NEW YORK – (PRESS RELEASE) -- In the most unpredictable NCAA
basketball tournament ever, Americans are betting predictably, which is to
say, they don't know which of the four teams to bet on to win the championship
on Monday night. With upsets and Cinderella teams wreaking havoc throughout
the tournament no clear favorite has emerged with bettors at Sportsbook.com.
Despite a record volume of wagers, very little separates the betting on
the top three teams. UCLA has received 29.8 per cent of total wagers to date,
followed by LSU at 28.5 per cent and Florida at 27.6 per cent. Even George
Mason, the least regarded of the four, has garnered significant attention with
14.1 per cent of total wagers backing the Patriots.
"If this were a presidential race we'd be up until the early hours of the
morning waiting to declare a winner," said Alex Czajkowski, Sportsbook.com.
"What the trends show is that everybody has an opinion and everybody bets on
March Madness."
Sportsbook.com has broken the betting trends down by state and at the
moment UCLA and LSU have the backing from 16 states each, while Florida is the
favorite in 12 states and George Mason is favored by bettors in six states.
Sportsbook.com has created an electoral map of sorts and other than highlighting
how close the race actually is, it brings to light some other interesting
trends.
For example, of the nine states that are home to schools from the SEC,
the conference represented in the Final Four by both Florida and LSU, eight
are backing either the Gators or Tigers. Only bettors in Georgia are backing a
non-conference school - UCLA. Does this mean hoops fans from the SEC have
adopted their rival schools as their own? By contrast, Oregon, Washington and
Arizona, states that house teams from the PAC 10, are decidedly against UCLA.
In fact, each team is backing a different school with Oregon betting on George
Mason, Washington betting on LSU and Arizona betting on Florida. Perhaps this
shows a deep resentment toward the big bad Bruins by basketball fans in that
region. Of the six states backing George Mason's improbable run, the most
significant in terms of population and dollars wagered is Michigan. Perhaps
the Patriots made believers of fans in Michigan with their first round upset
of Michigan State.
What doesn't seem to matter with bettors is whether they are Republicans
or Democrats. LSU is backed equally by fans in states that voted Republican
and Democrat in the last election. UCLA is favored slightly by Republican
states 10-6 while George Mason is favored slightly by Democrat states by a 4-2
margin. The only significant blip in this trend comes with regards to Florida,
a key battleground state in each of the last two elections. Of the 12 states
where the Gators are receiving majority backing 11 of them voted Republican in
2004.
