Fun March Madness Betting Games

It’s that time of year again, when we revive the old college spirit and cheer for our favorite teams like it’s our job and compete over the final NCAA score. Maybe, it makes us feel like we are living our college years again. Maybe it’s a passion for college basketball, or maybe it’s just plain fun.
If your home is the place to go to watch the March Madness games, here are 16 fun ideas for planning and hosting a great viewing party. Our editorial team scoured the internet to bring you the best party ideas. Go team! Now bring on the march madness.

1. Choose a Date/Bracket Section

• Tips For March Madness Betting. Bankroll management is a priority when declaring your March Madness betting strategy because there are so many games that funds can get depleted quickly. Declare a budget for March Madness betting odds and ensure that it is sourced from disposable incoming - meaning assets remaining after all bills have been paid.
• Betting on March Madness 2021. The next section of our March Madness betting guide is focused on the latest edition of the tournament. Our team will be working around the clock to provide news, analysis, fresh betting predictions, and everything else that can help you with your wagers.

March Madness futures: We covered futures betting briefly earlier, but this is a more in-depth look at how to win at March Madness futures wagers. March Madness locations: Get the lowdown on which cities and arenas will host the upcoming March Madness bracket games. When to Bet March Madness Breaking down the March Madness Tournament over 3 weekends. It can be hard to digest the entirety of the NCAA Tournament. Consider the NFL as a comparison. The regular season has 256 games spread over 17 weeks. March Madness, on the other hand, has 63 games over three weeks, not including the four play-in games.

- First Four
- First Weekend
- Sweet Sixteen/Elite Eight
- Final Four
Click here for more details regarding the NCAA tournament March bracket and to get up to date on the current NCAA history.

via Purple Train

2. Find The Perfect March Madness Themed Invitations

What kind of invitations will you send? Keep it casual with a Facebook event, an e-mail or create a fun flyer using your favorite team's colors. You could also opt for orange and black for a team-neutral basketball look. Even consider making the invitation round like a basketball. Be sure to set the start time for at least 30 minutes before the game starts so all the catching up can be done before tip off. More cool invitation ideas here:
• Paper Direct
• Evite

3. Support Your Favorite Sports Team and Get Creative

Create the ultimate VIP viewing area by pulling in plenty of extra chairs and side tables. Add pillows, cushions or bean bag chairs for extra seating. Then make sure the food and beverages are easily accessible with a buffet table and strategically placed coolers or beverage buckets. Extra points: make your own team-themed coasters!
Need advice on how to make your own coasters? We found some of the best bloggers to help you put together the perfect sport's day party. Click here for a DIY coaster guide.

4. Reunite and Join the NCAA Finals With Your Old Friends

Did your alma mater make the finals? Make it a reunion with your old college chums. Wear your school colors, create a party pennant to use on Facebook or email, and eat your favorite college late night food. Was it tacos or pizza? You can even play beer pong at halftime.
Related: Throwing the Ultimate Big Game Party

5. Plan The Perfect March Madness Games

Put a basketball hoop over the garbage can. It will add a little fun and encourage clean up. Three pointer! Take a look at this great YouTube video for instructions on how to set up this great march madness activity.

6. Who doesn't dream about being able to dunk with the best of them?

Plowing through the defense and soaring through the air … or sinking the three-pointer in the last five seconds of the game. Let your guests live out their hoop dreams by strategically placing foam basketballs around the room and multiple nets for some spectacular shots. People can even call their shots … “off of the bookshelf, over the dog, and into the cooler…”

7. Get To Know Your Guests With These March Madness Activities

This fun activity won’t take a time out from the game and won’t take much effort to assemble. Simply provide sticky notes and pens. Ask your guests to vote on the best sports cliché’s that come spouting out of the commentators mouths. Write them on a post-it and stick it on the wall for all to enjoy. You can even vote on your faves, like the team that “takes them to school to show them the rules.”

8. Some of us leave to fill our plates or go to the bathroom during the commercials, others consider it part of the entertainment.

Advertisers will be running many special ads geared toward college basketball fans. You can pass out “score sheets” to your guests and have them vote on their favorite commercials. When the game is over, see if any of the spots stood out. Or try some of these other creative “sideline” games.

via The Chic Site

9. Drink More Cocktails, Buy More Beer

Spin it on the rim! Pour a little salt and/or sugar onto small plates and set out a squirt bottle of chocolate syrup. Salt for margaritas, sugar for lemon drops, chocolate for martinis, etc., Guests can twirl their glasses upside down in the sugar or salt or dress up a drink with ribbons of chocolate syrup. What a treat!

10. Get In The Zone and Share Your Favorite March Madness Accessories

The players are all about their fancy shoes … so why not have a “Kicks Contest” of your own at your viewing party. Tell you guests ahead of time to wear their funkiest, funniest or coolest shoes. Everyone votes by paper ballot and the winner can be announced between quarters. You can have a fun little prize for the winner, like team logo shoe laces! For a tie breaker, have them “walk the runway” to break the tie by applause.

11. Party Recipes That Only The NCAA Finals Could Handle

For another variation on a creative menu for your party, why not pick out specific foods to represent each region in the tournament? Choose delicious dishes from the West, South, Southeast and Southwest.
Here are a few possibilites: West = steak sliders, South = shrimp and grits cups, Southeast = crab dip, Southwest = chili or Tex Mex tacos.

12. Make sure your buffet table includes plenty of food that is easy to grab and eat with your hands, without double dribbling.

This recipe for slam dunk sliders is a great example.

via Cookin' Cowgirl

13. What's for Dessert?

Serve great basketball-themed food and your guests can eat their feelings if their team isn’t winning … or celebr-eat if they do!

via Simone Made It

14. The Best Decorations For You And Your Guests

Decorations can be simple and add a festive feel for your party guests. Consider a color theme for a specific team or just go with silver to stay neutral.

