How To Bet On March Madness 2020

Best March Madness Betting Apps

1. DraftKings Sportsbook app — $25 in free bets, $1,000 in bonuses

Daily fantasy sports behemoth DraftKings announced a partnership with Resorts Casino to offer sports betting back in New Jersey in 2018. It’s been one of the top two books in NJ since its launch. DraftKings subsequently expanded to:

• West Virginia
• Indiana
• Pennsylvania
• Iowa
• New Hampshire

The DraftKings app offers point spread, money line and totals bets throughout March Madness plus extensive alternate spread and totals for college basketball, which is unique. DraftKings will post money lines, point spreads and totals wagers for half as well as live in-play wagering once the game is underway. For live betting on March Madness, the DraftKings app is unmatched.

DraftKings also offers a robust stats portal that you can easily navigate to research relevant stats and betting trends for all the March Madness teams.

• Claim your $25 free and bet March Madness with the DraftKings app

2. FanDuel Sportsbook app — up to $500 risk-free bet

Daily fantasy sports leader FanDuel launched in New Jersey in September 2018 and took off. The app is similar in appearance and feel to its daily fantasy offering but is also informed by the institutional knowledge of FanDuel’s global parent company, Flutter (formerly known as Paddy Power Betfair).

Since its launch in NJ, FanDuel has also expanded to Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Indiana. The FanDuel Sportsbook app offers all the core bet types for the Big Dance, including point spread, money line and total points.

FanDuel also offers alternative point spreads and totals for the first half as well as live, in-play wagering. If you’re a futures bettor, FanDuel is also worth a look with plenty of enticing odds for mid-majors right now.

• Claim your $500 risk-free bet at FanDuel and bet March Madness

Both apps are available for iPhones/iPads and Android devices. The layout for each app is almost identical to the full online sportsbook, meaning whichever platform — mobile or desktop — you use, the experience is the same.

If the app is your preferred method of betting, you can use it for everything — registration, deposits, withdrawals, claiming promos and all betting itself.

How to download a sports betting app

Start with our links above to claim your free bets and get started.

• Once you’re on the landing page, you’ll find a “Claim Free Bets” button.
• Click the button to begin registering your account online.
• It’ll ask you to register a new account name and enter some minimal personal info (email, DoB, phone number, home address).
• Once your account is registered (and your information is verified), you can click to download the app.

Once the app is downloaded, simply tap to select your method and deposit funds. Your free bets will immediately be credited to your account upon deposit (or upon account registration, if no deposit req.)

Note to residents of New York City or Chicago:

If you live outside but close to a legal sports betting state (e.g. in NYC or Chicago) you can still download the app from your home and do all of the account management you need to. You can research, make deposits, withdraw funds, etc. You only need to travel across the border into New Jersey or Indiana to make your actual bets.

Once you’ve claimed any winnings, you can take them out in your home state. Register from New York or Chicago via the links below:

• Claim your $25 free at DraftKings
• Claim your $500 risk-free bet at FanDuel

March Madness futures

Futures are bets where the outcome is not determined until a future date. In college basketball, this traditionally means betting on who will win the National Championship before the season starts. However, sportsbooks take futures bets on college basketball teams throughout the season and into the NCAA Tournament, right up until the Final Four begins.

Just like money line bets, winners are paid based on the odds posted at the sportsbook at the time you made the bet. Of course, those odds can fluctuate heavily as a team’s chances of winning change. Futures represent the best way to bet on March Madness before the tournament tips off.

