March Madness bet in the first round is extremely popular at sportsbooks. There is no question that the first round is a time in which everyone gets excited about the March Madness lines. You have the top seeds, the #16 seeds and everything in between.
March Madness bet numbers give you a variety of things to consider in the first round. There are teams like George Mason who are given no chance but end up shocking the world. Bucknell shocked Kansas back in 2005 in the first round. There are always going to be first round shockers in March Madness lines. The key is to either find those upsets or avoid them. Since it is tough to predict a big upset you are better off avoiding the games where a big upset is possible. What does that mean? It really means that you may want to avoid taking teams like Kansas, Kentucky and other marquee teams in the first round. They are not going to give you any value when you make a March Madness bet. That is a guarantee. The public is going to bet the top teams so the value with all of them is going to be next to nothing in the first round. Later in the tournament you can take these teams but not in the first round. Having said that, some of those teams will still win and cover the spread but they were not teams that had value against the point spread.
As you look at the first round when you make a March Madness bet you have a lot of games to consider. You probably want to avoid the 1 vs. 16 and 2 vs. 15 games simply because it is hard to either lay big points or take big points in the first round. You can start more with the rest of the matchups. The #3 seeds have done pretty well in their first round games. The underdogs have held their own in some of the other matchups including the 5-12 matchup that everyone is in love with each season. The value in that game is gone since the public even knows that the #12 seeds do well. That is why that #3 vs. the #14 game can be better with the #3 seed covering as a favorite.
There are a lot of live underdogs in the NCAA Tournament. In the first round it is still possible to find upsets and surprises as you make a March Madness bet. But you probably don’t want to look for the #12 seeds since they have lost their value because of their popularity.