How to Bet on March Madness 2023 Predictions, Odds

• March Madness is back and will be held from multiple locations across the country!
• Sportsbooks are publishing their odds, and you can bet on who you think will win it all!
• Gonzaga, Kentucky, and Arizona are the favorites to win March Madness 2023.

March Madness is back. All major sportsbooks will be taking on a ton of bets across the country. March Madness is the biggest college basketball event of the year.

68 teams from NCAA Division I men’s basketball will be playing in the most-watched college basketball tournament in the world. Since there are so many teams playing, there are so many games to bet on! But what is the best strategy for betting on March Madness?

Whether you’re a sports betting beginner or a seasoned pro, this guide will outline the best betting strategies for March Madness 2023!

Keep on reading below for information on:

• How the March Madness betting bracket works.
• The best March Madness online betting sites and apps available across US states where sports betting is legal.
• Easy and effective tips and strategies for making all the most popular kinds of March Madness bets.

Sports betting is becoming legal in more states as the days and months pass on, but if you live in sports betting legal states like New Jersey, Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Illinois, and more, that offer legal sports betting, now is the time for you to cash in!

Make sure, you check out our March Madness Pick ’em Contest to get a chance to win up to $5800!

For people interested in betting on March Madness online, we recommend DraftKings Sportsbook, bet365 NJ, or Caesars Sportsbook

Use the links on this page for exclusive deals and promotions and read our comprehensive reviews for more details.

Best Legal Sites to Bet on March Madness 2023  

Believe it or not, the site you use to bet on March Madness will affect your experience.

If you don’t already have a go-to legal online sportsbook, we recommend DraftKings Sportsbook, bet365, or Caesars Sportsbook.

Two big reasons these three sportsbooks are so enticing for new users are the big sign-up bonuses and easy-to-use betting sites and apps. Even as a beginner it’s really easy to sign up and get started picking March Madness winners.

With that being said, there are plenty of other sportsbooks available and ready to take on March Madness bets.

Check out PointsBet, BetRivers, and many more. We’ve reviewed all major sportsbooks to give you all the details necessary to get started with betting in the US.

How to Bet on March Madness Brackets

The best strategy for betting on March Madness is by filling out a full tournament bracket to compete against friends, family, co-workers, and strangers!

You can also bet make parlay bets, bet on game lines, team futures, as well as player props/futures for the March Madness tournament as they become available!

Finding the right March Madness betting site for you will be key!

Timing your bets with available lines is crucial. For example, the opening round is a fantastic way to take advantage of parlays, as the majority of results in the first round go the favorites way.

You may also recognize some notable talents or players that have upped their game for the tournament. Betting on player props is a great way to earn money if you see a player trending toward or away from their projected output.

Most importantly, you should understand how the bracket itself works – it’s simple!

There are four regions (East, West, Midwest, South) with sixteen teams representing each region. In total, there are 64 games in this thrilling single-elimination process!

How to Fill Out a March Madness Betting Bracket

Filling out your March Madness Bracket is a lot less daunting than graphics make it look. Each team matches up on their side of the bracket, all you have to do is select which teams you expect to win in each round until you find your ultimate winner!

Start with the first round’s 32 games, then the second round’s 16 games, then move on to the Elite Eight, Final Four, and then the Final.

In the NCAA Tournament Final, you will likely be asked to predict the score. This additional prediction is used as a tiebreaker, in the case that multiple correct predictions for a result are made.

Do you need to know a lot about NCAA basketball to fill out a bracket?

Absolutely not! The beauty of the NCAA tournament is the one-off nature of each match, making it a true test of quality between each team. While ranking is a good indicator of who will win, underdogs can put on excellent performances to bring home an upset victory!

The tournament format of March Madness is beneficial to experts and beginners alike. With only one game deciding a team’s fate, anyone can make a great selection!

Has Anyone Predicted a Perfect March Madness Bracket?

According to the NCAA, there has never been a verified event where someone has picked a completely perfect March Madness bracket.

There are many outlets and sports betting sites where you can fill out your March Madness bracket. Many major sportsbooks will have a March Madness bracket challenge, while CBS in partnership with the NCAA has an annual bracket challenge with cash prizes!

According to Sports Illustrated, the odds of attaining a perfect bracket are around one in 9.2 quintillions. In 2019, neuropsychologist Gregg Nigl set the record with 49 correct bracket picks.

Who Will Win the 2023 March Madness?

Part of the draw of March Madness is the mystery behind who will win. With so many strong teams playing, anybody can win it all.

Let’s take a look at some of the teams that we think have the best shot at winning the National Championship!

Gonzaga Bulldogs (24-3, 13-1 WCC)

To no one’s surprise, the Gonzaga Bulldogs were the regular-season champions of the West Coast Conference. They only lost two non-conference games, and their one conference loss came in their final game of the season against ranked Saint Mary’s.

