March Madness Predictions 2024

March Madness, is an aptly named tournament. With 67 single-elimination games played, madness certainly does ensue. With this, it is tricky and time-consuming to put in the necessary hours of work to maximize your chances of predicting the outcomes of matches and to find those upset picks. That’s where Pickswise thrives. We have a team of expert college basketball handicappers that live and breathe all things college hoops.

With previews and predictions all season long, we also have free March Madness betting advice for every single match throughout the tournament. Each prediction comes with a breakdown of why we like a side, and the key stats and trends to consider. Check out all of our March Madness betting predictions right here. 

Pickswise is the home of March Madness predictions. Our NCAA basketball experts analyze the stats, data, and team news to give you the best March Madness predictions for each of the 67 games throughout the tournament. If you’re looking for the best March Madness predictions, we have you covered.

A money line bet put simply is betting on one team to beat another. Betting in its simplest form. However, with March Madness predictions, in particular, it is not far-fetched for an overwhelming favorite to be priced as short as -2500, which may be unappealing to most bettors. However March is all about the upsets, so predicting when to back the underdog, especially in the early rounds, could have you make big profits, even off a small wager.

The majority of March Madness games however are competitive, particularly in the later rounds and our experts at Pickswise spend hours looking through matchups, team news and analyzing the statistics, trends, and data for each of the 67 games on the March Madness schedule to unearth the best value March Madness Picks. 

The most popular type of prediction and bet throughout March Madness is undoubtedly March Madness predictions against the spread. With so many lopsided matchups, particularly in the first two rounds, you could be looking at -2000 for a 1 or 2 seeded team to win a match. For the average bettor, these odds offer no appeal.

What the spread does is level the playing field so that both teams can become a viable betting option. March Madness Predictions against the spread are tricky, as in a single-elimination tournament, teams only care about winning by one, so you can often see plenty of backdoor covers late on if a team is winning by a large margin. This is one of the many factors we consider in making all of our March Madness spread predictions.

March Madness over/under predictions, also known as totals predictions is a great way to get involved in a game if you don’t like either side of the spread or money line.

Instead of taking a side to win or cover, you’re predicting whether there will be more or fewer points than the line set by the sportsbooks. If you have high-tempo teams with average defenses, you might take the over, conversely, if you have slow-tempo teams with solid defenses, you might look to the under.

All of our over/under predictions come with detailed analysis and reasoning, including these key metrics. We will have a March Madness totals prediction on all 67 games, so check them out today. 

In addition to our free daily March Madness Picks & Predictions, we offer insight into the March Madness futures markets from the outright winner to the Final Four.

A single-elimination style tournament like March Madness means a team’s bid to win it all can end in a flash. Upsets are a mainstay of the tournament, and with each one, the March Madness Bracket gets a major reshuffle, as do the futures betting lines. Our experts will be on hand throughout the entire tournament to react to any upsets and major betting changes round-by-round to unearth the best free March Madness Picks and predictions across all of the futures markets.  

March Madness is so aptly named with the tournament being single-elimination from the jump and upsets being a big part of the tournament. Even in a tournament of this nature, some trends have appeared in recent years that should be considered ahead of your March Madness betting. It is also worth considering that these are mainly based on a team’s ranking, which is given by the selection committee so they should still be taken with a pinch of salt. Still, we believe March Madness Analysis should consider every data point available to us.

Only Two #1 Seeds Have Ever Lost In The First Round

It’s not the most obscure betting trend, but one worth reiterating. With the schedule set around those seeds, #1 seeds have a great record in the first round vs the 16th ranked sides and are always big favorites to win

Number 1 seeds were unbeaten in the first round until as recently as 2018 when the #16 UMBC beat #1 Virginia.
In 2023 we had the second #1 seed to lose a first round game when
#16 FDU beat #1 Purdue.

#1 Seeds Are Also A Historically Safe Bet In The Second Round

So we know that all #1 seeds have won in the first round except two, but how do they fare in the second round? Well, pretty good. Not quite as much a lock as the first Round but since 1985 #1 seeds have gone 123-21 in the second round, for a win percentage of 86%

First Round – 5 seeds vs 12 seeds

March Madness upsets are a mainstay of the bracket, and it’s worth picking a few of them in the early rounds. While lower-ranked teams have a poor record in the latter stages of March Madness – with no team seeded 12 or lower ever reaching the Final Four, they are usually worth a look in the first two rounds.

The 12 vs 5 upset is one of the more popular options in brackets each year, but for good reason.

Since the tournament was expanded in 1985, 12th seeds have a 49-95 record against 5th seeds, equating to a 34% win-rate, just over a third. For comparison, 13th seeds only have a record of 32-112 (22%) against 4th seeds so there is a big drop off, for just one seed either way.

Since 1985, at least one 12th seed has advanced into the second round in all bar 5 March Madness tournaments.

At Pickswise, we offer March Madness predictions across some of the more popular alternative betting markets. If you don’t like the odds available on a money line, spread or totals bet you might consider a March Madness Prop Bet,

Props are a wide ranging market, encompassing any bet that doesn’t directly depend on the outcome of the game. Markets such as player or team performance stats, first basket scorer and who to win a chosen quarter would come under props, check on your favourite betting site which NCAA Tournament prop bets are available to you, and always check our prop bet selections throughout the tourney to get interesting angles and great value out of the props market.

We also offer picks and predictions for March Madness Parlays. Parlays are a great way to increase your potential winnings without necessarily having to risk more of your bankroll. A Parlay combines multiple selections into one bet, of course all selections must win for you to cash the bet, so there is some increased risk.

Parlays can include just about any bet, across multiple games or within one game, known as a same-game parlay. In relation to March Madness you could parlay moneyline selections across a round or prop bets within one game, its always worth thinking outside the box when it comes to getting value out of a parlay.

We make predictions for every March Madness game, accompanied by comprehensive, data driven analysis, so we know how to find solid prop bet picks and build winning parlays. Don’t miss out on our expert predictions when the tourney tips-off.