College basketball gamblers came to Las Vegas for the start of March Madness and stuck around for an extra week. It wasn’t because of a hangover.
Las Vegas sportsbooks have long been the foremost destination for the first weekend of the NCAA Men’s College Basketball Championship, when the 64-team field is whittled down to the Sweet 16 over four days.
Macquarie Securities gaming analyst Chad Beynon said those four days of wagering on 48 games represent 70 percent of the gaming industry’s sports betting total for that particular week.
“We estimate the first and second rounds is normally the highest weekly contribution of the tournament due to the sheer volume of games,” Beynon wrote in a research note.