Gonzaga always has one of the best teams in the nation, but this team is different.

Junior Drew Timme leads them. Timme is a great shooter who scores 17.6 points per game and grabs 9.7 rebounds.

Right behind Timme is freshman Chet Holmgren. Holmgren was one of the top high school recruits last year and put on a show in what will likely be his only season of college basketball; Holmgren is a projected lottery pick in this year’s NBA Draft.

He is a seven-footer who can rebound, shoot, and handle the ball.

Gonzaga started the season as the #1 team and finished the season as the #1 team. I projected they would win in it all at the beginning of the season, and I still believe that.

Kentucky Wildcats (24-6, 13-4 SEC)

The Kentucky Wildcats were not the best team in the SEC this year, but they still had an excellent season. Unfortunately, they did not have the best finish to the season, losing two of their last five games, but they are contenders to win it all once more.

The arrival of forward Oscar Tshiebwe has significantly strengthened Kentucky’s roster. Tshiebwe transferred to Kentucky from West Virginia and is one of the best big men in the country.

He can do it all on both sides of the floor. Offensively, he leads the Wildcats with 16.9 points and 15.3 rebounds, but defensively, he is an intelligent player and a fierce rim protector. His 1.8 steals and 1.5 blocks per game lead Kentucky.

Guards TyTy Washington Jr., Kellen Grady, and Sahvir Wheeler have also been critical to the success of Kentucky. They are talented scorers and good team players.

Kentucky’s real strength is the bevy of scorers they have to offer. Five Wildcats are scoring ten points or more each game.

Arizona Wildcats (27-3, 17-2 PAC-12)

The Arizona Wildcats have come out as the best team in the PAC-12. They lost to the unranked Colorado Buffaloes last week, but other than that, they have been an excellent team. Gonzaga may be ranked #1, but you could argue that Arizona is the best team in the nation.

Arizona is a tall team that shoots very well from the field. Sophomore guard Bennedict Mathurin is the most impressive player on this team. The man from Montreal plays almost 32 minutes a

game, scores 17.2 points per game, and grabs 5.7 rebounds. Mathurin is a very impressive shooter who makes over 38% of his three-point attempts. As good as Mathurin is, I cannot mention Arizona’s success without talking about forward Azoulis Tubelis and center Christian Koloko.

Tubelis and Koloko are great rebounders and good rim protectors. Koloko is one of the best rim protectors in the country and blocks 2.9 shots per game.

Arizona’s size puts them in a unique position. They are bigger than most of the top teams in the country. So their height will be an advantage as they get into the later rounds of the tournament.

Tips for Betting on 2023 March Madness

There are a couple of things to be mindful of in your March Madness betting strategy:

• Upsets will occur and it’s growing more difficult to predict when.
• Teams are more competitive and a top seed doesn’t guarantee a deep run into the tournament.

When keeping track of your March Madness betting site and minding your strategy, you should be able to formulate a solid plan. Here are some of our suggestions.

It Doesn’t Always Pay to Pick the Favorite

When it comes to betting on March Madness, it can be very easy to merely select the higher seeded team in every matchup. Granted, you’re likely to come up with decent results with that strategy. But you become vulnerable to your bracket busting early if you can’t see the coming upset.

The one-off matchup style favors teams in-form, rather than those who are boasting a more impressive seeding. When constructing your bracket, be aware of history as much as you are of current form. Only once, in 2008, have all four top seeds made the Final Four!

It’s easy to look for the “Ivy Upset” or the mid-size college with a star piece to get you your win. But pay mind to ranking, order, win streak, and injuries to inform your decision.

Individual Game Betting

All things considered, betting on brackets and March Madness as a whole is a lot of fun. But betting on single games can be just as fun and also beneficial.

Check out our tips on finding good single-game bets:

• Some of the top stats to mind for a team’s success are field-goal percentage, three-point percentage, and fouls – both incurred and allowed.
• Late-tournament single-game bets are much safer, considering you’ve had a couple of matches to rate the teams and judge their performance.
• Don’t be fooled by freshman stardom. College basketball is not star dependent and experienced teams are just as, if not more capable, than those with one-and-done prospects.

Best Team to Bet on in March Madness 2023

With the top sixteen named, sportsbooks have opened up wagering on who will win the tournament as a whole. While these odds will change after conference tournaments, it gives bettors looking to build their strategy a preview of what the public is thinking.

FanDuel is rating Gonzaga (+350), Kentucky (+700), and Arizona (+700) as the favorites going into the tournament.

As the bracket fills out and we see different schools and their roadmap to the Final Four, the odds are certain to change.

Most Popular March Madness Bets

Aside from filling out brackets, there are plenty of ways to bet on March Madness, with bets that include parlays, futures, and props. In this section, we will break down how these bets work and some tips to help with your strategy.

March Madness Futures

A Futures bet is one that looks at how a team will do at a specific future date. With March Madness this will be a bet in terms of picking the overall champion in the end.

