The NCAA Tournament is approaching, with Selection Sunday on deck, followed by three huge hoops weekends.
With a major championship event on the calendar, futures parlays start popping up as well. That’s certainly the case with March Madness odds.
For one Fanatics Sportsbook customer, a six-figure win seems attainable — if Arizona cuts down the nets.
Read on for more on that parlay, along with a potential million-dollar winner and other notable bets on NCAA Tournament futures odds.
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Two Down, One To Go
Sometime before the College Football Playoff began, a bettor at Fanatics put $500 on a three-leg futures parlay, tying the CFP champion to the Super Bowl champion and the March Madness winner.
Add up those odds, and you’ve got +32700, or in easier-to-digest terms, 327/1.
Indiana took care of Leg 1 when it beat Miami 27-21 in the CFP final on Jan. 19. Then the Seahawks dispatched the Patriots 29-13 in Super Bowl 60 on Feb. 8.
That began what the bettor hopes is a fruitful two-month wait. The parlay has Arizona +900 to win the championship. But over the past four months or so, the Wildcats (30-2) have improved to the +500 range, behind only Michigan and Duke in NCAA Tournament futures odds.
To state the obvious: This ticket is in a pretty good spot.
If Arizona wins it all on April 6, then the bettor bags a hefty $163,500 in profit (total payout $164,000). That’s worth the wait.
One Million Dollars
Michigan, Duke and Arizona are the top three teams in March Madness futures odds, and surging Florida isn’t far behind.
Then there are a few teams in that next tier. One of those squads is UConn, which is no stranger to national championships.
The Huskies won the championship in 2023 and 2024. And a DraftKings customer stands to win seven figures if UConn can make it three titles in four years.
The bettor put $77,000 on UConn +1300 to win it all. A Huskies title would boost that bettors’ bank account by just a shade over $1 million (total payout $1.078 million).
Boiler Up
If you’re not completely sold on your team’s national title hopes — winning six games over three weekends is a big ask — then you’ve got other options.
Perhaps you think your team can at least win four games. If so, Final Four futures odds might be where you want to plant your flag.
That’s what a Purdue backer did at BetMGM. The customer plunked down $100,000 on Boilermakers +600 to just reach the Final Four. It’s the largest reported bet so far on NCAA Tournament futures markets.
Purdue went 17-1 in its first 18 games, which makes that bet look pretty good. But the Boilermakers went a mediocre 6-7 in their final 13 regular-season outings, including 1-3 in their last four.
Purdue then opened the Big Ten Tournament with an easy 81-68 win over Northwestern. The Boilermakers led 45-21 at halftime and coasted to victory.
So perhaps Matt Painter’s squad is starting to regain its form.
The bettor certainly hopes so. If the Boilermakers make it to Indianapolis, then that $100,000 wager becomes $600,000 in profit (total payout $700,000).
Strange Combination
It’s not often that you see a golfer paired with a college basketball team in a two-leg parlay. But that happened at Fanatics.
In mid-February, a customer put together the interesting two-leg combo for a modest $24. The bettor first took longer shot, Jacob Bridgeman, to win the PGA Tour’s Genesis Invitational.
Oddly, the bettor then parlayed that with a Michigan national championship. The odds: +58844, or just beyond 588/1.
Crazily enough, Bridgeman — with no prior PGA Tour wins and odds in the +8000 range (80/1) — indeed won the Genesis on Feb. 22.
Michigan has been stout all season long, taking a 29-2 record into the Big Ten Tournament. The Wolverines spent much of the season as the favorite in March Madness futures but fell behind Duke after losing to the Blue Devils 68-63 on Feb. 21.
However, Duke now has a couple of key injuries, prompting some oddsmakers to move Michigan back to the favorite.
If the Wolverines maintain that form and go on a six-game NCAA Tourney run, then that 24 bucks turns into $14,146.56.
