The only sports bettor on Forbes recent list of Gambling Gurus, RJ Bell of Pregame.com provides bracket rules that can make a difference in any March Madness office pool.
Las Vegas, NV (3/14/08) Over 12 BILLION dollars is expected to be bet on the 2008 NCAA Mens Basketball Tournament. Bracket-style office pools are expected to have 40 million Americans take part. No gambling event is bigger, and RJ Bell of Pregame.com has the math-backed stats that can help anyone win.
1st Round:
- Be very selective picking any team below a #12 seed.
#16 seeds are 0 for 92. #15 seeds are 4 for 92. #13 and #14 seeds win less than 18% combined.
- Dont be shy about picking upsets with #12 through #9 seeds. Give special consideration to picking #12 seeds; they have won 11 of 28 matchups vs. #5 seeds the last seven years. #9 seeds have a strong winning record vs. #8 seeds.
2nd Round:
- Advance #1 seeds almost automatically into the 3rd Round they win their first two games 87% of the time.
- Keep advancing the #12 and #10 seeds you picked to win in Round One. They win almost half the time in Round Two (14 of 29 for #12 seeds; 17 of 35 for #10 seeds).
- Seeds lower than #12 DONT win in the 2nd round..
Only 6 of 368 teams that have advanced past Round 2 were seeded lower than #12 (less than 2%).
Sweet 16:
- Advance exactly three #1 seeds into the Elite 8
No reason to buck the math: Nearly 70% of #1 seeds advance into the 4th round (thats a higher percentage than #5 seeds who win a single game)!
- Advance no team lower than a #11 seed into the Elite 8 . . . 20 have made it to the Sweet 16, but only 1 has ever advanced.
Elite Eight:
- Advance exactly ONE or TWO #1 seeds to the Final Four.
Amazingly, exactly one or two #1 seeds have made the Final Four 19 of the last 23 years.
- Advance no team lower than a #8 seed to the Final Four. Only 2 of 92 Final Four teams have been seeded lower than #8.
Final Four:
- Advance NO team below a 6th seed to the Championship game. Not a single one has made it in the last 22 years.
Championship Game:
- Pick a #4 seed or higher to win it all.
For 19 straight years the champion has been a 4 seed or higher!
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Click here to see ALL of RJ Bell's 2008 March Madness facts & stats
RJ Bell, president of http://Pregame.com, has been featured on CBS News with Katie Couric, ABC News with Charles Gibson, Nightline, Sportscenter, Outside the Lines (ESPN), First Take (ESPN2), ESPN.com, ESPN National Radio, Yahoo, AOL.com, CNN.com and in Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, LA Times, Newsweek.com, Maxim, and Forbes.