The Cost Of March Madness Betting Season

Published: Friday, March 17, 2006 Online-Casinos.com

THE COST OF MARCH MADNESS BETTING SEASON

U.S. business losses in the billions

With the March Madness betting season in full swing in the USA, a nationally respected workplace consultant, John Challenger, of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, calculates the cost of March Madness-related lost productivity in U.S. workplaces in the billions.

This year, Challenger predicts it will be worse than ever, thanks to a CBS decision to offer free online viewing of tournament games involving teams from outside those local markets. The restriction on online viewing of local teams is designed to encourage viewers from the Kansas City area, for example, to watch the Kansas Jayhawks on television.

Challenger estimates a whopping wage and productivity loss to employers as high as $3.8 billion over the 19-day tournament.

A survey last year by Vault Inc. indicated that six in 10 employees have participated in an office betting pool, with the NCAA tournament accounting for more than a third of those activities.

Challenger's March Madness cost estimate drew from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' current average hourly wage for U.S. workers of about $18. Using a Gallup Poll finding that 41 percent of Americans are college basketball fans, he applied that to the number of working Americans (142.8 million) and then factored in a relatively scant 13.5 minutes that the average fan spent on the ESPN.com college basketball Web site during the 2005 NCAA tournament.

"The reality is that they will likely spend much more time online during the workday keeping track of games and managing their brackets" Challenger said.

BETonSports, a publicly traded online wagering company, said March is the biggest online gambling month of the year.
Last year, between $2.5 billion and $3 billion was bet through Internet sports books alone during March Madness, and the company expects the total to be 20 percent higher this year.