College basketball is entering its biggest tournament of the year, March Madness. March Madness is one of the most profitable sporting events in the United States. According to Tim Parker of Investopedia, March Madness generates around $1 billion a year off of TV rights, tickets, merchandise, and corporate sponsorships.
This season, the NCAA is expected to make around $1.3 billion from March Madness.
Now, because of NIL (Name Image and Likeness), college athletes are able to make money after years of being labeled as student athletes, there has been more money that has been poured into the tournament, including sports betting.
March Madness is one of the biggest sporting events in America to place a bet. According to Statistica, last year's March Madness tournament had an estimated $2.7 billion bet. In 2023, an estimated $15.2 billion was used to place bets during the tournament.
John Holden, is an associate professor in the Department of Business Law and Ethics at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, and has been doing research on sports gambling after the Murphy vs NCAA supreme court case.
The Murphy vs. NCAA case was significant for the sports world, as it overturned a federal ban on state authorized gambling.
“There are more eyes on college sports now than ever before because of sports gambling,” said Holden. “There is increased attention, but with that comes a lot of cost because when you have a problem with gambling on campus, it doesn't just affect the student but also their family and other aspects of their lives.”
Holden explained how impactful betting on March Madness has impacted sports gambling as a whole.
“I mean, I think in a lot of ways, March Madness and the betting that goes along with it is probably like the single biggest factor in normalizing sports gambling in the US. I think in a lot of ways, it really normalized gambling and betting on sports in a way that sort of took away a lot of the stigma around it. People who have no interest in sports participate in March Madness pools,” said Holden.
Michigan State senior economics major Aryaman Khosla has been making bets on college basketball games all season long compared to professional sports.
“I have bet around $800-$1,000 on college compared to about $100 on the NBA,” said Khosla. “Depending on whether you know how to use that to your advantage, college is a bit more predictable than say NBA ball.”
In January 2022, Michigan State had announced a five year partnership with Caesars Sportsbook to help enhance experiences for Spartan fans and provide significant resources to support the growing needs in the varsity programs.
The partnership quickly ended, after one year, caving in from negative public opinion and financial concerns. However, The MSU-Caesar’s breakup doesn't mean that sportsbooks and other schools won't try again in making partnerships.
“Both the sportsbooks and the schools I think we're looking around and thinking, ‘Oh, the optics are not what we thought they would be,’ and this definitely felt like a trial run,” said Holden. “I'm hesitant in today's world to say that things will never happen again, there is an amount of money that will make people do anything and we could see these partnerships pop up again.”