Public parlays March Madness favorites' success into winning weekend - ESPN

After an upset-filled first round, favorites in the men's tournament had a big weekend, winning 15 of 16 games outright, going 11-5 against the spread and replenishing the betting public's bankroll ahead of the Sweet 16.

The 15-1 straight-up mark for betting favorites is the second-best record in the round of 32 since the NCAA tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985. (Favorites went 16-0 in 2019.) The run of favorites over the weekend — including an 8-0 mark Saturday — proved costly for sportsbooks, some of which saw their profits from the first two days of the tournament erased.

«Saturday was a hell of a day for the customers,» Craig Mucklow, vice president of trading for Caesars Sportsbook, said Sunday afternoon. «What the book won Thursday and Friday, the customers got all back yesterday.»

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Fanatics Sportsbook was a «small loser» after the first four days of the men's tournament, a spokesperson told ESPN. Saturday was «half as bad» as an NFL Sunday when a bevy of favorites win, Mucklow said. John Murray, executive director of the SuperBook in Las Vegas, likened it to a «bad college football Saturday.»

«Saturday was pretty ugly,» Murray said. «We were up a decent number halfway through the day, but you could see the liabilities building. We needed Texas [vs. Tennessee] or Oakland [vs. NC State] to break up the parlays, but both fell short. By the time we got to the last game, we were stuck.

»Everyone parlays all the favorites… they aren't supposed to all win," he added. «We move on.»

The Michigan State-North Carolina game attracted the most money wagered and produced the biggest loss for