Online Gambling

Today’s March Madness Schedule has several interesting matchups. Here are my takes on a few of them.

Jordan Crawford, the Atlantic 10 Player of the Year, leads Xavier (6) against Minnesota (11). Look for Crawford to light it up against the Golden Gophers. This is a pick-em game according to the handicappers.

Missouri (10) at Clemson (7) features two teams that lost on their conference tournaments to much-lower-ranking opponents looking to rebound from those losses. Experts predict an incredibly fast-paced matchup between these two teams. Clemson is a 1.5 point favorite.

Even though New Mexico State (12) is a 13-point dog to Michigan State (5), look for their attacking press to force a lot of turnovers — Michigan State is prone to them. I would not be surprised to see the Aggies upset the Spartans in this game. I’m pretty sure the Aggies will at least cover the spread.

Louisville (9) has the size to potentially dominate California (8), especially since Cal is without Omondi Amoke. Another pick-em game, I’d go with Louisville.

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Intertops is a 5-star rated site at The Online Casino Gambling Directory. Yesterday, I had an experience which confirmed their best-of-the-best 5-star rating.

I’ve been a bit distracted with helping to take care of my mother as she recovers from successful hip replacement surgery. As a result, I only have a few minutes a day to place wagers on the sporting events that I am interested in. Yesterday, I saw a great over on Thursday’s Missouri v Memphis game, and liked it for 2.5 units; however, I inadvertently made the wager for 3 units.

This is no big deal, really — I placed an extra half wager than I intended. But, I thought that I would give Intertops a call and see if they could modify my wager.

I called Intertops on the phone and a customer service rep answered almost immediately. I explained that I wanted to reduce my wager on the Missouri v Memphis game. She explained that it is the policy of Intertops to not modify a wager once it is placed. I understood and expected this response — confirming an online wager is equivalent to walking away from a betting window at the track or a book; all bets are now final.

However, she went on to say that she would check to see if an exception could be made. After a 2 minute hold, she came back on the line and said that they had made an exception and cancelled the wager.

Wow. I was surprised, but I guess not too much. Intertops has long been a 5-star site, and I suppose the fact that I have been a loyal customer of theirs for years and had never made such a request may have been a factor in their granting the exception…. but still, they took care of my exceptional request, and I wanted to let everyone know about it.

Now, I’m not saying to get into the habit of placing and then trying to cancel bets, nor am I saying that Intertops will always honor a bet cancellation request. I’m just saying that with Intertops, if you do make a mistake and want to cancel a wager, they’ll at least consider your request.

Oh. By the way — take the over in the Missouri v Memphis game. Good luck!

(Note: The information present on this blog is intended for entertainment purposes only. Please check your local, state and provincial laws before you gamble online. If your local laws prohibit online gambling then we recommend you consider an alternative form of entertainment.)

I am sitting at my local sportsbar in Covington, KY (Willie’s). They are running an NCAA March Madness bracket contest. I was asked by a patron what the odds are of picking a perfect bracket. I thought it was an interesting question, and so I did a little research.

Ignoring the play-in game Tuesday evening, if you just flipped a coin for each of the 63 games, the odds are (0.5 ^ 63) = 9,223,372,036,854,780,000 (9.2 quintillion) to 1 of getting a perfect bracket. If you assume that the #1 and #2 seeds will each win their 1st and 2nd round games, and that the #3 seeds will win their 1st round games, that leaves 43 games to get right. The odds of flipping a coin and getting a perfect bracket in this scenario is (0.5 ^ 43) = 8,796,093,022,208 (8.8 trillion) to 1.

By way of comparison, the odds of winning the Powerball is about 200 million to 1, or about 44,000 times more likely than picking a perfect bracket under the second scenario listed above. You’re about 50,000 times more likely to win Mega Millions with its odds of about 175 million to 1; you’re about 12.5 million times more likely to be struck by lightning (estimated to be 700,000 to 1).

So, let’s say you think you have a line on 43 of the 63 games, and have to guess on the remaining 20 games. Assuming that you are correct on the 43 that you picked, the odds getting the remaining 20 games correct are still slightly more than 1,000,000 to 1. (This hypothetical is somewhat of an over-simplification, but you get the idea).

Here are some of March Madness bracket contests that you can enter and compete for cash and prizes:

BetUS.com

• Prizes: $1,000,000 for a perfect bracket, 50″ Plasma for best bracket, and prize packs to 2nd-5th best brackets
• Eligibility: Deposit $100 or more after 2/28/2009 and before noon ET 3/19/2009
• Additional contests: $10,000 Round of 16 and $10,000 Round of 8 contests

Sportsbook.com

• Prizes: Pick the Perfect Bracket and you"ll never have to work another day in your life as you will cash in for $12,000,000.00. Miss a few picks and you"ll still be playing for $10,000.00 in Guaranteed Cash Prizes.
• Eligibility: Place $20.00 in wagers during each round of the tournament to be eligible for the cash prizes.
• Additional contests: $5,000 Round of 16 contest

Sportsbetting.com

• Prizes: Win $1 Million in our FREE Hoops Madness Contest
• Eligibility: All new sign-ups are eligible for the 50% (one-time bonus). Max deposit is $50, with 5x rollover. Players need to enter the promotional code MARCH50 to be awarded the bonus.

Intertops.com

• Prizes: $25,000 split among top 25 entries (plus any ties for 25th place)
• Eligibility: Place bets in the sportsbook worth at least $25 accumulated between March 16th and March 31st.

CBS.com

• Prizes: $10,000
• Eligibility: No purchase necessary. See content T&Cs for additional details.

While Thursday’s March Madness games were pretty lame, the games on Friday were anything but. Western Kentucky University’s buzzer-beater to beat Drake was the best finish of the day. One of the most entertaining games on Friday was Davidson over Gonzaga, which featured a superb game by Stephen Curry and his amazing shotting.

Clemson’s meltdown to Villanova — Clemson was leading 36-18 at one point in the game — was particularly hard to watch for me, as I had Clemson in the finals in my bracket (which was mostly determined by coin flips).

Bet your NCAA March Madness locks at these 5-star online sportsbooks.

At Intertops.com, pick the winner in all 63 NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Championship games. The prize is $25,000 and tickets to the Final Four 2009. If more than one person picks all 63 correctly, the cash prize will be split and the tickets will be allocated by draw. Even if nobody picks the perfect bracket, the full $25,000 will still be awarded and split between those with the most correct picks.

As soon as the NCAA brackets are announced on March 16th, players can enter their picks here. You’ll have until the start of the first round games on March 20th to enter your selection. (The Opening Round game will not be included in the contest.)