March Madness Betting Online
Between brackets and single-game bets, Americans bet in the neighborhood of $10 billion on March Madness every year.
You can always enter your bracket in the office or bar pool or any number of free bracket contests across the country. But in Tennessee, there are more betting options for the NCAA Tournament than ever before. That’s because legal and regulated online sports betting is now here.
Here’s how you can now bet on March Madness in Tennessee, find live odds for every game and spot the best free and paid bracket contests. Jump right to the best bracket contests here.
Best March Madness Betting Sites
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Live March Madness odds
See below for live March Madness game odds at major Tennessee online sportsbooks. Check the full NCAA game odds board at any time on our dedicated live betting odds page. See the full selection of top TN sports betting apps.
How to bet on March Madness online in TN
Tennessee sports betting is only available online and via mobile. That means you can bet on sports in Tennessee from your phone or computer as long as you are 21 or older and inside state lines. March Madness betting will be available on licensed online sportsbooks and their apps, which you can download to your phone or tablet.
No matter which you choose, if you want to bet on March Madness in Tennessee, you’ll need to start here:
1. Create a new account
Betting on March Madness starts with signing up for an account with at least one Tennessee online sportsbook. Go to the sportsbook’s website via the links on this page and fill out the required personal and account info, including your name, last four digits of your Social Security number, username and password.
Enter the promo or bonus code for your sportsbook of choice to make sure you get the best bonus available. Don’t worry, if there is a bonus code, you’ll find it here. Then, agree to the terms and conditions and submit your info.
Your age and location will be verified using your Social Security info and geolocation technology, respectively.
To download and use the iOS or Android app, just click the “download app” button on the sportsbook homepage itself. There will be options for both operating systems.
2. Use your bonus bets or make a deposit
After you’ve registered, the process of betting on March Madness continues with a little banking. In other words, you need to get some money into your account to bet with.
If you create a new account at a Tennessee online sportsbook that has a “no deposit” or “bonus bet” offer, you will get an amount of bonus money added to your account that you can use to make a real bet. If you want to increase your stakes beyond the amount of your bonus bet, you can make a deposit.
There are a number of ways you can do this, including cash at various retail locations (e.g., 7-Eleven), credit and debit cards, online bank transfers and third-party payment processors. Open the sportsbook’s website or app and look for anything that says “deposit,” or “cashier.”
Choose a deposit method, enter a deposit amount and follow the instructions on-screen. Confirm your deposit, and the money should be available for you to bet with almost immediately.
3. Fill out your betting slip and confirm
Take a look through all the March Madness betting markets available. If you see a game line or prop bet you want to bet on, click on it. A March Madness bet slip will be created automatically. Here, you can enter the amount you want to bet, add more single bets, or turn them all into various types of parlays.
The bet slip will instantly show you the potential payout of all your bets. Once you’ve got it all in order, click “place bet,” or any similarly worded tab at the bottom of the bet slip to confirm your bet or bets.
Best March Madness Bracket Pools at TN Sportsbooks
The top online sportsbooks in the state will likely run a number of free and paid NCAA Tournament bracket contests every year. You can fill out the NCAA Tournament bracket sheet and enter it into these contests ahead of the start of the first round.
FanDuel Sportsbook will be back with its Bracket Pick’em challenge for real cash prizes. BetMGM Sportsbook is going all out with a $100,000 bracket challenge that’s completely free to play. If you happen to hit a perfect bracket in the BetMGM pool, $10 million is yours.
NCAA March Madness betting lines
There’s really only a couple of restrictions on March Madness betting in Tennessee. Live or in game prop bets are not allowed on college teams or athletes, and prop bets of all types are not allowed on individual athletes. That said, here are all the ways you can bet on March Madness in Tennessee:
Free and paid bracket contests or pools
Brackets are the way many Americans have bet on March Madness throughout the years. You simply fill out a 63-game bracket ahead of the NCAA Tournament — meaning you pick a winner for every game from the first round to the championship. You then enter that bracket into a free or paid pool or contest.
The Tennessee Education Lottery is looking to approve both free-to-enter and paid NCAA Tournament bracket contests and pools at Tennessee online sportsbooks. Keep checking your favorite sportsbook to see if there are any updates.
