The full range of March Madness odds at legal online sportsbooks gives you lots of room to diversify with betting lines on every individual NCAA Tournament game. You can spread the risk out even further by betting on March Madness conference, team and player props, or use posted March Madness betting odds to help fill out your bracket.
Here’s how to bet March Madness at online sportsbooks in Maryland including live March Madness odds direct from the books.
March Madness odds
March Madness odds are available all year round. Check the current odds for March Madness in the feed below. Click on any odds to go straight to the online sportsbook, claim your new player bonus, and get your bets started. Check in during the tournament for live March Madness game odds.
How to bet March Madness online in Maryland
If you want to bet on March Madness online in Maryland, you have to do it with a licensed online sportsbook. Getting started with a Maryland online sportsbook requires you to follow these steps:
- Sign up for an account: Follow our link to the website for the Maryland sportsbook of your choice. Sign up there or download its app and sign up via the app. Just look for a tab that says “SIGN UP,” “REGISTER,” or “JOIN.” Fill out the registration form with any required personal and account info, including your name and the last four digits of your SSN. Enter the promo code or bonus code you find here to make sure you get the best Maryland sportsbook bonus available. Finally, agree to the terms and conditions and submit your form. Your age and location will be verified using your SSN and Geolocation technology and you’ll be ready for the next step.
- Deposit: There are several ways you can deposit money in your account. Just open the Maryland sportsbook’s website or its mobile app, look for a tab that says “DEPOSIT,” or “CASHIER,” and choose from the available deposit methods. They will include everything from cash at Maryland casinos, credit and debit cards, online banking, and popular third-party payment processors. After that, you simply enter a deposit amount, follow the instructions on-screen and your deposit will be available almost immediately.
Complete these two simple steps and you’ll be ready to browse through all the March Madness betting markets available in Maryland. Click on any bet you like to create a bet slip and fill it out to place a bet.
Bet on pre-tournament seeds, props
You have to wait until Selection Sunday (Sunday, March 12) to find out who’s in and how teams are seeded for this year’s NCAA Tournament, and that means you also have to wait until Selection Sunday to start filling out your bracket.
In the meantime, though, you can bet on Selection Sunday in advance at online sportsbooks including DraftKings Maryland or by using the BetMGM Maryland bonus code. In fact, there are several popular pre-tourney lines you can bet on, including:
- How many teams from each conference will get in the tournament?
- Who will get the #1 seeds?
- Over/Under on wins
- Over/Under on seed
Betting on March Madness games vs. filling out a bracket
Filling out a bracket and entering it in a March Madness bracket contest requires you to pick winners for all 63 NCAA Tournament games. That’s too big of a commitment for some, which is why Maryland online sportsbooks let you get in on a little bit of the March Madness action by betting on just one or a select few tournament games.
This kind of individual game betting lets you do March Madness your way, but it doesn’t preclude you from entering a bracket as well. Individual March Madness game betting can be a great addition to filling out a bracket or two, allowing you to hedge against your bracket entries, or make up for some errors in your bracketology.
Maryland sportsbook sites will have March Madness betting lines for every game (see above). That means you can get in on as much individual March Madness game betting action, or as little, as you like.
Filling out a bracket doesn’t preclude you from betting on moneylines, totals, and spread bets for individual games. Combine two or more March Madness bets into a parlay or get in on the futures and props markets as well.
What are the worst March Madness bets?
You can limit your losses betting on March Madness by avoiding these two March Madness betting mistakes:
- Betting all four top seeds: Since a No. 1 seed has won 23 of 37 National Championships since 1985 (62%), it might seem like a good idea to bet on all four #1 seeds in the futures betting odds market ahead of the first round. Unfortunately, the odds won’t add up most of the time, leaving you holding the bag the 38% of the time a No. 1 doesn’t win, and taking a loss sometimes, even when one wins. You can bet more than one team to win the tournament and still make a profit, as long as the bet with the lowest odds still pays enough to cover the total cost of all your bets. That is rarely the case with all four No.1 seeds.
