The best ways to bet yours for real money

August 2024 · 7 minute read
Commercial Content. 21+. Action Network is the official betting partner of the New York Post, which edits this content.

Our basketball betting expert provides all the ways you can bet on March Madness brackets to make real money, including sportsbook ad fantasy bracket pools and a wide variety of futures wagers.

Best March Madness Bracket Betting Promos

BetMGM $10 Million Bracket Challenge

Do you think you’ve got what it takes to land a perfect bracket? BetMGM is offering all customers a shot at $10 Million, if they manage to correctly predict a perfect bracket. 

Whilst the odds of a perfect bracket are crazy, BetMGM is still giving a massive $100,000 to the person with the highest-scoring bracket. 

Just three days away from the tournament starting, make sure to head over to BetMGM, submit your bracket, and get involved in the action. 

BetMGM March Madness Three-point Promo

This promo code unlocks a 20-1 boost on any March Madness game to finish with at least one three-pointer. New players who bet $10 on any college basketball team’s moneyline will win $200 when either team hits a three-pointer in that game.

A fantastic promotion, and very easy to claim. Please note: Winnings are paid in free bets, not in withdrawable cash. 

FanDuel Bet $5, Win $150 Promo

To claim FanDuel’s March Madness offer, new users need to register, make a first-time deposit, and then simply place your first real-money wager on any March Madness game during the tournament. 

Place a $5 wager on any team’s moneyline during March Madness, and whether or not they win or lose, you’ll receive $150 in free bets. 

March Madness Round of 64: The Analysis

The wait is over: March Madness is finally here. The NCAA tournament starts in style with a jam-packed schedule of College Hoops on day one. 

Colorado State and Michigan are the two teams that kick off the tournament, as last year’s No. 1 seed Michigan enter as underdogs. Colorado’s 25-5 record is far superior than the Wolverine’s 17-14, but a potential upset is certainly on the cards in the opening game of the tournament. 

Gonzaga, the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament for the second year in a row, has advanced to the Sweet 16 in each of the last six NCAA tournaments, and they take to the court on the opening day. The Zags not only seem a safe pick in the round of 64, but a safe option through the opening weekend.

North Carolina has been ever-present in the NCAA tournament but has a tricky test ahead of them against Marquette. The Tar Heels’ best brand of basketball is dangerous, running up and down the floor with Brady Manek, RJ Davis, Caleb Love hitting 3-pointers, and Armando Bacot dominating the paint and on the glass.

After missing the 2021 NCAA tournament, Kentucky is back in the field and among the top Final Four contenders. One team has a national player of the year candidate Oscar Tshiebwe, who No. 15 St. Peters will be more than aware of.

Ways to bet on March Madness Brackets

Sportsbook bracket competitions – Potential free to enter tournaments

Many of the best online betting sites will have free-to-enter bracket challenges, meaning if you predict a perfect bracket, or come close, you’ll be in with a chance of winning big. 

Sportsbooks will also offer brackets which you can pay to enter, with typically higher overall prizes. Often there are prizes for those who come the closest to landing a perfect bracket, as the odds of correctly predicting every outcome is incredibly unlikely. 

The chances of hitting a perfect bracket are supposedly one in 9.2 quintillions. In case you were wondering, one quintillion is one billion billions. However, if you know a little bit about college basketball, these odds become 1 in 1.2 billion. 

As big as the odds are, there’s no excuse not to get involved, and give it a shot at landing a huge payout. 

Fantasy sports bracket pools

Daily Fantasy Sports will run their own bracket competitions for March Madness, and also allow you to create your own leagues, where you can invite friends, family, and coworkers. 

In the case of the bracket competitions run by fantasy sports sites, players pay an entry fee and then compete to get the most points out of the group. Online bracket pools are usually very big with all different buy-in sizes. 

You might have a bracket pool online with the same $20 buy-in, but it might have 1000 people in it. That means the total prize pool is $20,000 and first place is probably getting somewhere around $5,000 with the top 10% of finishers getting some sort of payout. The higher buy-in bracket pools are also available if you are really confident in your bracket. 

A private group amongst friends is usually a lot smaller with smaller payouts for the winner. You might have 15-20 people paying $10 or $20 to play, with the winner taking the whole pot. 

Both choices are great ways to get involved in March Madness. The fun and gratification of getting one over your friends is great in private leagues and can give you some great content for group chats. 

March Madness Bracket Betting Tips 

Do your research

Unfortunately, there’s not long left to pick your bracket, but doing some research makes your bracket go a long way. 

It’s important to focus on the first-round games with teams that you think are going to go deeper in the tournament. The early round games will be easy to pick, like the 1 seed vs. 16 seed games, but some like the 8 vs. 9 games will be a bit more challenging and require a bit more time. 

The biggest point here being not to spend all your time on games that might not have as much of an impact later in the tournament.

Use odds, not seeds

A lot of people that don’t have a lot of time to make their picks will do so based on the seeding. The problem with this is that there are some specific rules that will move the seeds around a bit, having better teams a little lower than they should be. 

The seeding is also done by the NCAA in order to balance out teams from different conferences and locations. Online sportsbooks, on the other hand, will set lines based on who they think are going to win the game and by how many points. 

This can help you to spot ‘upsets’ that aren’t really upsets. You can find teams with worse seeds that are actually favorites against the teams they’re playing. While this isn’t an actual upset, it will be one on the bracket sheet, and a lot of amateur players are going to miss it.

It can also show you good spots to pick potential upsets. If you see a game with an extremely close line where a team is supposed to only win by a point or two, you may be looking at a potential upset candidate. 

Back the better defense

The eyes of America will be on every college team, meaning crowds and TV audiences want to see plenty of points and this means that they will bet on the exciting teams who promise to score plenty of points. 

This means that there may be more value to be found on the teams that play with a packed defense. There is also a lot to be said for the fact that if you don’t lose points, you don’t lose games. Many professional tipsters will back the under in the early rounds, as teams play more cautiously, and do not want to lose. Offense wins games, defense wins championships. 

Be wary of upsets


Many people would make their bracket choices based on seedings. Most think that the best team or higher seeded team is always going to win, backing the favorite each time. We see time and time again that this is just not the case with college basketball, but in all sports betting. A good tip would be to include some upsets in your picks, as there is almost a guarantee each year that upsets will occur. Remember, a No. 8 seed losing to a No. 10 is still an upset. 

However, might it always be fun to root and hope for the underdog to pull off the upset, but you don’t want to get too crazy with the upsets. Remember, teams are usually seeded higher for a reason. It’s because they are supposed to win. That being said, we have seen some crazy years, and some crazy things happen, so nothing is out of the question. The best advice is to look at each game individually and pick the team that you really think is going to win. 

ncG1vNJzZmimqaW8tMCNnKamZ2Jlf3N7j2xmam5foq6zr8dmpJqcnprAtHnBq5ico5WperW0xGaZnqukYsSixdJmq6hlkprBbsXOrqmsZZakv26%2BxJqjZqWfo7K6ew%3D%3D