March Madness is a busy time for US sportsbooks. However, it’s also about customer acquisition, just like the Super Bowl. Many operators offer free-to-play bracket contests as well as other promotions.
Betr is, for example, linking its promotion to the introduction full-game lines and offering vig-free betting on its March Madness pre-game action.
Sporttrade is trying to get attention to its unique, stock market-esque sports betting application. The app launched a new tournament that focuses exclusively on in-play betting. The Battle Bets event is a competition in which eight bettors attempt to win $100 within 25 minutes. The $1,000 prize goes to the winner.
BetMGM, bet365 are participating in the free bracket contest. Anyone who makes a perfect bracket in the BetMGM bracket contest can win $10 million. This has not happened in modern March Madness so it is more likely that the event will award only the $100,0000 guaranteed prizes.
The bet365 setup is identical to the bracket game, offering $10 million for a perfect bracket and additional $100,000 in prize money.
These contests are available only to customers who use the respective apps in the states where they are currently live.
Bally’s held a bracket contest last year with $100 million to reward anyone who put together a perfect bracket. This year, the game is no longer in play.
According to Eilers and Krejcik, this year’s tournament will bring in approximately $2.6 billion in legal and regulated sportsbook handles. This is a smaller number than the AGA projections. However, those projections were inclusive of all forms gambling such as bracket contests with friends and office pools, while the EKG numbers focus on US online and retail betting.
