During Barack Obama’s time as president from 2009 to 2017, the president launched an annual March Madness bracket for the boys’s and girls’s nationwide tournaments. The custom has seen restricted participation by the presidents that adopted him.
What Happened: The 2023 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament is anticipated to have 68 million Americans guess on the video games by means of sportsbooks and amongst mates, in addition to compete in bracket competitions.
On Thursday, President Joe Biden launched his March Madness bracket, sharing it publicly on Twitter at 12:34 p.m. ET. Some customers on social media had been fast to name out the president for sharing his bracket after the primary recreation had tipped off and the match had began.
Biden’s bracket reveals a last 4 of 2-seed Arizona, 2-seed Marquette, 2-seed Texas and 1-seed Kansas. The bracket reveals Arizona beating Kansas within the nationwide championship recreation.
Biden’s bracket reveals 9 upsets within the first spherical, the identical quantity picked by Obama. Big upsets chosen by Biden embrace 12-seed Charleston, 10-seed Utah State, 11-seed Providence, 10-seed Boise State, 11-seed Arizona State, 10-seed Penn State and 11-seed Pittsburgh.
Outside of the first-round upsets, Biden’s bracket reveals desire to the favorites and is usually “chalk” with the highest 4 seeds in every area chosen to advance to the Sweet 16, deciding on 0 upsets to advance to the Sweet 16.
Last yr, Biden chosen 15-seed Delaware, his alma mater, to win the match.
Obama submitted his March Madness bracket earlier, which included the last 4 consisting of 3-seed Baylor, 5-seed Duke, 1-seed Houston and 2-seed UCLA. In the championship recreation, Obama picks Duke to beat Houston.
The bracket from Obama would mark the primary time a 5-seed has ever received the match because it expanded to 64 groups in 1985.
Obama’s bracket has a complete of 9 upsets chosen within the first spherical, together with a 12 seed and 13 seed.
Related Link: March Madness Perfect Bracket Odds: Hold My Beer, Mega Millions And Powerball
What’s Next: Around 35% of U.S. adults stated they plan on watching the NCAA Men’s Tournament, up 6% from final yr’s survey.
The curiosity in watching the video games might be excellent news for Paramount Global PARAPARAA and Warner Bros. Discovery Inc WBD which share tv protection.
Over $15 billion might be guess on the March Madness match in 2023.
Odds on DraftKings Inc DKNG has Houston and Alabama as the 2 favorites for the match at odds of +450 and +650.
Arizona, chosen by Biden, has odds of +1400 to win the match. Arizona was chosen to achieve the ultimate recreation in 4.9% of brackets within the ESPN Tournament Challenge.
The odds for the Final 4 groups chosen by Biden to win their areas are:
Arizona: +400
Marquette: +400
Texas: +300
Kansas: +350
A parlay combining all of the Final 4 choices pays out at odds of +44,900, paying out $449 on a $1 guess. Obama’s Final 4 pays out at odds of +53,768, which means a $1 guess would pay $538.68.
Biden’s bracket is already in a little bit of hassle together with his Elite 8 number of Virginia, the one non-1, -2 or -3 seed chosen to achieve the spherical already eradicated within the opening spherical.
Through the primary 4 video games of the match, Biden has 2 wins and a pair of losses. In the Tournament Challenge on ESPN, solely 756,286 brackets are excellent out of greater than 20 million submitted.
Read Next: 6 Biggest Upsets In NCAA March Madness History
Photo: Biden, The White House by way of Flickr, Basketball, Shutterstock