Besides betting on the future champion, you can also bet on:

• Teams to make the Final Four
• Teams to be named #1 seeds

Here are the current futures odds for the 2020 National Championship on DraftKings and FanDuel

March Madness betting basics

Legal US sportsbooks all offer a variety of ways the public can bet on March Madness games, teams or the entire tournament, including:

• Brackets — Players fill out a full 63-game March Madness bracket sheet and enter it in a pool. There’s a wide variety of free NCAA bracket contests online, including several offered by legal US sportsbooks.
• Futures — A bet on a single team to win the National Championship this year. Legal US sportsbooks will accept NCAA futures bets before the tournament starts and throughout, with adjusted odds on teams that are still in contention.
• Money lines — A single-game bet put down on a team to win the game outright and booked based on odds set by sportsbooks.
• Spreads — A single-game bet put down on a team to win with a point spread line set by oddsmakers factored into the final score.
• Totals — A single-game bet put down on whether the final score will land over or under a line set by sportsbooks.
• Parlays — A combination of two or more basic single-game bets. Parlays pay better than individual single-game bets, because every bet, or leg, must win for the parlay to pay.

How March Madness betting works

Money lines

There are no points involved in money line bets. When it comes to March Madness betting, you pick the outright winner of any NCAA Tournament game, and if you’re right, you get paid based on the odds posted at the sportsbook at the time you made the bet.

The odds on the favorite in each game are a negative (-) number representing how much you’ll need to bet to win $100. The odds on the underdog are a positive (+) number representing how much you’ll win for every $100 you bet.

Point spreads

The spread in a college basketball game is just like the point spread bet in a football game. Sportsbooks will set a line for each NCAA Tournament game, and you take either the favorite by laying the points or the underdog and receive them.

You just need to pick the winner with the posted line factored in to cash in on your bet.

Totals (Over/Under)

You can also bet on any NCAA tournament game’s points total if picking a side isn’t necessarily your thing. The sportsbooks will set a line on the total number of points it expects both teams will combine to score.

You simply pick whether the actual total will land over or under that line. Instead of worrying about which team is winning, the only concern you have for an over-under bet is the number of points scored in the game.

Parlays

A more complex bet is a parlay, which consists of at least two separate wagers strung together. To win a parlay bet, one must win every part, or leg, of the parlay. If you have a parlay with five legs and four results win and one loses, the bet loses the same as if you went 0-5.

Parlays pay better than individually placed bets because to win a parlay, you must win every part, or leg, of that parlay. Parlays represent a great opportunity to bet small with a chance of winning big.

Essential March Madness betting tips

Follow the Money

When looking at how to bet the tourney games, it’s important to follow the money. The opening lines are released for the Thursday/Friday games on Sunday night.

Pay attention and take note of any significant line moves leading up to the game. Again, books will adjust the lines based on liability to a certain side, and line moves that are > 1.5 points or more are significant.

Watch second-round lines

Also, pay attention to the second-round lines. With games on Thursday, there is a quick turnaround for the teams to play on Saturday. The same applies to sports books. They don’t always “nail it” in terms of the second-round lines; again, pay special attention to all the line moves.

Roll your futures wins over

A word about the “futures” market. If you like a team to win it all, place the bet and hope for the best. But another approach is to bet that school in each game and roll over the winnings into each round.

A $10 futures bet on the Gonzaga Bulldogs at 10-1 will pay $100 if they cut down the nets in April. However, that same $10 bet in the opening round game will pay ~$19 if they win and cover their opening round game.

You can see that rolling the wins over each round will yield a much greater return over the course of the tournament. It’s something to consider.

March Madness props

In the early stages of the tournament, you can expect to see such “prop” bets as:

• How many No. 1 seeds will make the Final 4?
• How many No. 12 seeds will advance to the Final 4?
• Which conference will win the most tournament games?
• Which conference will be the home of the national champion?

More fun props you might find include:

March Madness bracket pools

March Madness brackets are the traditional way most Americans bet on the NCAA Tournament. This involves filling out a 63-game NCAA Tournament bracket sheet prior to the start of the tournament and, in the past, paying a small sum to enter it into a pool at the office, local bar or social club.

Big online bracket pools run by ESPN and Yahoo, among others, have soared in popularity over the past decade or so and now that legal online sports betting has entered the pictures, online sportsbooks run massive bracket pools as well.

These can be either free or paid and can pay out six-figures+ to the winner. Learn more on our March Madness bracket challenges page.

