NCAA March Madness Betting Could Top $2.7B: What VA Allows, Who's In

VIRGINIA — Residents of Virginia and D.C. can place wagers online for the biggest sports betting events of the year, the NCAA March Madness men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, which industry experts expect to result in $2.7 billion in wagers nationwide.

Sports wagering is now legal in 38 states and the District of Columbia. Online betting is legal in most, but not all of them. About a dozen states prohibit betting on college games involving home-state teams. Four New England states — Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont — make exceptions for tournaments. And Maryland and Ohio ban bets on how many points, rebounds or assists a particular player puts on the board.

In Virginia, voters legalized sports betting in April 2020. Anyone who is at least 21 years of age, has a valid Social Security number and is physically located within the Commonwealth can bet with sportsbook apps and at casinos.

Men’s tournament play begins Tuesday. Three Virginia schools and one from DC made the tourney:

• Howard University in Washington, D.C., No. 16 seed in the West region
• James Madison in Harrisonburg, No. 12 seed in the South region
• University of Virginia, Charlottesville, No. 10 seed in the Midwest Region
• Longwood University, Farmville, No. 16 seed in the South region

The women’s tournament gets underway on Wednesday with these Virginia teams in the hunt:

• No. 4 Virginia Tech vs. No. 13 Marshall University in the Portland 3 Region
• No. 7 Duke (20-11) vs. No. 10 Richmond (29-5) in the Portland 3 Region
• No. 2 Stanford (28-5) vs. No. 15 Norfolk St. (27-5) in the Portland 3 Region

Sports betting has expanded since 2018, when the Supreme Court struck down a federal ban on state laws that allowed for sports betting

Betting on all sports totaled $121 billion in 2023, an increase of 30 percent from 2022, according to the American Gaming Association. Sportsbooks saw about $11 billion in revenue last year, up from about $7.5 billion in 2022, the group said.

David Foreman, vice president of research for the American Gaming Association, told The Associated Press that March Madness is the biggest kind of individual event of the year for sports betting

The Super Bowl also draws big bets, but it's only one game between two NFL teams. The NCAA Division 1 men's and women's basketball tournaments feature 136 teams playing 134 games over three weeks.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.