This piece explains why the long‑standing ritual of filling out March Madness brackets has endured in the era of mobile sportsbooks, with Bakowicz emphasizing that social connection keeps brackets central to how Americans experience the NCAA tournament and betting each spring.
Key takeaways:
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The traditional paper bracket has evolved into a digital “63‑leg parlay” that coexists with in‑game bets and same‑game parlays, remaining a low‑stakes, nostalgic way for casual fans to put a bit of money on the entire tournament even as legal sports betting expands across the US.
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Rising participation in mass‑market contests—such as ESPN’s growing bracket entries and newer peer‑to‑peer platforms adding social features—shows that digital products are amplifying, not replacing, the office‑pool culture that underpins billions in March Madness handle.
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Brackets serve as a social gateway into sports betting, drawing tens of millions of participants each year and functioning as a widely accessible, “universal” conversation starter that brings together diverse, increasingly mixed‑gender audiences around the tournament.
Read the article.
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