How to fill out a March Madness bracket

Bracket pools are a fun and easy way to follow along with March Madness. A “bracket” is the 68-team form that can be completed online or printed out and completed by hand. These are easily accessible once the field has been chosen and seeded on “Selection Sunday,” which is March 15 this year.

The bracket needs to be completed in its entirety before the Thursday games begin at 11 a.m. ET. The object of the bracket is to predict the most winning outcomes throughout the tournament through to the national champion.

Essentially, each bracket is compared to others in the pool, and the one with the most winners picked correctly (or “points” assigned to games for each round of tournament) wins the contest.

Free or paid bracket contests

There are two types of March Madness bracket contests:

• Free to enter
• Paid buy-in to enter

Free bracket contests are run by virtually anyone these days, from media brands to promotional groups to restaurants (we see you, Buffalo Wild Wings) to actual sportsbooks.

Free bracket pools are always fun. In addition to the “free” nature of the contest, there are typically some great prizes for the winning brackets from real cash (and sometimes lots of it) to perhaps a trip to next year’s Final Four.

The drawback of the free contests is, of course, the sheer volume of entries. Last year’s ESPN bracket challenge boasted almost 12 million entries. Because everyone typically knows the same tips for picking March Madness brackets, and the tournament itself is also so unpredictable, your actual chances of winning a free bracket contest are, well, slim to none.

Paid entry bracket pools are typically conducted as part of a friend group, office setting, neighborhood, etc. The cost of entry is typically low (i.e. $10 or $20) and, with enough entries in the pool, there is a prize large enough to inspire some friendly ribbing or trash talking.

Many of the free bracket sites will also allow someone to register as the “commissioner” to organize a private pool. Once everyone is registered, the host site (i.e. ESPN or CBS) takes over with up-to-the-minute standings as well as scoring projections for the remainder of the tournament.

Both DraftKings and FanDuel offer both free and $20 buy-in paid contests that pay out a small percentage of the field. Learn more and sign up for an account to play via the links below:

• Claim your $25 free and play DraftKings Bracket Challenges here
• Claim your $500 risk-free bet and play FanDuel Bracket Madness here

5 simple March Madness bracket tips

Whether you are filling out a bracket for the 50th year or for the first time, there are some tried and true March Madness facts and tips to consider:

Upsets can, do and will happen. Picking all No. 1 and No. 2 seeds to advance to the Elite Eight is an unimaginative approach to the bracket. Expect some chaos and plan accordingly.

Look to history for some guidance. Since the NCAA Tournament field was expanded to 64 schools in 1985, here’s a summary of the opening round matchup results:

• No. 16 has defeated No. 1: 1 time
• No. 15 has defeated No. 2: 8 times
• No. 14 has defeated No. 3: 21 times
• No. 13 has defeated No. 4: 27 times
• No. 12 has defeated No. 5: 50 times

The Nos. 12, 13 and 14 seeds are matchups you should pay special attention to because a 12, 13 or 14 will win at least two to three games, as suggested by history. You just need to select the right matchups.

Know the tough conferences and the hot hands. The major college conferences (i.e. ACC, Big Ten, Big 12) will send multiple teams to the tourney. Don’t overlook a school just because it finished in the middle of the regular season conference standings. The challenging schedule may have prepared it well for the battles of March.

Also, look at which school is riding a hot (or cold) streak into March Madness. A team that had to win its conference tournament by beating four opponents over four consecutive days may just carry that energy and momentum into upsetting a higher-seeded opponent in the opening round.

“Perfect” regions happen about one-third of the time. Keep this in mind when you fill out a bracket with your prediction of region seeds 1, 2, 3 and 4 all merrily advancing to the Sweet 16. You should consider some upsets in the opening rounds as an upstart No. 6 or No. 7 seed can really separate your bracket from the others.

Don’t be shy about picking your alma mater, but back it up. If you’re lucky to have your alma mater qualify for the Big Dance, congratulations!! Don’t spend hours agonizing as to how your school may fare in the bracket process; instead, play two bracket entries: one with your “heart” as a proud alumnus of a national champion and the other with your “head” that is the realistic view of your school’s chances.

