Since Thursday it’s likely that the sports betting community has gone through the mixer. March Madness is that time of the year when every self respecting North American sports fan can spend circa 12 hours deciding whether Duke can repeat, if the number 13 is actually lucky in the NCAA tournament, and that filling in the bracket 66 times is actually the best use of a day that was ever thought up.
A number of sites give you the chance to play against your friends for the ultimate prize of bragging rights for the entire year. Other than bragging rights for the participants, companies offering you that chance have also struck gold with this year’s tournament – specifically sports broadcasting giant ESPN.
According the MultichannelNews.com, the leading sports channel has seen a record number of entries for this year’s Tournament Challenge. The figure of 5.9 million entries is an increase of 24% on 2010 and will be music to the ears of the gambling industry.
Not only does it show that interest in college hoops is anything but waning it also gives an indication that there is a general increase in the area of sports betting, specifically in the United States.
The unprecedented 5180 bracket entries that ESPN was reaching at its peak obviously illustrate how important being the man is to the modern day human. It also gives a strong indication of the changing attitudes of US citizens to sports betting and the obvious thrill that something like predicting the outcome of the NCAA tournament is. Really is quite a shame Memphis went out in the 2nd round though. Who wouldn’t want a repeat of this…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkvB-sobWHo
