{"id":72596,"date":"2018-03-12T09:00:56","date_gmt":"2018-03-12T16:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=72596"},"modified":"2018-03-12T09:26:28","modified_gmt":"2018-03-12T16:26:28","slug":"ncaa-march-madness-odds-favor-virginia-and-villanova","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ncaa-march-madness-odds-favor-virginia-and-villanova\/","title":{"rendered":"March Madness Odds Favor Virginia and Villanova, 24 Million People Expected to Fill Out Brackets"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 68-team bracket is set, but March Madness odds show that bettors believe only a handful of teams have a realistic shot at scoring the men’s basketball NCAA national championship.<\/p>\n

\"March
Virginia is the #1 team in the nation according to the NCAA selection committee, but some March Madness odds reveal some doubt in Las Vegas. (Image: USA TODAY Sports)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Virginia and Villanova are the two heavy favorites, and Las Vegas oddsmakers<\/a> have them in a league of their own. But sportsbooks are having a difficult time deciding which team is best positioned to win the title.<\/p>\n

MGM sportsbooks have Virginia the favorite at 4\/1. After winning the ACC title over North Carolina, the 31-2 Cavaliers are the overall #1 seed in the entire tournament.<\/p>\n

However, the NCAA tournament committee didn’t do the Cavaliers any favors in the South Region.<\/p>\n

\n

To reach the Final Four in San Antonio, Virginia will need to emerge from a region that has four of the seven major conference champions. In addition to the Cavaliers winning the ACC, the South includes conference winners #2 Cincinnati (AAC, 30-4), #4 Arizona (Pac-12, 27-7), and Kentucky (SEC, 24-10).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The potentially difficult road to the Final Four for the\u00a0#1 overall seed might be why some other sportsbooks feel ‘Nova has the best chances of being the last team standing.<\/p>\n

The Big East winners are a #1 seed (East Region) for the third time in four years. The 2015-16 NCAA National Champions are the favorites for this year’s tourney at the Westgate SuperBook at 7\/2.<\/p>\n

Westgate confirmed it took multiple bets on Virginia preseason at 100\/1<\/a>. At those long odds, even a $10 bet would net the fortunate gambler $1,000. However, Arizona and Michigan State seem to be a worst-case scenario for the SuperBook, as those teams account for the most money wagered and most bets placed at the casino.<\/p>\n

Rejecting the Field<\/b><\/h2>\n

Aside from Virginia and Villanova, there are only a few other teams that bettors believe have any realistic chance at cutting down nets.<\/p>\n

Behind the Cavaliers and Wildcats, MGM’s March Madness odds has Duke (7\/1) ahead of #1 seeds Kansas (10\/1) and Xavier (12\/1). Michigan State and Cincinnati are also currently at 12\/1.<\/strong><\/p>\n

After those handful of teams trailing the favorites, the line moves to 15\/1 for Purdue and Arizona, then 20\/1 for UNC and Michigan.<\/p>\n

At FiveThirtyEight<\/i>, statistician Nate Silver’s website, Virginia has an 18 percent chance of winning the title, and Villanova has a 17 percent chance. Only five other teams have a five percent or greater chance. They are Duke (10 percent), Kansas (7 percent), Michigan State (6 percent), and UNC and Purdue (5 percent).<\/p>\n

Big (Illegal) Money<\/b><\/h2>\n

Gambling on sports is mostly illegal in the US, but that won’t stop an estimated $10 billion from being wagered on the NCAA tournament. According to the American Gaming Association, 97 percent will be bet illegally.<\/p>\n

As for those fun office pools, when money is involved they’re illegal too in 37 of 50 states. ESPN <\/i>gambling writer David Purdum reports from The Mellman Group, a DC-based opinion research firm, that some 24 million people participated in a tournament pool last year, and filled out roughly 60 million brackets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 68-team bracket is set, but March Madness odds show that bettors believe only a handful of teams have a realistic shot at scoring the men’s basketball NCAA national championship. Virginia and Villanova are the two heavy favorites, and Las Vegas oddsmakers have them in a league of their own. But sportsbooks are having a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":72601,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16,1074],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nNCAA March Madness Odds Favor Virginia and Villanova<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The NCAA March Madness odds are consuming sportsbooks, but oddsmakers feel a handful of teams have any realistic chance at winning the title.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ncaa-march-madness-odds-favor-virginia-and-villanova\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NCAA March Madness Odds Favor Virginia and Villanova\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The NCAA March Madness odds are consuming sportsbooks, but oddsmakers feel a handful of teams have any realistic chance at winning the title.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ncaa-march-madness-odds-favor-virginia-and-villanova\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-03-12T16:00:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-03-12T16:26:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/17-va-mbb-main2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1548\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ncaa-march-madness-odds-favor-virginia-and-villanova\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ncaa-march-madness-odds-favor-virginia-and-villanova\/\",\"name\":\"NCAA March Madness Odds Favor Virginia and Villanova\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ncaa-march-madness-odds-favor-virginia-and-villanova\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ncaa-march-madness-odds-favor-virginia-and-villanova\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/17-va-mbb-main2.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-03-12T16:00:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-03-12T16:26:28+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77\"},\"description\":\"The NCAA March Madness odds are consuming sportsbooks, but oddsmakers feel a handful of teams have any realistic chance at winning the title.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ncaa-march-madness-odds-favor-virginia-and-villanova\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ncaa-march-madness-odds-favor-virginia-and-villanova\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ncaa-march-madness-odds-favor-virginia-and-villanova\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/17-va-mbb-main2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/17-va-mbb-main2.jpg\",\"width\":2400,\"height\":1548,\"caption\":\"Virginia is the #1 team in the nation according to the NCAA selection committee, but some March Madness odds show they aren't the favorite in Las Vegas. 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