{"id":646,"date":"2026-03-17T15:07:37","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T16:07:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/?p=646"},"modified":"2026-03-25T13:28:03","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T13:28:03","slug":"march-madness-duke-now-the-betting-favourite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/17\/march-madness-duke-now-the-betting-favourite\/","title":{"rendered":"March Madness: Duke Now the Betting Favourite"},"content":{"rendered":"
March Madness<\/a> officially gets going tonight, with men\u2019s First Four play-in games tipping off \u2013 Howard at UMBC (6:40 p.m. EST) and NC State at Texas (9:15 p.m. EST), both games at UD Arena in Dayton, OH, with the NC State game\u2019s Over 157.5 the most bet total, according to BetMGM.<\/p>\n Moneyline at DraftKings is -110 even. Spread is UMBC -1.5 (+110), Howard +1.5 (-130), and the O\/U 142.5. The latter game ML has NC State -120, Texas +100, with the spread NC State -1.5 (+102), Texas +1.5 (-122), and O\/U 158.5.<\/p>\n Howard are slight betting favourites at theScore at -115, with UMBC at -105. Spread is UMBC +1.5 (-120), Howard -1.5 (Even), and the O\/U 141.5. For the later game, the spread is NC State -1.5 (-105), Texas +1.5 (-115), and O\/U 158.5. ML is Texas -105, NC State -115.<\/p>\n And at FanDuel, Howard is at -115, with UMBC at -104. Spread is UMBC +1.5 (-120), Howard -1.5 (-102), and the O\/U 141.5. For the later game, the spread is NC State -1.5 (-104), Texas +1.5 (-118), and O\/U 157.5. ML is Texas -105, NC State -114.<\/p>\n At theScore, for tonight’s games, for UMBC versus Howard, 66.2% of bets, 69.5% of handle are on UMBC\u00a0(+1.5), 63.8% of bets, 51.8% of handle are on UMBC ML\u00a0(-105), and 38.5% of bets, 72% of handle are on Under\u00a0(142.5). For Texas versus NC States, 51.8% of bets, 60.6% of handle are on NC State\u00a0(-1.5), 52.7% of bets, 65% of handle are on NC State ML\u00a0(-115), and 60.9% of bets, 59.9% of handle are on Over\u00a0(158.5).<\/p>\n First Four play on the women’s basketball side gets going tomorrow night with Richmond (+142) against Nebraska (-170), 7 p.m. EST, at Cameroon Indoor Stadium in Durham, NC, and Stephen F. Austin (+124) against Missouri State (-148), 9 p.m. EST, at Moody Center in Austin, TX.<\/p>\n A spokesperson from theScore Bet is reporting some interesting odds movement of note on the men’s side, since the brackets for March Madness Men\u2019s and Women\u2019s NCAA Basketball tournaments were released Sunday night.<\/p>\n Duke is\u00a0now the favorite\u00a0(+320)\u00a0after entering the\u00a0Selection\u00a0Sunday\u00a0show with the\u00a0second best\u00a0odds\u00a0behind Michigan\u00a0at +375.\u00a0Michigan was\u00a0the +320\u00a0favorite at the end of the Big Ten championship\u00a0game on Sunday afternoon and\u00a0now have the\u00a0second best\u00a0odds\u00a0at +375.<\/p>\n Iowa\u00a0State is\u00a0now +1800,\u00a0sixth best odds,\u00a0after\u00a0sitting at +2800\u00a0(9th\u00a0best) on\u00a0Sunday afternoon.\u00a0Illinois\u00a0shortened from +2500 to +2200,\u00a0still 7th\u00a0best odds.\u00a0St. John\u2019s is now +6000 after sitting at +5000\u00a0just before the bracket reveal.\u00a0Gonzaga is down to +6000 from +6600\u00a0on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n At theScore Bet, since the bracket was revealed Sunday night, in terms of national championship winner<\/a>, Arizona has been seeing 16.8% of bets, 22.3% of handle, Michigan 8.9% of bets, 10.9% of handle, Purdue 6.9% of bets, 8.9% of handle, Iowa\u00a0State 5.5% of bets, 8.6% of handle, and Duke 11.5% of bets, 7.9% of handle.<\/p>\n Out of curiosity, what about March Madness in Canada compared to the U.S.?<\/p>\n “I would often over the years compare percentages with colleagues that were at U.S.-facing books,” said Phill Gray, the former head of sports betting operations at Sports Interaction, and sports betting industry consultant. “In general I’d say it was about 25% in terms of handle relative to the size of the overall book. College football was about the same. Certainly still somewhat significant\u00a0to us, but nowhere near the importance in the U.S.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The post March Madness: Duke Now the Betting Favourite<\/a> appeared first on Casino.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Men’s First Four play-in games set to tip off tonight Duke now the tournament odds favourite NCAA Women’s First Four gets going tomorrow night March Madness officially gets going tonight, with men\u2019s First Four play-in games tipping off \u2013 Howard at UMBC (6:40 p.m. EST) and NC State at Texas (9:15 p.m. EST), both games…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":615,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=646"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":648,"href":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646\/revisions\/648"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cerulepillar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Tonight’s Betting Lines<\/h2>\n
Odds Movement<\/h2>\n
Duke Now the Favourite<\/h2>\n
Canada March Madness Betting Interest<\/h2>\n