- Picking too many upsets: We just said predicting big upsets can be the key to making money betting on the NCAA Tournament. It can also help separate your bracket from the pack in a bracket contest. But that doesn’t mean you should start firing away on every underdog you can. Be selective. The UMBC Retrievers beat the Virginia Cavaliers in the First Round of the 2018 NCAA Tournament to become the first and only No. 16 seed to ever upset a No. 1 seed. That means picking all four No. 16 seeds to advance out of the First Round this year is a bad idea. Picking even one is almost as bad. Look for upsets, just look carefully and be selective in how you bet on longshots as they rarely, if ever, pay off.
Should I bet on March Madness favorites or Cinderellas?
Betting on March Madness favorites can pay off at a greater rate, but the odds make the risk rarely worth the reward. Betting small on March Madness underdogs can pay off big, but the returns are few and far between and the losses can add up fast.
The trick is to strike a balance between the two, finding bets that offer value alongside a decent chance of winning.
How exactly do you do that? By researching the teams and the matchups. Go a step further than just the seeding; find out who’s hot, who’s not, who’s ripe for an upset, and which teams are more likely to wear the glass slipper this year.
Which Maryland teams are expected in March Madness this year?
Maryland has several NCAA Division I basketball teams that have previously appeared in the NCAA Tournament. Some, like Towson, are unlikely to make the cut. Others, like UMBC, have had recent success in the event but would need a conference championship to make the cut. The Maryland Terrapins, however, are almost always in the conversation to be in the field:
- Maryland Terrapins odds: The Terrapins have 29 NCAA appearances, including two Final Four runs in 2001 and 2002, and the 2002 National Championship. During the 2022-23 season, the Terps hit the 20-win mark for the first time since 2019-20.
- University of Maryland Baltimore County Retrievers: UMBC are the NCAA upset kings, having become the only No. 16 to ever beat a No. 1 in 2018. However, the Retrievers have only appeared in two NCAA Tournaments, and their combined record is 1–2.
- Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers: Mount St. Mary’s has played in six previous NCAA Tournaments, but has only won two tournament games. The Mountaineers last played in the tournament in 2021, losing a First Four game to Texas Southern.
- Navy Midshipmen: The United States Naval Academy’s basketball team competes in the Patriot League and has appeared in the NCAA Tournament 11 times. They’ve gone as far as the Elite Eight three times, in 1947, 1954, and 1986. However, 1998 was the team’s last March Madness appearance.
- Coppin State Eagles: Coppin State competes in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and has appeared in the four NCAA Tournaments four times. They have only won one tournament game (1997), but it made them only the third No. 15 seed to beat a No. 2 seed. The team’s last March Madness appearance was in 2008.
- Loyola Greyhounds: Loyola University Maryland has made two appearances in the NCAA Tournament (1994, 2012), but they have never won a game.
- Morgan State Bears: Morgan State University has made two appearances in the NCAA Tournament (2009,2010), but they have never won a game.
- Towson Tigers: Towson University has made two appearances in the NCAA Tournament (1990, 1991), but they have never won a game
March Madness bracket contests
March Madness bracket contests or pools are the traditional way most Americans wager on the NCAA Tournament. You fill out a bracket, pick a winner for all 63 games, enter it in a free or paid-entry bracket contest or pool, and the entries with the most correct predictions share the prize pool. March Madness bracket pools are popular in offices, bars, and amongst friends. However, Maryland betting sites now offer an alternative, running both free and paid-entry March Madness bracket contests.
DraftKings Sportsbook, BetMGM, and the FanDuel Sportsbook app have run some of the most lucrative free March Madness bracket contests in the country over the past few years.
DraftKings has run:
- $250,000 Survivor Pool
- $64,000 Bracket Challenge, and
- $16,000 Free Second Chance Bracket Contest.
FanDuel has run:
- $250,000 free-to-enter FanDuel Bracket Madness contest.
BetMGM has run:
- $2 Million Perfect Bracket Challenge
For more on the best March Madness Bracket contests in Maryland and how you can get in on the action, click through to our free March Madness Bracket Contests page.
March Madness betting rules
Maryland online sportsbook will publish rules for NCAA basketball bets, containing information for how the sportsbook settles bets and handles certain situations that may arise in NCAA Tournament games. Read these terms and conditions before you bet so nothing unexpected happens. Most of these rules as they pertain to NCAA Tournament betting are likely to include things like:
- Results include overtime unless otherwise stated
- Tournament totals bets are settled based on official NCAA stats
- Overtime does not count for the second half of bets unless otherwise stated