really good player, but the rest of their team is garbage.
Beyond pools, many bettors focus on individual games, placing wagers on point spreads, money lines, or totals (over/under). With the rise of legal sports betting, the accessibility and variety of these wagering options have expanded. For example, the AGA projected $3.3 billion in legal sportsbook wagers on the 2026 men’s and women’s tournaments, about 21% more than its $2.72 billion projection for 2024.
Futures bets involve wagering on a team to win the NCAA tournament before or during the event, often at attractive odds. For instance, in 2024, the University of Connecticut (UConn) entered the tournament with odds of +360 (or 3.6-to-1). A notable example includes a bettor who placed a $600,000 wager on UConn, resulting in a $2.76 million payout when they clinched the championship.