March Madness 2020 schedule & where to live stream

NCAA Tournament schedule: The 2020 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament runs from March 17 (First Round) to April 6 (Championship Game). Here’s a look at the complete March Madness schedule:

Round	Location	Dates
Selection Sunday	N/A	March 15
First Four	Dayton, OH	March 17-18
1st/2nd Rounds	Albany, NY	March 19/21
1st/2nd Rounds	Spokane, WA	March 19/21
1st/2nd Rounds	St. Louis, MO	March 19/21
1st/2nd Rounds	Tampa, FL	March 19/21
1st/2nd Rounds	Greensboro, NC	March 20/22
1st/2nd Rounds	Omaha, NE	March 20/22
1st/2nd Rounds	Sacramento, CA	March 20/22
1st/2nd Rounds	Cleveland, OH	March 20/22
Midwest Regional	Indianapolis, IN	March 26/28
West Regional	Los Angeles, CA	March 26/28
East Regional	New York, NY	March 27/29
South Regional	Houston, TX	March 27/29
Final Four	Atlanta, GA	April 4
National Championship	Atlanta, GA	April 6

Network: CBS

Network streaming: CBS All Access, CBSSports.com, and CBS Sports app via phone, tablet and connected TV devices (Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV and Chromecast)

Streaming services (varies by market): DirecTV Now, Fubo TV, Hulu with Live TV, PlayStation Vue, YouTube TV

How much is bet on March Madness each year?

Think betting on March Madness isn’t a big deal? According to a study released by the American Gaming Association last year:

• 1 in 5 adults will place bets on the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.
• 40 million (16 percent) of people will fill out a bracket.

Collectively, American adults are expected to bet close to $10 billion on the annual college basketball tournament. The AGA study also found:

• 4.1 million will bet at a casino sportsbook or using a legal app.
• $4.6 billion will be wagered on a collective 149 million brackets by more than 40 million people.
• 2.4 million people will bet illegally with a bookie.
• 5.2 million will bet online, likely at illegal offshore sites.

March Madness Betting Projections

Biggest March Madness Upsets

March Madness is one of the greatest sporting events on the planet. The combination of a single-elimination format, the potential for upsets, the potential for buzzer-beaters, and the highest of stakes mean that drama can strike during any game and any matchup.

Additionally, this year’s event should be a landmark for legal sports betting since so many states now allow their residents to wager, including hot spots such as New Jersey sportsbooks.

But all March Madness bettors know an upset that doesn’t work in their favor can be a money pit nightmare. So, ahead of listing the five biggest upsets in the history of the basketball tournament, what truly makes an epic upset?

What makes a historic March Madness upset?

The essential aspect of any upset is the unexpected. So, the list below doesn’t only include cases of lower-seed teams defeating higher seeds.

Seeding the tournament is an imperfect practice. A 25-win, mid-major team might receive a lower seed than a big conference team with a worse record due to the mid-major team’s lower strength of schedule.

The problem with this approach to seeding is that strength of schedule does not necessarily diminish a team’s abilities. So, sometimes a lower seed’s victory is not an upset, but merely a reflection of a truly good team seeded too low.

Instead, upsets occur when both teams’ histories would suggest a different outcome. In some cases, the entire history of the tournament suggested that the other team would win.

Each of these five games has its section and description. However, for those who are in a hurry, here’s a quick list of them:

• UMBC over UVA: 2018
• Richmond over Syracuse: 1991
• Villanova over Georgetown: 1985
• NC State over UH: 1983
• Duke over UNLV: 1991

UMBC defeats UVA: 2018

It would be difficult to argue that this game is not the greatest upset in the history of the tournament. In 2018, the 16-seeded University of Maryland, Baltimore County made history by winning its opening game against the top-seeded University of Virginia.