Game-by-game betting
Tennessee sportsbooks will have March Madness betting markets open for every game. That means you can place the following single-game March Madness bets:
- Moneyline bets: Pick the winner of any March Madness game and lock in a bet at the currently posted odds. The lines will show favorites with a negative number, telling you how much you will need to bet to win $100, and underdogs will have a positive number, telling you how much you can win for every $100 you bet. Winning bets also receive the original stake back.
- Point spread: Sportsbooks set spreads for every March Madness game. You simply need to pick the winner of the game with this line factored into the final score. You either take the favorite minus the points or the underdog plus the points. Spread bets are booked at currently posted odds, and if the team you bet on covers the spread, you win.
- Totals: Sportsbooks set lines on the total number of points both teams will combine to score for during every March Madness game. You simply pick whether the final combined score will end up over or under that line. Totals bets are booked at currently posted odds, and you win if you’re right.
- Parlays: Parlay bets combine multiple bets into one and stand to win more than individual bets would on their own. Just remember you have to win every leg of a parlay to get paid.
How to read March Madness game lines
The betting lines for a first round March Madness game might look like this:
- Tennessee -17.5 (-110) -800 O 148 (-110)
- Colgate +17.5 (-110) +600 U 148 (-110)
The spread here is Tennessee –17.5, meaning the team is a heavy favorite. The current odds on spread bets are in parentheses. Bet on Tennessee, and you’ll have to deduct 17.5 points from the Vols’ final score to determine the spread winner. That means the Vols need to win by 18 or more for spread bets on them to pay off.
The moneyline here is Tennessee -800 and Colgate +600. That means you’ll have to bet $800 on Tennessee to win $100, plus your bet back. Or, you stand to win $600 for every $100 you bet on Colgate, plus your bet back.
Finally, the totals line is 148. The current March Madness betting odds on totals wagers are in brackets. That means you’ll be betting whether Tennessee and Colgate will combine to score over or under 148 points.
For the most part, these lines will look the same as they do in Vegas when the March Madness game markets open in Tennessee. Of course, the amount of money bet on each side can force sportsbooks to move lines. They do this in an effort to get an equal amount of money bet on both sides so they can realize the vig and don’t need to sweat the result. That’s how sportsbooks make money.
Different betting markets in different states will see different betting patterns. As a result, the Vegas and Tennessee lines may differ by the time tipoff rolls around, particularly for games involving Tennessee-based teams.
Which TN teams are in March Madness?
Although no school from the state has ever won the NCAA Tournament, March Madness always seems to include a few local programs competing for the national title. The Tennessee teams with the best shot at a deep March Madness run almost always include the following three teams:
Tennessee Volunteers
The Vols have appeared in 21 NCAA Tournaments. In 2010, the Tennessee Volunteers made the Elite Eight and lost by a single point to Michigan State.
Memphis Tigers
The Tigers have appeared in 26 NCAA Tournaments. In 2008, the team reached the national championship game and lost to Kansas in OT.
Vanderbilt Commodores
The Commodores have appeared in 15 NCAA Tournaments. In 2007, the team made the Sweet Sixteen.
March Madness schedule
- November to March: NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball regular season.
- Early March: 32 conference tournaments.
- Second Sunday in March: Selection Sunday where the 36 at-large selections for the tournament are made, and seeding and First Four games are determined.
- Mid-March: First Four games
- Mid-March: 64 teams play first-round games
- Mid-March: 32 teams play second-round games
- Late March: The Sweet Sixteen
- Late March: The Elite Eight
- Early April: The Final Four
- Early April: The national championship game
March Madness FAQ
You can watch March Madness online in Tennessee. In fact, Turner Broadcasting, CBS and the NCAA have their own NCAA March Madness Live product that gives you access to every game on almost any device.
You have to log in with your current TV provider subscription info, and it’ll tell you what channels the games are on locally. Plus, it will give you access to all 67 live games, real-time bracket info, live scores, stats and video highlights.
March Madness Live is available on all Apple, Android and Amazon devices. Plus, Roku, Xbox One, Google Assistant, Alexa, Chromecast and Airplay.
There are 32 conference tournament winners, and each receives an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.
Then, the NCAA hosts Selection Sunday where it picks 36 at-large bids for the tournament. The selection committee also determines seeding, and which teams have to play their way into the first round through the First Four games.
According to PrimeSport, there are NCAA Final Four ticket packages starting at $410 to $760 per person. In 2019, tickets to the two semifinal games started at $245, and you could obtain nosebleed seats for the championship game for as little as $85 each.