• These odds will be available once the tournament bracket is announced. Since the entire field is still in play the favorites will pay better now than they will nearer to the end of the tournament if they are still alive.
• The odds will also be available throughout the tournament and adjusted depending on which teams remain and how well they are performing.
• Pay close attention to potential upcoming matchups when making a futures bet.

March Madness Money Lines

Picking which team will win the game is always a popular way to bet on NCAA basketball and during March Madness there’s a huge spike in money line bets. Here are the main things to understand:

• During every round of the tournament, you can bet on which teams will win individual games.
• Moneylines don’t take into account point margins or totals so they’re really simple and great for beginners.
• Moneylines are great because you can get long odds on underdogs which means a big payday if there’s an upset.

March Madness Totals

You don’t always need to pick a team to win or a side to cover the point spread.

Betting on the over/under point total is when a sportsbook estimates how many total points will be scored in a game by both teams combined. Your job is to choose if the final total will be more or less than the sportsbook’s estimate.

March Madness games play out differently than regular-season matchups, which means totals are harder to predict.

• Do you think the teams will play fast or slow? How do they match up against each other in terms of styles? Have they played each other before?
• Think about how each coach approaches end-of-game situations as a lot of points can be scored on late-game fouling.
• Point totals bets are offered for the full game, just half time, or specific to each team. You have a lot of options to consider.

March Madness Parlays

One way to spice up your betting ticket is to combine multiple bets on one or more games into one betting ticket. Betting a parlay multiplies the payout but also makes it way harder to win.

• On a parlay, you must get every single bet correct in order to win.
• The more outcomes you add to the wager the longer the odds get and the bigger the potential payout.
• For March Madness, parlays let you combine lots of bets in different games that are all happening at the same time.

Use our parlay calculator to make parlay betting even easier.

March Madness Props

Proposition bets, also called props, are more creative bets on things like individual player performances. Since there’s so much betting action focused on March Madness, sportsbooks like BetMGM and DraftKings have tons of props on the menu.

• Props are lots of fun and can also be made live as the game is playing out. We’ll go into more detail on live betting in a second.
• Even if you don’t have a good read on which team will win, you can put action down on specific players or other outcomes.
• Be careful betting March Madness props because the sportsbooks sometimes err on the side of caution in terms of the odds offered.

March Madness Live Betting

You don’t have to wait for the games to finish before making new bets. In fact, you can get in on the madness while games are in full swing. This is called Live Betting and it is an increasingly popular form of wagering.

• Live betting odds are constantly adjusting depending on what’s going on in the game.
• Sites that offer many live bet options are prone to making imbalanced adjustments on the fly if they do not have enough staff available. This is can potentially create juicy opportunities if you have a keen eye.

Betting on 2022 March Madness Bracket Challenges Bracket challenges will be available once the seeding has been decided!

In 2019 FanDuel awarded $250,000 to players who scored highest in their bracket competition. The top bracket won $100,000! The challenge was free to enter and open to residents in all 50 states.

DraftKings Sportsbook also had an exciting challenge in 2019, with their own free contest that had participants competing for their share of a $64,000 prize pool! If you were playing in New Jersey, you had to opportunity to compete for a separate $100,000 prize pool for a mere $20 entry fee!

Caesars Casino offered one of the most unique prizes for their 2019 March Madness promotion. While only available in New Jersey, players could compete for more than $50,000 in cash and prizes, while also receiving a free $20 bet just for filling out a bracket. First place won a $250 sports bet for each week for an entire year!

March Madness 2023 FAQ

When is March Madness 2023?

Selection Sunday will take place on March 13. Then, the First Four games will begin the tournament and take place on March 15 and March 16. The First Round will take place on March 17 and March 18. The Second Round starts on the following day on March 19 and finishes on March 20.

The teams that make it to the Sweet 16 get a little break after the second round. The Sweet 16 is played on March 24 and March 25. The next round, the Elite Eight, will take place on March 26 and March 27.

Where is March Madness 2023?

The 2022 NCAA Tournament will be held in various locations. Before the first round starts, the First Four games will be held at the University of Dayton Arena in Dayton, Ohio. The First and Second rounds of the Tournament are spread across the country. The games will be played at the KeyBank Center in Buffalo, New York, Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana,

Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, Moda Center in Portland, Oregon, Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, South Carolina, Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, PPG Saints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the Viejas Arena in San Diego, California.

The Sweet 16 and Elite Eight will also be played in various locations.

The games will be played at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas (home of the San Antonio Spurs), the Chase Center in San Francisco, California (home of the Golden State Warriors), the United Center in Chicago, Illinois (home of the Chicago Bulls), and the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (home of the Philadelphia 76ers).

The Final Four and National Championship game will be played at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana (home of the NFL’s New Orleans Saints). The Caesars Superdome can seat up to 73,432 people for basketball games.