It’s not madness to declare that the NCAA Tournament is the biggest event on the sports betting calendar.
The Super Bowl still generates the largest betting handle, or amount of money wagered, on one game. But wagering on the NCAA Tournament, which features 67 games, more than tripled the Super Bowl handle in Nevada last year and will almost double this year’s national Super Bowl handle, according to estimates by the American Gaming Association.
Americans will legally bet $3.3 billion on the NCAA Division I men’s and women’s basketball tournaments this year, a 54 percent increase over the past three years, according to AGA estimates. That is almost twice as much as the $1.76 billion the AGA estimated was wagered on Super Bowl 60 in February.
“March Madness is the highlight of the college basketball season and fans are gearing up for a month of tournament action,” Bill Miller, president and CEO of the AGA, said in a statement. “Fans continue to engage with legal, state- and tribal-regulated sports betting in record numbers during one of the biggest moments on the sports calendar.”
The Nevada Gaming Control Board doesn’t break out the tournament from the total basketball betting handle for March. But it estimates that 70 percent of the amount of money wagered is generated from men’s NCAA Tournament games, with the majority of action pouring in on the first weekend, which features 48 games Thursday through Sunday.
The state’s 2025 March Madness handle was estimated at $466 million, more than three times the $151.6 million that was wagered on the 2025 Super Bowl.
Prediction market ads surge
While digital ad impressions for online sportsbooks declined nearly 14 percent last year, impressions tied to prediction market advertising have surged dramatically, according to data compiled the AGA.
Kalshi is the most visible sports betting brand by digital ad impressions, with consumers exposed to its advertising approximately 5.2 billion times through the first two months of 2026, compared with 2.9 billion impressions for FanDuel, the next most frequent sportsbook advertiser, according to the AGA.
According to a study commissioned by the AGA, overall sportsbook advertising volume declined 1 percent year-over-year and is 27 percent lower than the 2021 peak. Sports betting TV advertising declined 9 percent and is down 50 percent since 2021.
The data also shows that sports betting advertising accounts for a small portion of U.S. television advertising, at 0.9 percent of TV ad spend, compared with 1.5 percent for alcohol ads. For every sports betting commercial aired on TV last year, 39 pharmaceutical ads aired.
The AGA noted that ads for prediction markets did not need to comply with state-mandated responsible gaming regulations.
“Confidence in your wager — and in the integrity of the games — starts with a fair and compliant betting market,” Miller said. “That’s why it’s so important that everyone offering sports bets in the U.S. comply with state and tribal regulations, ensuring that consumers are protected.”
CFTC guard rails
The federal Commodities Futures Trading Commission has announced that it is looking at new rules for what should and shouldn’t be allowed on prediction markets and issued guidance aimed at preventing manipulation, particularly in sports.
“Today’s action is an important step in the commission’s continued effort to promote responsible innovation in our derivatives markets,” CFTC Chairman Michael Selig said in a release. “This begins the process of new rulemaking grounded in a rational and coherent interpretation of the Commodity Exchange Act, while reassuring the American people that the CFTC will exercise its exclusive jurisdiction over prediction markets.”
Written comments are being solicited after publication in the Federal Register of an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking.
Public comments can be submitted to the CTFC’s public comments portal on its website.
Comments must be received by April 26.
The agency is seeking comments after a 2024 betting scandal involving former Toronto Raptor Jontay Porter who allegedly provided inside information to gamblers about his plans to withdraw from games he was scheduled to play.
Atlantic City casinos brave bitter February, online casinos stay hot
A brutal winter played a hand in tempering February’s returns out of Atlantic City casinos, but it was next to nothing compared to New Jersey’s white hot online casinos.
Atlantic City’s nine brick-and-mortar casinos generated $202.9 million last month, a 0.3 percent year-over-year decline, according to data published by the state Division of Gaming Enforcement. Meanwhile, internet gaming win jumped 21.2 percent in February 2026, netting online operators and their partners $251.8 million.
February was the fifth consecutive month that online casinos in New Jersey generated $250 million or more, the longest such streak in the state’s 13-year history of legal internet gambling.
“The same weather that may have suppressed brick-and-mortar revenues also likely gave internet gaming a small boost,” noted Jane Bokunewicz, faculty director of the Lloyd D. Levenson Institute of Gaming, Hospitality and Tourism (LIGHT) at Stockton University. “This boost, while still not quite enough to surpass December 2025’s record single-month internet gross gaming revenue, did result in a fourth consecutive month of internet gaming revenues exceeding revenues from traditional land-based operations.”
Internet gaming is taxed at a higher rate than land-based gambling revenue in New Jersey. The $84.4 million in total gaming taxes collected last month exceeded the state’s haul a year earlier by more than 58 percent.
Contact David Danzis at ddanzis@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0378. Follow @AC2Vegas_Danzis on X. Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on X. Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tdewey33 on X.
