Kentucky, Iowa and Connecticut losses wipe out half the March Madness brackets

A trio of unexpected losses during the NCAA March Madness Tournament this week have broken more than half of the stakes and frustrated millions of college sports across the country.

Most fans who completed a hiatus chose the University of Kentucky, a high-performing college hoops school, to defeat the lesser-known Saint Peter’s University of New Jersey. St. Peter, however, was surprised Kentucky Wildcats in overtime 85-79. Similarly, the University of Richmond defeated the highly favored University of Iowa, while the State University of New Mexico defeated the University of Connecticut, another elite basketball school.

More than 101,000 parentheses completed with ESPN now have no value because they selected Iowa and Kentucky for the final game of the championship, according to data collected by PlayUSA. ESPN saw more than 17 million parentheses completed for this year’s March Madness, PlayUSA said, and about 8.8 million of them, or 52%, predicted that Kentucky and Iowa would still be in the tournament. These bets are now being discussed.

The NCAA reported Friday that there are less than 200 perfect supports left, including 161 from ESPN.

Players who linked Connecticut, Iowa or Kentucky to win may have lost hundreds or even thousands of dollars in their bets, but may still make money, college sports betting expert Eli Hershkovich told CBS MoneyWatch . You will have to bet on individual games for the rest of the tournament and win those bets, Hershkovich explained.

“You can get it back, but for people who are new to it and want to put that kind of price back on, it will take time to get it back,” he said.

Days before the men’s college basketball tournament begins, bettors place their bets and complete the parentheses using more than a dozen different platforms. Some favor FanDuel or DraftKings sports betting for their bets, while others complete a break with ESPN (the largest platform), Yahoo or CBS Sports. Fans who predict winners using a parenthesis usually compete for cash prizes organized through a group of their employer’s offices or a friendly bet with family and friends.

The upheavals in Connecticut, Iowa and Kentucky are notable because they happened at a time when Americans are scheduled to make a record number of bets on the tournament due to the legalization of mobile sports betting in several large states. About 45 million Americans are expected to put in about $ 3.1 billion in bets during March Madness, according to the American Gaming Association.

It is difficult to estimate how much money the bettors lost due to the upheavals because sports betting keeps these numbers private.

The losses in Iowa and Kentucky, in particular, left only 14 perfect brackets in parentheses completed on the Yahoo Fantasy platform. About 98% of parentheses placed on Yahoo Fantasy chose Kentucky to beat Saint Peter’s, Yahoo Sports reported.

Hershkovich said fans are probably more frustrated with losing Kentucky than the other two upsets because many groups made Kentucky beat Saint Peter’s and win the entire tournament.

The Kentucky game didn’t mean ruin for everyone, FanDuel told CBS MoneyWatch on Friday. One user placed $ 2,000 in Saint Peters and earned $ 24,000, FanDuel reported.

“While there weren’t big bets on the game, there were a lot of small bets with high odds that made many St. Peters fans happy across the country,” FanDuel said.

The second round of the tournament begins on Saturday and bettors should be careful when choosing winners, Sportsline analyst Kenny White told CBS News.

“It’s March Madness and this year it’s going to be crazier than ever,” White said. “And we’ll see many more.”