Americans will bet $15.5 billion on the NCAA Tournament this year, according to an American Gaming Association survey released this week.
Sixty-eight million American adults, or about a quarter of the population, plan to wager on March Madness, the survey found.
Among that total, 31 million American adults said they will place a traditional wager on a game, while 56.3 million will participate in the all-popular bracket contest.
It helps that Ohio, Massachusetts, Kansas and Maryland have introduced legalized sports betting in some form or another since last March.
“March Madness is one of the best traditions in American sports–and America’s most wagered-on competition,” AGA president and CEO Bill Miller said in a news release. “Critically, the expansion of regulated sports betting over the past five years has brought safeguards to more than half of American adults who can now bet legally in their home market.”
The survey found that 18 million more Americans plan to wager on the NCAA Tournament than they did on the Super Bowl last month, though the population is expected to bet $500 million less in total than was bet on the Super Bowl.
–Field Level Media