Double-digit favorites are having the best March Madness — from a betting context — since seeding began in the NCAA Tournament in 1979.
Double-digit favorites are 15-2 straight up and 14-3 against the spread (ATS) in the Rounds of 32 and 64, the best mark since 1979, according to our data guru Evan Abrams.
A $100 per game bettor against the spread would have made about $975 blindly betting on every double-digit favorite this NCAA Tournament. That's a roughly 57% return on investment (ROI) over just a four-day timespan.
Double-digit favorites are naturally the darlings of the public, who historically back big favorites across all sports. This season, that strategy has worked out.
The betting public has had the most profitable March Madness in recorded history.
"The betting public" constitutes the spread that is most popular for a given game. For instance, for UConn vs. Northwestern, about 73% of all bettors had the Huskies at -13.5. That would make it the "public's" pick.
And, of course, the No. 1 overall seed easily took down Northwestern in a wire-to-wire, 18-point win to move on to the Sweet 16.
The public has gone 38-13 against the spread ATS in the Round of 32 and Round of 64 for this year's NCAA Tournament. If you had bet $100 on every game with a public spread, you'd have made $2,150 and an ROI of over 42%.
These double-digit favorites are usually top-four seeds, which have also performed historically well this March Madness.
Top-four seeds are 26-4 straight up and 21-9 against the spread (ATS) this tournament. Guess what? That's also the best record for both metrics in recorded history.
