College basketball takes centre stage every March when 68 elite college teams compete to be crowned as national champions. It’s one of the most exciting playoff formats in sports and Bodog’s college basketball odds reflect that. The unpredictable nature of the games has paved the way for the record-setting betting. So when did the hysteria of the brackets and the betting begin?
Bracket Beginnings
Brackets in the NCAA Tournament didn’t become popular until the ‘80s for a couple of reasons. First of all, there weren’t enough good teams to bet on, as the country was top-heavy. That made for predictable tournaments where the favourites would win regularly, as expected. For example, UCLA ran the college-basketball game until the mid-1970s when legendary coach John Wooden retired. Between 1964 and 1975, they won the tournament in all but two seasons.
The first bracket pool came from a Staten Island bar called Jody’s Club Forest. In 1977, 88 people filled in their brackets, tossing in $10 per entry. By 2006, there would be over 150,000 people entering that pool with a prize-money collection of $1.5 million.
March Madness Brackets 2024
As is the case in any other year, achieving a perfect bracket is extremely difficult. The difficulty levels increase when Cinderella runs become more prominent, with unfancied teams knocking out some of the tournament favourites.
Many March Madness brackets in 2024 will suffer a similar fate, with many players opting for the favourites in each round. Who will produce the first major upset this year? Similarly, which college will be the first to suffer a shock defeat? Can the Connecticut Huskies, Houston Cougars, Purdue Boilermakers and Arizona Wildcats live up to their pre-tournament billing? Bodog will have all the updated odds as the tournament and brackets progress.
Advancement of In-Game, Mobile Betting
March Madness betting continues to reach new heights because of ease of access. There was a time when betting had to be done through a bookie or in Las Vegas, both of which are hard to access. Nowadays, with online betting available, it’s easy to get online, open an account and get started.
As technology improves, sportsbooks can offer a wider variety of betting options. In earlier times, people placed bets before games or during halftime. Now, with the invention of live in-game betting, bettors get in on the action at any point. As live betting continues to grow each year, so does mobile betting. Not only can people bet at any point in the game, they can bet from any location that has Wi-Fi.