The virtual impossibility of picking a perfect bracket for the NCAA Tournament is part of the allure. Be it picks by formula, gut feeling, or random chance, anyone’s method to predict March Madness is as good as the next.
But just how long are the odds of nailing all 67 matchups and results? Inconceivably long. Per the NCAA, the odds of picking a perfect bracket are 1 in 9.2 quintillion.
Put another way: Everyone on Earth could have more than a billion unique brackets, and only one would be perfect.
You have better odds of correctly identifying one of the 7.5 quintillion grains of sand on the Earth. According to Axios, the odds of doing that are 23% higher than the odds to get a bracket with all the right picks.
The average person has better odds of playing in the NCAA Tournament than picking all the games. And those aren’t great odds to begin with.
So go ahead, pick that 14 seed to make a run. No one’s bracket is going to be perfect.
Stunning Amount of Money Expected To Be Gambled on March Madness: See How Much
There are some events in sports that get qualified as ‘holidays’ when it comes to gambling. March Madness would definitely be considered one of them with the draw of the NCAA Tournament, based on the latest numbers, it’s expected to be a massive turnout at the books.
Per a survey from the AGA, it found that 68 million adults are planning to bet on March Madness. That’s roughly a quarter of the U.S. population. With that population, the estimate is that a total of $15.5 billion will be wagered during the NCAA Tournament.
A big part of that is the easier access to sports gambling nationwide. Massachusetts was the latest state to legalize it as the total number of states has risen to 33.
Another key to it is the fact that it’s a month-long event rather than a single game. With 67 games to be played starting on Tuesday in the First Four all the way until the national championship on April 3rd, there will be plenty of games and lines to pick from at the books over the next three weeks.
With many first-time gamblers getting a taste of it this March, this could be a massive turnout for Vegas by the end of the NCAA Tournament. We’ll have to wait to see just how big it gets, though, once we have our national champion at the start of April.