March Madness Betting NJ: 2019 NCAA Tournament Betting Guide

It is that time of year again. The NCAA Tournament, and more importantly, March Madness betting, is upon is. This marks the first year you can legally bet on the tournament in New Jersey with NJ sports betting apps. Consider this your full guide to the mayhem.

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March Madness predictions

The 2019 tournament is sure to be filled with a number of upset specials and Cinderella stories. Our experts have poured over the brackets and put together their March Madness predictions on what to expect in each of the four regions.

With prohibitive favorites Duke, North Carolina, Gonzaga and Virginia, the tournament is setting up for a massive ACC showdown… which often means the unexpected will happen. Still, with Zion Williamson returning to Duke, it seems it’s their tournament to lose.

Meanwhile, the defending National Champions, Villanova, are a six seed despite winning the Big East both in the regular season and the conference tournament. Somehow, Marquette, who lost their last four regular season games, got a five seed.

 

March Madness upset picks

Maybe you should bet against Virginia for March Madness betting. They return their low-scoring brand of putrid basketball to the tournament which saw them become the first number one seed eliminated last March. They are yet again on pace to be a top seed and, of course, seem a ripe candidate to be picked off.

More likely, though, are upsets by 11 and 12 seeds, and we’ve identified five potential upset picks to consider.

 

March Madness sportsbooks

We’ve put together a lit of the best NJ March Madness sportsbooks. There are plenty of options out there, but we picked our favorite apps and provided the best signup bonuses available on the market.

 

NCAA Tournament odds

We have developed an odds feed for live first round odds on the NCAA Tournament from DraftKings and FanDuel. This will stay updated throughout the tournament and you can bet right from the post.

 

Printable NCAA bracket 2019

Tired of having to whip out your phone and miss the old folded up paper bracket of your youth? Have no fear– we have put together the best 2019 printable NCAA bracket for March Madness betting that you will find. Clean, crisp and fits the page like a glove. Write in all of your NCAA Tournament picks and carry the Madness with you in your pocket.

 

NCAA TV schedule

We’ve put together the full NCAA TV schedule complete with announcer pairings, start times, locations and streaming options.

 

March Madness buzzer beaters

March Madness buzzer beaters are what it’s all about and we’ve ranked our favorites.

 

How to bet on March Madness in New Jersey

This marks the first year for March Madness betting in NJ, and we’ve put together a full list of options on how to bet on March Madness in New Jersey.

There are two main options:

  1. In-person
  2. Online

Online sports betting is where it’s at. Here’s a list of the best March Madness betting promos at NJ sportsbooks:

DraftKings Sportsbook

DraftKings is running their DraftKings Bracket Challenge which is free to enter and offers up to $64,000 in cash prizes.

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FanDuel Sportsbook

FanDuel is running their FanDuel Bracket Madness, an even bigger contest with $250,000 in prizes including $100,000 to first.

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March Madness betting promo codes

If you’re looking for all the promo codes you can find, here’s a full list of March Madness betting promo codes.

DraftKings Sportsbook March Madness promo code

DraftKings Sportbook’s March Madness promo is a $50 risk free bet and a $500 first bet match.

 

PointsBet NJ March Madness promo code

PointsBet NJ’s March Madness promo is 10x $100 second chance bets when you enter code BROADLINES. This is the best offer we’ve seen and it is exclusive to Crossing Broad.

 

History

This year’s edition of the NCAA Tournament starts on Tuesday with the First Four games. But we’ve come a long way to the 68-team version of the Big Dance.

The early days

The entire tournament began way back in 1939 by the National Association of Basketball Coaches and via the mind of Ohio State head coach Harold Olsen. It would be a single-elimination tournament with regional third place games (a national one would also be added in 1946). His Buckeyes would fall to the Oregon Ducks in the first ever tournament. For the first 11 years, the field was set to eight teams.

In 1951, the field doubled to 16 teams with an East and a West region. Because of this setup, there wasn’t really a true Final Four until the following year. That’s when the four regional winners met at the same neutral site for the national semifinals and national championship game. It was also the first tournament to have regional television coverage. From 1953 until 1968, the field would fluctuate between 22 and 25 teams. The 1957 edition was also the first year of formally organized levels of competition between the University Division (Division I) and the College Division (Divisions II and III).

 

Growth of the Tournament

Along with the field expanding permanently to 25 teams in 1969, the NCAA Tournament began to air on NBC. Not all the games were televised, especially the early round matchups.

In 1973, the Final Four schedule changed to how we know it today. Semifinals were moved to Saturday from Thursday or Friday, while the title game was played on Monday rather than Saturday.

Along with the expansion to 32 teams, the 1975 NCAA Tournament also saw the addition of at-large teams. Previously, teams that were conference champions or independents were invited to participate. In the previous year, the Collegiate Commissioners’ Association held a tournament in St. Louis and invited the second-place teams from eight conferences. Also, the winners of the ECAC regional tournaments in the Northeastern part of the country were granted automatic bids. The following season, the regional third-place games were eliminated.

The 1978 edition saw the first ever tournament involving seeds. The 16 conference winners were seeded 1 through 4 in each region. Inside those same regions, at-large teams were seeded 1 through 4 as well. Altogether, each region had four AQs and four at-large teams. However, there were only 11 true at-large teams in the field. The other five were conference winners with automatic bids, but were seeded as at-large teams. Because of this, this practice ended immediately. The next year, with the tournament expanding to 40 teams, the regions were seeded 1-10.

 

The modern era

The 1980 Tournament again gave at-large teams more of a chance to get in, as an unlimited number of at-larges could come from any conference. The seeding formula was also changed to make each region as evenly competitive as possible instead of geographic considerations. It was also the first year of a 48-team tournament. The 1981 Tournament also saw its last national third-place game.

1982 was a big year in the entire college basketball landscape. It was the first tournament designated as the men’s Division I Tournament after the NCAA began sponsoring championships in women’s sports. CBS and ESPN also obtained rights to air the NCAA Tournament, and popularity in the entire tournament took off because of added TV exposure. The term “March Madness” was also first used in this setting thanks to Brent Musberger.

After expansions to 52 and 53 teams in the next two seasons, the field expanded to 64 teams, in 1985 (when Villanova won). A shot clock and three-point line would be added in each of the next two tournaments.

A play-in game would be added in 2001 to expand the field to 65 teams. That would stay the same until 2011, when the current 68-team format was incarnated thanks to the start of the First Four games.

 

More ways to watch

With the field remaining pretty much the same, the viewing options began to change. CBS was awarded the rights to cover all the games starting in 1991. The network provided their affiliates with three types of feeds from each venue:

But with a ton of games going on at the same time, people wanted to watch all the games simultaneously. Enter DirecTV, who in 1999 offered a Mega March Madness premium package that showed the non-blacked out games on cable.

When the internet began to grow, Yahoo! offered streaming of the first three rounds of the tournament under their Yahoo! Platinum service for $16.95 a month. The following year, CBS began selling their product, March Madness On Demand, which was free for AOL subscribers. In 2006, the service was made free and has continued to be so outside of 2012 (had to pay $3.99 to get access to all the games).

In 2011, the NCAA announced a massive 14-year, $10.8 million TV deal with CBS and Turner Sports (TBS, TNT, and truTV) to broadcast all the games on a national basis for the first time ever. It provides the NCAA over $500 million annually and makes up over 90% of the NCAA’s annual revenue. It’s a ton.

 

All the winners

 

Philly City 6 NCAA History

Villanova:

Temple:

La Salle:

St. Joe’s:

Penn:

Drexel:

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