2021 March Madness Schedule and Dates
- Selection Sunday, March 16
- First Four: Tuesday and Wednesday, TBA
- NCAA Tournament Round One: Thursday and Friday, TBA
- NCAA Tournament Round Two: Saturday and Sunday, TBA
- Sweet 16: Thursday and Friday, TBA
- Elite 8: Saturday and Sunday, TBA
- Final Four: Saturday, April 3-5
- National Championship Game: Monday, April 5.
🎶 Feels so good to dance again 🕺💃@SelenaGomez | @InTheLab247#LetsDanceAgain #MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/AS3sLSyZWA
— NCAA March Madness (@marchmadness) February 15, 2020
Where to Bet on March Madness in Vegas
Finding a vegas sportsbook to bet on March Madness is much easier than you think. There are plenty of convenient online sportsbooks, as well as brick and mortar sportsbooks in Vegas casinos that accept NCAAB March Madness bets.
Can I bet on March Madness in my state?
The following states will allow sports bettors to place bets on March Madness 2021:
- Arkansas
- Delaware
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Mississippi
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- Nevada
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- West Virginia
While there are plenty of vegas odds for March Madness, it’s best to do your research before placing those wagers. Finding the best sportsbooks for your personal needs should be a priority, whether you’re looking for the best March Madness bonuses, specific payment options you may need, or whether you’re looking to place a wager in person or online.
If you can’t be in Vegas for March Madness, and your state doesn’t allow sports betting yet, online sportsbooks would be your best option. The market is saturated with online sportsbooks claiming to be the best or have the best college basketball odds so things can be confusing for new bettors. That’s where we come in.
At Vegas Betting, our goal is to help you find the best sportsbook with the best Vegas odds for March Madness, and that starts with our sportsbook reviews!
Our top choice:
Bovada is the first online sportsbook that comes to mind when we think of college basketball odds and more specifically, March Madness odds.
If you’re looking for a fast and easy sign-up process, great bonuses, great payment options like Bitcoin, and major credit cards – look no further. Signing up at Bovada is quick and easy, you simply enter a few personal details and are ready to make a deposit.
Bovada has some of the lowest minimum deposit limits in the market, so new and casual bettors never have to tie up large amounts of cash in their sportsbook account. If you’re planning to deposit Bitcoin, Bovada is one of the best Bitcoin sportsbooks in the market, and even have higher, more enticing Bitcoin bonuses.
They always have fantastic sign-up bonuses available, with relatively standard rollover requirements and a loyalty points program that you can participate in.
When it comes to March Madness, their oddsmakers work tirelessly to bring you the widest variety of up-to-date odds, props and live betting, so that you can get the full experience with plenty of Vegas odds for your March Madness betting pleasure.
While Bovada is the most accessible sportsbook and a great choice for March Madness betting in the US, there are a few other sportsbooks we recommend but can be restricted in certain states. Head to our sportsbook review pages for more in-depth information.
Popular March Madness Betting Types
Aside from filling out your bracket, March Madness is an exciting time for college basketball betting. Since there are 67 games being played within a three-week window, the betting opportunities have never been more plentiful. Some bettors enjoy single-game bets on underdogs, or some enjoy riskier bets like a five-team parlay to maximize their payout – there are so many options available.
If you’re new to betting, we can help you understand the three main types of Vegas odds for March Madness betting: Moneyline, Totals, and the Point Spread.
March Madness Moneyline Bets
If you’re looking for an easy March Madness bet, you will want to pay attention to the moneyline. If you already filled out your bracket, you can likely piggyback off that to make these decisions. To bet the moneyline, you are picking which team you want to win straight up. Simple as that!
For example, we will use last year’s National Championship teams: Virginia and Texas Tech.
- Virginia +125
- Texas Tech -145
While it’s important to pick the winner of the matchup in this case, it’s important to look at the odds situated next to the team. The ‘Juice’ or ‘vig’ will determine the favorite and the underdog, as well as how much your bet will payout.
