Everyone and their mother is betting sports now a days and March Madness, the second most bet on event(s) in the United States, is just days away. Bookies are ready for a sports betting frenzy; 67 games over the course of three weeks, each with a different context but same weight- you either dance on, or go home.
All season Auburn and Duke have been the runaway betting favorites; right now you could catch both of them around +350 per ESPN BET.
March Madness Betting Favorites
The proceeding favorites are as follows…
Houston: +800
Florida: +850
Alabama: +1200
Tennessee: +1400
Iowa State: +2000
Michigan State, St. John’s: +2500
Texas Tech: +3300
Arizona, Kentucky, Wisconsin: +4000
Maryland, Missouri: +5000
Gonzaga, Purdue, Texas A&M: +6000
Clemson, Connecticut: +6600
Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, UCLA: +7500
Louisville: +8000
BYU, Creighton, Marquette, Miss. State, Ole Miss, Saint Mary’s: +10000
Arkansas, Baylor, Memphis, New Mexico, Oregon: +15000
Ohio State: +20000
Vanderbilt: +25000
San Diego State, Texas, Utah State, VCU: +30000
Akron: +40000
Cincinnati, Colorado, Drake, Georgia, Indiana, James Madison, Kansas State, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pittsburg, Stanford, Xavier: +50000
Boise State, California, Colorado State, Dayton, Duquesne, Florida Atlantic, Florida State, Georgetown, Grand Canyon, Long Beach State, McNeese State, N.C. State, Oregon State, SMU, South Florida, UC Irvine, Villanova, Wake Forest: +100000
If bet source is not mentioned, it’s from ESPN BET.
Under-Valued Bets
Both Alabama and Tennessee are just below the one seed shelf for the March Madness tournament but still have a legitimate shot at winning a championing. You can get Bama as high as +1400 and the Vols at +1500 according to Sportsbook Review.
Betting on an university to make it all the way to the Final Four is also a popular way to go about things.
Kentucky(+900), Texas Tech(+600) and St. John’s(+450) are all teams that have experience deep in the March Madness tournament. Rick Pitino, head coach of the St. John’s has won a national championship with two different schools and taken three different ones to the Final Four. Don’t count out the Red Storm of Queens, NYC to make an appearance in April.
But before we get to the dance itself, conference tournaments occur, a whole other slate of bettable games. For some conferences, winning this tournament is the only way to grab a ticket into the March Madness tournament so it’s almost like a preliminary March Madness series.
Conferences like Horizon or the Big Sky tend to rank near the bottom of conference power rankings so winning the tournament means everything. For Horizon, Cleveland State is a +310 to win the conference championship but they’ve proven to get hot at the right times all season.
Montana of the Big Sky is a +270 favorite to win their tournament but are tied for first right now and have won 11 out of their past 12.
In a more esteemed conference, the Sant Mary Gaels have won the West Coast Conference regular season by three games but aren’t the favorite to win the conference tournament, Gonzaga is at -125 per DraftKings. Sant Mary’s is sitting at +130 which is enormous value given that the Gaels have beaten Gonzaga twice this season.
Awards
DraftKings also has a live bet on Men’s Wooden Award Winner 2024-25, with Cooper Flagg from Duke and Johni Broome from Auburn as the only two selections available.
Flagg is the betting favorite at -180 and Broome the underdog at +140.
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