Nothing says March Madness like a bracket—the picture is sort of actually a part of the official NCAA emblem for the match.
But with bracket busts all however inevitable, participation normally free, and picks simply as possible made primarily based on favourite mascots as workforce data, the occasion exists considerably on the periphery of the sports-betting world.
Still, some conventional sportsbooks see March Madness as a perfect second to strive to join and retain new audiences on their platforms, particularly given the cultural cache of the match. In different phrases, even when somebody isn’t a bettor earlier than March Madness, there’s an opportunity they may depart the match as one.
“March Madness, for that three weeks, brings in a very casual fan, a fan that we might otherwise not see during a basketball season,” Casey Hurbis, CMO of BetMGM, advised Marketing Brew. “It’s an opportunity for us to engage new players.”
Influential
Athletes-turned-influencers are entrance and heart within the March Madness campaigns of two main sportsbooks this yr. BetMGM tapped former faculty hoopers Haley and Hanna Cavinder, and former LSU gymnast Livvy Dunne leads Fanatics Sportsbooks’s March Madness advert.
All three ladies have apparent ties to faculty sports activities, however none are at present aggressive athletes, a few of whom could also be “a little bit hesitant to attach themselves to sports betting” due to endorsement guidelines, in accordance to Matthew Bakowicz, director of the sports activities administration program at American University’s Kogod School of Business, who beforehand managed sportsbook operations for DraftKings at Foxwoods Resort and Casino.
Beyond their connection to sports activities, Dunne and the Cavinders have critical social attain. The Cavinders have about 2 million followers mixed on their particular person Instagram accounts, plus one other 456,000 on their joint account, whereas Dunne has 5.3 million Instagram followers on her personal.
Fanatics labored with Dunne for its NFL marketing campaign within the fall, leading to boosts to model consciousness and engagement in its app partially due to her social following, Michael Fitzsimmons, SVP of brand name advertising for Fanatics Sportsbook, advised us. The model’s March Madness campaign, which is a part of its bigger “Explained By” platform that has additionally featured Megan Thee Stallion and Kendall Jenner, is equally designed to drive model consciousness and consideration, in addition to engagement with its promotional supply, he stated.
“We try to engage that younger audience with entertaining content,” Fitzsimmons stated. “You’ll see a lot of social-first content come out over the next few weeks that is meant to be entertaining as much as it is educational and to promote an offer.”
BetMGM’s March Madness push additionally represents a method continuation for the corporate. The activation, “Court of Legends,” builds on its “Make it Legendary” model marketing campaign with Jon Hamm. BetMGM has additionally labored with a roster of legendary retired athletes together with Derek Jeter, Wayne Gretzky, and Tim Howard.
The model’s new marketing campaign is digital- and social-first, Hurbis stated, and it additionally has a major in-person factor, with the Cavinders dealing with off in competitions together with a 3‑level contest and a 1-on-1 recreation at a speakeasy-style venue hidden within the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas this weekend. BetMGM customers can, unsurprisingly, guess the winner.
For the ladies
It’s not a coincidence that each campaigns are fronted by ladies. Fitzsimmons stated Fanatics has deliberately solid ladies leads in its final three massive campaigns as a means to stand out within the crowded sportsbook class, noting that ladies are additionally a “fast-growing cohort of our betting audience.”
Get advertising information you may really need to learn
Marketing Brew informs advertising execs of the most recent on model technique, social media, and advert tech by way of our weekday e-newsletter, digital occasions, advertising conferences, and digital guides.
Women are extra possible to get entangled with March Madness brackets than they’re with many different sports-betting moments, Bakowicz stated, maybe as a result of the match affords an extended runway for storytelling and cultural conversations than one-off sporting occasions just like the Super Bowl.
“It’s a long, engaging time,” he stated. “If you look at the ad campaigns and targeting strategies toward females, it’s [about] longevity, long-term investment, attaching to characters, attaching to a team, attaching to a storyline.”
And in contrast to the Super Bowl, March Madness additionally represents a chance to guess on ladies’s sports activities. Marketing platform Optimove found that in 2024, March Madness video games that includes Caitlin Clark noticed a 540% common enhance in bets, a pattern that continued with Paige Bueckers in 2025; her championship recreation with UConn noticed a 430% uplift in contrast to the baseline established by Optimove’s evaluation.
The Fanatics marketing campaign is supposed to drive engagement with each the lads’s and girls’s tournaments, Fitzsimmons stated, and BetMGM is broadly focusing on anybody of authorized betting age, together with “more of a passive” fan who won’t sometimes do a variety of betting, in accordance to Hurbis.
Long-term funding
Even if sportsbooks and different platforms reach getting extra informal followers to make brackets or place bets, it’s one other factor totally to persuade that viewers to stick round after the match. With the World Cup—one other single-elimination, bracket-style occasion—shut on the horizon, retention is one KPI on the minds of some entrepreneurs.
Both Hurbis and Fitzsimmons stated their groups are centered on consumer expertise as a part of their efforts to preserve bettors lively after tentpole occasions. BetMGM, as an illustration, leans into selling its in-person on line casino expertise as a value-add with campaigns together with “Court of Legends,” whereas additionally ensuring its digital expertise is “fast” and “convenient.”
Fanatics, which solely operates a web-based sportsbook, depends on affords like FanCash that may be redeemed on tickets and merchandise, and promotions like revenue boosts, Fitzsimmons stated. Content can be a part of that equation, he added, together with the “Explained by Livvy Dunne” advert, which is able to prolong to work with a “notable college basketball face” within the subsequent couple of weeks to additional hook the March Madness viewers.
“It’s part of us building a stronger relationship with the fan over time,” he stated. “With our content, with our social, we really want it to be about relationship-building, treating our audience like fans, not just like bettors.”