Another March With Less Madness: Illinois Could Bet $300M On The Big Dance With New Rules

On the US sports calendar, it & rsquo is arguably the best time of the year. Additionally, it is permitted to wager on March Madness in Illinois, just like it was last month.

However, it’s not quite the same. As of March 5, it is now possible to sign up for Illinois sports betting account online. Although, it is not possible to bet on Illinois college teams on your mobile device.

The social vision rolls should be heard.

It is now legal to place bets on Illinois schools, unlike next year. However, you must go to a physical sportsbook( casino, racetrack, or OTB ) and place bets there. No person property bets or live betting are permitted.

There are two schools representing the Land of Lincoln in the 2022 NCAA Tournament: Illinois and Loyola Chicago. Both are in the South Region, with Illinois as a No. 4 seed and Loyola Chicago as a No. 10 seed.

With that, let’s project how much we expect Illinoisans to bet on March Madness this year, as well as give some background on how we got to this point.

Illinois March Madness gambling estimates for 2022

In 2021, the state recorded about $200 million in total March Madness bets. For the month, Illinois recorded a sports betting handle of $633.6 million — easily a record at that time.

However, much has changed since then. In January 2022, Illinois sports bettors set a new record with $867.5 million in bets.

We now have online enrollment, and we did so for March Madness last year as well. However, in-person membership was necessary for the 11-month period in between. That makes it challenging to project this material.

But that’s what we’re here to do. A few weeks ago, Play Illinois projected that Illinois would record approximately $900 million in total bets for March 2022.

We at Play-illinois.com predict that Illinois will wager$ 290 million on the 2022 NCAA Tournament using the same March Madness ratio as 2021( plus a few additional million for in-person Al undergraduate bet ).

Why don’t you wager on Illinois teams online, Can & rsquo?

Betting on Illinois school groups was outright forbidden when the Sports Wagering Act was passed in 2019.

The industry has been a hot topic of conversation in the condition ever since it went live. When Illinois and Loyola Chicago squared off in the NCAA Tournament next year, things reached a boiling point. Within position lines, legal betting on the game was not permitted.

But there was legislative momentum to change the law — though not enough for full legalization. In December, Gov. JB Pritzkersigned HB 3136 into law, which legalized limited betting on Illinois schools in person. The bill also gave March 5 as the end date for in-person registration.

The in-person warranty expires on July 1st, 2023. The government did had three choices at that point or earlier:

• Make it illegal to wager on IL school groups once more.
• Stretch the current, constrained policy of in-person wagers solely on interstate teams.
• On Illinois university campuses, help mobile gaming.

assuming that there are no hiccups during this trial phase, there should be more support for the third option by 2023. Illinois Athletic Director Josh Whitman remains a staunch opponent of the policy, but his view might not hold as much influence by then.

Chicago expands and edge times in Illinois and Loyola

Here are the lines and tipoff times for the Illinois and Loyola Chicago games. While you won’t see these on your Illinois sports betting apps, you can put action on these games in person if you so choose.

• No. 4 Illinois(- 7.5 ) vs. No. Friday at 5:50 p.m. CST, TNT, 13 Chattanooga
• No. ( 7 ) Ohio State vs. No. Friday, 11:15 a.m. CST, CBS, 10 Loyola Chicago

Illinois and Loyola Chicago met in the Round of 32 next month. That would not be achievable this time around until the Elite Eight.

In the unlikely event that this occurs, anticipate seeing some extremely lengthy lines at Illinois financial sportsbooks.