The financial impact in advertising and scholarship money is astounding thanks to the nations obsession with March Madness. This year stands to be the largest for influx of advertising dollars spent with GM leading the way.
With everybody and their grandmother scrambling to fill out their march madness brackets we know its’s important to catch every last game possible. Deadspin.com did an article for the ultimate watching experience showcasing 13 different televisions at once. Sports Lynx a leading handicapping service for march madness has refused to take new customers once word got out about the amazing return on investment investors made last year by filling out their brackets and putting money on it.
The games are about to begin and the financial impact is soon to follow. Billions yes you read that correct BILLIONS of dollars will be trading places among bettors and the NCAA as its’ schools and universities throughout the country will be infused with new riches thanks to March Madness.
More importantly than winning to a lot of people is the amount of money that flows into the tournament from advertisers. Turner sports has a monopoly in Basketball for both professional and collegiate. CBS Sports has teamed up to provide broadcasting of these games to the world. With Akami making it so everybody can watch games on their personal computers and tablets this has caused the viewership and ad dollars to rise tremendously.
The largest source of income is broadcast rights. Back only three years ago in 2010 CBS Sports and Time Warner inked a deal that led to a $10.8 billion deal to show every single game of the tournament for the next 14 years. Time Warner and CBS will split coverage until 2024 when the contract runs out and expires.
Two years ago a media company named Kantar along with Ted Turners company and CBS Sports generated $739 million dolalrs in advertising for the tournament that year alone. General Motors a big sports advertiser for the super bowl spent $58 million for the month advertising and sponsoring different events. For the National Championship game an ad has run up to $1.24 million according to advertising and media specialists we spoke to at CBS.
Gambling and bracketology of course is very big as well. The final 4 is the second biggest event for Las Vegas Bookmakers behind the super bowl. Around $85 million is expected to be wagered this year with Cantor Gaming taking the lead for incoming wagers.
So hurry up and fill out your brackets because today is the big day!