March Madness Odds 2020: How it Works and Who to Bet On

March Madness truly is a sporting phenomenon like no other. The culmination of the college basketball season, the NCAA, takes place every year (in March in case you hadn’t guessed) and sees 68-teams go head to head in an exhausting showpiece event that attracts fans in their millions.

67 games take place over a 19-day period and the schools that take place are selected and announced on ‘Selection Sunday’, when the seeding and brackets are outlined and then the betting can begin.

The Madness itself tips off on March 17th with the ‘First Four’, before first and second rounds take place on March 19th and 21st and March 20th and 22nd.

March Madness – 2020 College Basketball Futures Odds

Kansas +700

Gonzaga +900

Baylor +900

Duke +1200

Dayton +1500

Louisville +1600

Maryland +1600

The sides are then whittled down to the ‘Sweet Sixteen’ and the ‘Elite Eight’ and the whole league comes to a dramatic conclusion in the ‘Final Four’ which takes place in 2020 on April 4th and 6th, hosted by Georgia Tech.

As a betting spectacle the March Madness bracket has proven incredibly popular and it’s interesting to note that since 2000 the top overall seed has won just three Championships, so the NCAA is by no means an easy league to back and it’s always key to check out the form going into the March event. I.e. just because a side it top seeded it may not be the team that is in the hottest of immediate form.

32 of the sides that compete at March Madness will do so as a result of their conference performances while the other 36 are ‘selected’ by committee.

Last year’s champions, the Virginia Cavaliers, are projected to be seeded fairly low down whereas this year’s favorites, the Kansas Jayhawks are leading the pace with a 27-3 record, due in no small part to the performances of guard Devon Dotson.

It’s been seven years since a team from the Midwest region triumphed, when Louieville emerged victorious, but Kansas look a good bet to end that drought and will look to win their first title since 2008.