15. Don’t overlook the main attraction.

Snacks and games are nice, but hello, there’s a game on. No one will want to miss a moment of the high-energy basketball action, so make sure your TV is working correctly. Here are some tips to make sure your settings are just right for game viewing. Did you know some TVs have a sports mode? Or that you can make adjustments to the settings for the lighting in your room? It’s true.

16. All Of The Madness Causing Your Appliances to Fail? Before You Conquer Your Party Planning Feats Make Sure Your Appliances Are Running Smoothly

Make sure your appliances and home systems are functioning in top condition. No one wants to be at a party where the beverages are warm due to a faulty fridge or where everyone’s shivering due to a March cold snap and a broken furnace. Household breakdowns happen, but it helps to have a plan when they do. An American Home Shield® Home Warranty Plan gives your budget a great defense. Visit ahs.com for details.
Next > 8 Easy Ways to Go Green on St. Patrick's Day

Conference tournament betting previews: Big East

Welcome to championship week.

While many low and mid-major conferences have already begun (or even completed) their tournaments, the marquee leagues — the ones that produce the most NCAA tournament bids — have their tournaments beginning in the coming days.

The first major conference on tap is the ACC, beginning on Tuesday in Greensboro, North Carolina. The tournament’s top seed is Virginia. The Cavaliers, still technically the reigning national champions after the 2020 tournament was canceled, won the ACC regular season title over the weekend courtesy of a win over Louisville and Florida State’s surprising loss at Notre Dame.

The Seminoles have looked like the conference’s top team for much of the season, but are entering the conference tournament having lost two of three. Still, FSU, along with Virginia, Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech, have earned double-byes as the tournament’s top four seeds. And what about blue bloods like North Carolina and Duke?

But are those the teams you want to bet on? Using the odds provided by BetMGM, here are the teams you’ll want to consider — and avoid — this week.

IT'S TOURNEY TIME.

More details » https://t.co/inOSoKNtLwpic.twitter.com/QeSzJhyjCd

— ACC Men's Basketball (@accmbb) March 7, 2021

Best bet: Florida State +275

March Madness Betting Odds

Don’t let the last week of action fool you. Florida State is the best team in the ACC. Before the Seminoles’ two slip-ups this week, they had won nine of their previous 10 games.

The Seminoles are the top scoring team in the league, putting up nearly 80 points per contest. And they do it with a balanced attack with a mix of experienced options like M.J. Walker and RaiQuan Gray and underclassmen like Scottie Barnes and Balsa Koprivica. FSU is really deep, too. The Seminoles have nine players averaging at least 15 minutes per game.

FSU has struggled when playing outside of Tallahassee this season, but Leonard Hamilton’s team should be plenty motivated to make a run after letting the ACC regular season title slip through its fingers. The Seminoles have the size and shooting to match up with anybody in the conference, and especially have a favorable matchup against Virginia. FSU dominated the Cavaliers 81-60 back on Feb. 15.

At +275 odds, the Seminoles are a strong play.

Team to avoid: Duke +2000

You may be tempted to bet on perennial power Duke when it has such long odds, but the odds are what they are for a reason. This team isn’t very good.

The Blue Devils enter the ACC tournament as the No. 10 seed and in a very unfamiliar position: on the outside looking in for the majority of NCAA tournament projections. Duke has the ACC’s leading scorer in Matthew Hurt and plenty of other top-tier recruits, but this team has been extremely streaky all year.

It looked like the Blue Devils could be turning a corner when they won four straight in February, but they closed out the season with three consecutive losses. Two of those games ended in overtime, but Duke closed out the regular season with a blowout loss to rival North Carolina, 91-73.

At this point, it could take a run all the way to the ACC title game for Duke to reach the NCAA tournament. That would mean four games in four days. You’re better off spending your money elsewhere.

© Provided by Yahoo! Sports Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski reacts after a turnover during an NCAA college basketball game against Notre Dame on Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020, in South Bend, Ind. Duke won 75-65. (AP Photo/Robert Franklin)

Sleeper: Georgia Tech +1600

Georgia Tech is entering the conference tournament on a roll. The Yellow Jackets have won six consecutive games, locking up a double-bye in the process. The most impressive win of that bunch was a 16-point road victory over then-No. 16 Virginia Tech.

Georgia Tech is an experienced team with four double-digit scorers, including ACC Player of the Year Moses Wright and ACC Defensive Player of the Year Jose Alvarado. Both Wright and Alvarado are seniors on the verge of playing in the NCAA tournament for the first time.

March Madness Betting Strategy

They are also looking to make noise in the conference tournament. And with odds of +1600, the Yellow Jackets are definitely worth a flier. That’s great value. Georgia Tech has the sixth-best odds, well behind teams like North Carolina (+550), Louisville (+700) and Virginia Tech (+700). And GT only needs to win three games to win the conference crown.

Barring any unforeseen upsets, Georgia Tech would face Virginia in the ACC semifinals. The Yellow Jackets have lost twice to Virginia this season, but lost those games by a combined 10 points. Virginia is a team prone to scoring droughts, and Georgia Tech has the personnel to pull off an upset should the two teams meet for a third time in 2021.

Full ACC tournament odds via BetMGM

• Virginia +250

• Florida State +275

• North Carolina: +550

• Louisville: +700

• Virginia Tech: +700

• Georgia Tech: +1600

• Duke: +2000

• Clemson: +2000

• Syracuse: +5000

• Pittsburgh: +5000

• Notre Dame: +10000

• NC State: +10000

• Miami: +15000

• Boston College: +25000

• Wake Forest: +25000

Fun March Madness Betting Games

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