The betting community has taken a hit throughout the NCAA Tournament with all the crazy upsets that have knocked out some of the best teams across the country. Friday’s Sweet 16 slate provided two of the biggest upsets we’ve seen thus far, as No. 1 seeds Alabama and Houston were knocked off. Now, the March Madness futures from earlier in the tournament show sportsbooks can profit heavily from the unpredictable nature of this tourney.
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March Madness Futures: Texas The Last Hope For The Public
Per BetMGM, the most March Madness futures were placed on Alabama to win the championship (11.1% of tickets). After both Alabama and Houston went down, the only two teams who received more than 2% of tickets left in the tournament are Texas (6.3% of futures) and UConn (5.0%).
Alabama came into the tournament as the No. 1 overall seed and played to its reputation through the first two rounds. But they picked a bad time to put together a poor performance, and a strong San Diego State team was able to pull off the upset in the Sweet 16.
“It’s been an unbelievable year,” Alabama head coach Nate Oats said after the 71-64 loss, per USA Today. “Everybody is really disappointed in the loss. It ended too soon.”
Texas was able to make a large portion of futures bettors happy when dismantling a tough Xavier team 83-71 in the last Sweet 16 game of the tournament. The Longhorns will now face the Miami Hurricanes in the Elite 8 on Sunday. Miami came into their matchup against Houston as a heavy underdog, but once again pulled off the upset to keep their championship hopes alive.
The UConn Huskies will have their opportunity to reach the Final Four with an interesting matchup against the Gonzaga Bulldogs on Saturday. Gonzaga was trailing for most of their Sweet 16 matchup against UCLA but prevailed with a cold-blooded game-winning 3-pointer from Julian Strawther.
March Madness future bettors are mostly down on their pre-tournament investments. But UConn and Texas still have a chance to upset the sportsbooks.
Bettors looking to find value for the remainder of the NCAA Tournament should check out OddsShopper tools, including the popular Parlay Builder!
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