Sportsbook Apps See Surge of 559% In Downloads For March Madness

Sports bettors have downloaded more mobile sports betting apps in March 2021 than they did in March 2020.
March Madness was one of the reasons for the surge in downloads and sports wagering activity.
FanDuel and DraftKings saw the bulk of downloads and wagers for March nationwide.

BOSTON – Sports betting applications saw a major increase in downloads for March, due largely in part because of March Madness, the biggest tournament of the year for NCAA basketball.

From a year-over-year view, utilizing these apps on cellphones jumped by 559% from last March when COVID-19 shut down the championship tournament as well as almost every other sporting event for both professional and college teams.

March Madness betting was expected to see a larger than regular turnout as fans were making up for lost time from last year’s missed opportunity. That, coupled with more states having regulated sports betting markets available led to the increase in downloads and wagers being place by mobile sports wagering platforms.

Details Of The Downloads

Although year-over-year had a monumental increase, there was a fall of 41% from February to March as football betting was closed out and Virginia and Michigan sports bettors made their mobile sportsbook accounts in February so there was no need to download the apps again in March.

FanDuel and DraftKings benefitted the most nationwide with FanDuel receiving the highest number of new users at a 36% increase in those putting their app to use. Behind them, in second place for a change was DraftKings with an uptick of 28% in new activity, and BetMGM was third, taking 12% of that new action.

Barstool Sportsbook did well for themselves, coming in fourth with a limited amount of access in the country. Barstool is a part of the Penn National Gaming company.

As far as for overall users both new and old on mobile sportsbook apps, FanDuel and DraftKings in typical fashion came in first with a hike of 12% apiece for March over their February figures.

Fan Engagement By Sports Bettors For March Madness

Regulated sports betting has given more Americans the chance to download such apps and wager on games like March Madness.

According to the American Gaming Association (AGA), 47.4 million Americans were expected to bet on the tournament in 2021. Over 70% of people that were surveyed said they were gambling on the games and downloading the apps because of the access given to them by their states with the regulated sports betting industries introduced.

The top schools expected to win the tournament by these sports bettors were the Gonzaga Bulldogs with 17% followed by the Florida State Seminoles with 11%. The Baylor Bears came in third as a favorite with gamblers of the games at 8%, but in the end, Baylor came out on top.

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Christina Monroe

Christina has been writing for as long as she can remember and does dedicated research on the newly regulated sports betting market. She comes from a family of sports lovers that engage in friendly bets from time to time. During the winter months, you can find Christina baking cookies and beating the entire staff at Mario Kart…the N64 version of course.