March Madness is approaching and there are whispers of who is going to win and the basketball powerhouses are salivating. March Madness for the fans is a sporting event like no other, while for some businesses it impacts them in a negative nature. This is for a variety of reasons and the booming impact of March Madness can be felt in many industries. Not all of these impacts are negative as there is a booming amount of money that is associated with March Madness.
Economy in Las Vegas Is Booming
The first two weekends of the NCAA tournament are the busiest in Vegas the entire year. The hotels in Vegas and surrounding areas have an astounding 98 percent filled rate during these weekends. Industry in Las Vegas predominantly runs around the casinos but even the sports bars and restaurants see an uptick during this time because of the amount of people. The hotel industry in Las Vegas welcomes the NCAA tournament viewers and bettors with open arms as they help the industry survive some of the slower times in the city.
Employers Losing Money
When people think about the NCAA tournament, they think of upsets and Cinderella stories of the past. While others are feeling nostalgic, employers are cringing at the thought of the unproductive hours that there employees will be putting in. The numbers are astounding as the estimates for the 2014 tournament were a loss of $1.2 billion for each hour that was wasted at work during the tournament during the first weekend which features the round of 64 and round of 32. This of course partially comes from people watching the games at work but also from a variety of other reasons. Streaming games takes up bandwidth and can slow down speeds of computers of people who are not interested in the tournament. The checking of the scores and the filling out of the brackets while work is going on also can impact an entire office because the majority of offices do this with some type of prize at the end of the tournament for the top finishers.
The Money to Be Made Via Gambling
There are more bets taken in the NCAA tournament than any other sporting event. The amount of money that is gambled is staggering at around $2 billion, some of it being in office pools, others in casinos, others taken with bookies. With there being a Cinderella team in nearly every tournament, some of the upsets and odds makers could stand to have clients winning quite a lot of money. Keeping track of all the money and bets is a different game than it used to be, Las Vegas is definitely equipped for this but even they can struggle at times. Bookies in today’s world have bookie software to keep track of all bets and interest being accrued. The money generated and lost by different sections of industry in our country keeps for a good diversity in money being spent and received.
AS you can see, there is a lot of fluctuation comes to the economics of March Madness, hopefully you come out on top!
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