In 136 contests between No. 1 and No. 16 seeds, the 16-seed has won precisely once — this time. Before the Terriers won, 1-over-16 was the surest of bets in all of sports.

Perhaps the most striking aspect of UMBC’s historic victory is the final margin. Far from a buzzer-beater, the Terriers ran the Cavaliers off the court, winning 74-54.

UMBC went on to lose its next game, a nine-point defeat at the hands of Kansas State. However, the school can rest comfortably in the knowledge that its place in history is forever secure.

Richmond beats Syracuse: 1991

Before UMBC, the highest seeds ever to win an NCAA Tournament game were 15 seeds. So far, a No. 15-seeded team has won its opening match eight times. None of those victories was more shocking than the University of Richmond‘s escape from the Syracuse Orangemen.

Richmond’s win gets the nod as the most significant because of its status as a trailblazer. Much like UMBC, the Spiders had to contend with the knowledge that no team had ever accomplished the task of defeating a No. 2-seeded team in the first round.

The game itself looks more like the kind of game that would yield a huge upset. Syracuse came out flat, and Richmond took an eight-point lead into halftime.

From there, Richmond slowed the game’s pace down and clung desperately to its lead. In the end, the plan worked, and the Spiders sneaked into history with a 73-69 win.

Villanova beats Georgetown: 1985

In more recent times, a Villanova win over Georgetown would barely make the news. However, back in 1985, the Wildcats’ two-point victory over the Hoyas was the embodiment of the impossible.

Villanova defeated Georgetown 66-64 after a grueling two halves of play. In doing so, the Wildcats became the only No. 8 seed ever to win the national championship.

What made the ’Cats’ run so much more improbable was that the team caught fire seemingly out of nowhere. Villanova limped into the tournament with 10 losses on its record, including a 15-point meltdown against St. John’s directly before the tournament.

The Georgetown team Villanova defeated had been the prohibitive favorite most of the season. All five of its starters went on to play in the NBA, including all-time great center Patrick Ewing.

But, in the end, it was the Pennsylvania team that had its date with destiny.

NC State beats UH: 1983

Two years before Villanova’s miracle run, North Carolina State University played out a similar drama with the University of Houston. If anything, the manner in which NC State prevailed has stayed with the American sports conscience far longer.

To recap, the No. 6 seed Wolfpack were locked in a tight battle with the top-ranked UH Cougars. The Cougars boasted a high-flying lineup that featured two future NBA Hall-of-Famers (Clyde Drexler and Hakeem Olajuwon), which had allowed the team to earn the nickname “Phi Slama Jama,” in reference to its aerial prowess.

However, the game came down to a 44-second stretch in which the teams were locked in a tie, and NC State allowed time to dwindle into the single-digits. With about six seconds remaining, NC State’s Dereck Whittenburg launched a long shot from nearly the half-court line, but his shot missed the goal entirely.

NC State’s Lorenzo Charles stayed alert, though, and rose up to put the ball back on a quick slam dunk. The score put NC State up by two with no time remaining and secured the school’s second (and most recent) championship.

Duke beats UNLV: 1991

As is the case with Villanova, a deep March Madness run is not a surprise for Duke University. However, there was a time when Duke was merely a perennial also-ran.

That narrative changed in 1991 when Duke captured its first title in school history. To do so, the team had to defeat one of the all-time great teams in the national semifinals.

The University of Nevada-Las Vegas entered the 1991 tournament as the defending national champions and undefeated. Its five starters each went on to have NBA careers, and the team’s towel-biting coach, Jerry Tarkanian, was one of the best-ever to roam the sidelines.

So, the Runnin’ Rebels had plenty of confidence and swagger entering the tournament. The Final Four matchup with Duke likely didn’t cause much concern, since UNLV had defeated the same team by 30 points in the national championship game the year before.

However, some key additions to the Duke squad meant that the Blue Devils could hang with the champs. Two key free throws by Christian Laettner with 12.7 seconds remaining sealed the most improbable of victories, and handed UNLV its only loss of the entire season.