2021 March Madness Betting Games: News, Odds, Picks & Betting Tools

How Does the March Madness Basketball Tournament Work?

The college b-ball event is typically divided into four regions: East, West, Midwest and South. Each contains at least 16 teams, with four additional teams added as per the selection committee, to produce a playing field consisting of 68 schools. This committee is also responsible for seeding and keeping squads from the same conferences from playing each other until the regional finals of the big dance. They do this to create an air of fairness. It’s also great for bettors since it makes your wagers way more interesting, especially if you can correctly pick a team to win the NCAA Tournament.

Single-Elimination Basketball Games

The NCAA Men’s Division 1 competition is to sports betting what the Super Bowl is to … sports betting. March Madness odds can be very good to bettors since the seven-round tournament operates on a single game “you lose, you’re out” basis. If you handicap your bets correctly, you could get a lower-seeded team at plus money (+) and clean up when the favored high seed they’re facing fizzles out like a dying star.

When a low seed prevails, they are referred to as “Cinderella” because they have a group of talking mice helping them dress for the games. Just kidding! Cinderella is also another way to say that a team seeded lower than its opponent, or an “underdog” team, is performing better than expected.

March Madness Betting Games and Formats

This is how March Madness unfolds:

1. The First Four (to determine which four additional teams will participate)

2. The first round (64 teams)

3. The second round (32 teams)

4. The regional semifinals (Sweet 16)

5. The regional finals (Elite Eight)

6. The national semifinals (Final Four)

7. The national championship game

Betting on March Madness

Take your pick from the following online betting options:

As in any professional sport, there are certain teams and conferences that dominate like Meryl Streep at the Oscars. Some programs have the tools, talent, and the best coaches in college basketball history to stave off elimination and win multiple national titles.

All venues are considered neutral sites. The location of the Final Four is decided years in advance, regardless of standings, and won’t be changed no matter which teams participate in that part of the March Madness tournament.

Whether you’re making different bets or relying on your March Madness bracket to get you to the finish line, you can use our Seed vs Seed history results and trends pages as a handicapping device for your March Madness betting strategy.

The 2021 NCAA Tournament starts on March 18 at Lucas Oil Stadium with the First Four. The Virginia Cavaliers are the reigning champions. Their overtime win over the Texas Tech Red Raiders cemented their place in NCAA lore by turning around their previous season (when they were the first No. 1 seed to lose to a No. 16 seed). In 2019, Kyle Guy was the guy on the court, scoring 24 points in the final, and he was named the NCAA Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, which goes to show that if you work hard, you too can be drafted 55th overall by the Knicks before being traded to the Kings. Believe in yourself.