In this case, Virginia is the underdog, so selecting them with a $100 wager, will pay out $125 in profit. Adversely, picking Texas Tech, and placing the same amount, will only result in about $68 in winnings.
March Madness Point Spreads
The point spread can be a little more challenging, but will ultimately make your March Madness bets a little more interesting. Oddsmakers select a spread, based on the teams playing. Your job is to determine, not who will win the game, but by how much each team will win or lose by. Essentially, if the favored team has a spread of -10, you will have to determine if the favored team will win the game by 10 points, or not. If the underdog has a spread of +10, the oddsmakers give them an imaginary 10 point lead, so for the underdog spread to cash, they will need to win the game, or lose by under 10 points.
With the same example teams as above:
- Virginia +10
- Texas Tech -10
Virginia is the underdog in this situation and will have to win the game or lose by less than 10 points. Texas Tech is the favored team and will have to win the game by 10 points or more for your bet to cash.
March Madness Totals
Betting the totals (Over/Under) for March Madness is another relatively easy bet, but can be tricky depending on which sportsbook you choose. Some oddsmakers are extremely gifted in setting totals lines and come very close to the actual result. When betting the totals, you are faced with a high number, which equates to the total of both the team’s score. You have to decide if the total score for both teams will be higher or lower than the oddsmakers.
If the total for the Virginia and Texas Tech game was 154, and the final score was 85-77 (162), the total is over, and only bettors who picked over will win.
March Madness Bracket
When it comes to filling out your March Madness bracket, you will need to do a ton of research into all 68 teams, because you will need to choose wisely. Creating a perfect March Madness bracket is rare, and those two teams you select as your final two will be tremendously difficult to select correctly.
The good thing is, you can make mistakes, as long as you choose the March Madness Championship winners correctly. But if you selected a team that is out in the first four, you’ve got a broken bracket and it’ll be a long three weeks for you.
The main tip is to focus on picking the higher-seeded teams, as they’re likely to win, but not all of the top seeds usually make it through. March Madness is aptly named in the sense that there are upsets and underdogs can prevail, so you have to be careful with your selections.
March Madness Sportsbook Contests
Many online sportsbooks offer March Madness contests for those who might not have an office pool or a group of friends who are diehard basketball fans. These contests are played around the world and tend to have an obscenely large grand prize if you can pick a perfect bracket. Again, the odds of winning these contests are very narrow, but it can be done if you have some know-how and are successful with your picks.
BetOnline‘s $100,000 March Madness contest is available for 2021, boasting over 300 prizes available in the prize pool with a grand prize of $15,000. Players must complete their brackets and pay a $15 entrance fee to participate. In order to win the grand prize, the winner must pick the winners of all 63 games starting with the first round, the first four are not included in this contest. They have implemented a points system where players are awarded points for each correct pick, with the weight of the points increasing at every level of the playoffs.
BetNow is offering a Million Dollar Bracket Contest that is free of charge to enter. There are 30 monetary prizes and a huge grand prize of $350,000 which will be paid in six payments over the course of six months. While it seems too good to be true, they also have the stipulation that to win this grand prize, the winner needs to pick all 63 winners correctly and ace the tiebreaker.
5Dimes has a great March Madness contest offering on their March Madness Brackets app. The app hosts a huge selection of March Madness bracket contests, with varying entry fees, prize values and more. You have until game one of the first round on March 19th to complete your brackets. Players are eligible to buy as many brackets as they like, with costs of $1, $5, $10 and $25 entry fees. You are also able to create your own groups or pools with friends directly on their app.
Sportsbetting.ag has a $10,000 Bracket Mayhem Contest — TBD
March Madness 2021 Futures – Favored to win
Following last year’s tournament, Vegas sportsbooks quickly put out the 2021 March Madness futures. These change countless times over the regular season, as teams start to show their strengths. There are a few that consistently top the rankings year after year, due to their school’s reputation for having a great program.
Keep an eye on this page for more March Madness updates, and changes to the odds before you start your March Madness betting!
