March Madness 2025 Odds: UConn on Top With Hurley Back at the Helm

Dan Hurley rebuffed the Los Angeles Lakers' advances to stay the head coach of the Connecticut Huskies. UConn is seeking its third straight National Championship, which hasn't been done in 50+ years. For now, the Huskies are a top dog in the odds.

Jason Wilson - Publishing Editor at Covers.com
Jason Wilson • Publishing Editor
Jun 10, 2024 • 14:20 ET • 4 min read
Dan Hurley UConn Huskies NCAAB
Photo By - USA TODAY Sports

Crisis averted, UConn Huskies fans! Head coach Dan Hurley has turned down a six-year, $70-million contract to take over as the Los Angeles Lakers' bench boss to remain with the Huskies.

He has helped shepherd a turnaround for the UConn program since taking over before the 2018-19 season, culminating in back-to-back National Championships. It was the first time since Billy Donovan's Florida Gators did it in 2006-07. 

No school has won more than two in a row — a rare feat in its own right — since UCLA won seven consecutive National Championships from 1967-73. With Hurley back at the helm, UConn is one of three programs drawing 10/1 odds (Kansas and Alabama being the others).

Join me as I break down the 2025 March Madness odds below. 

March Madness 2025 odds

With the 2023/24 season done and dusted, the odds are now out for who will win next season. The UConn Huskies look to claim the first three-peat in over 50 years but the Kansas Jayhawks and Alabama Crimson Tide aren't expected to make things easy for them. 

Where can I bet on March Madness?

March Madness is one of the busiest times of the year for online sportsbooks and is very popular with bettors. Every betting site will offer March Madness odds, but the best sites are safe and secure, offer a wide range of banking options, and give you a ton of markets for each game. Check out the best March Madness betting sites in your region.

What is March Madness?

March Madness refers to the annual NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, which takes place in March and April. It is one of the most popular sporting events in the United States and involves 68 college basketball teams from across the country competing in a single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion.

The tournament begins with Selection Sunday, which takes place on the second Sunday in March, where the teams are announced and the tournament brackets are revealed. The first round, also known as the First Four, takes place on the Tuesday and Wednesday after Selection Sunday. The main tournament, consisting of 64 teams, then begins on the Thursday and Friday of the first full week of March.

The teams are divided into four regions, each containing 16 teams, and are seeded based on their regular-season records and performance in their respective conference tournaments. The teams then compete in a series of games, with the winners advancing to the next round and the losers being eliminated.

The tournament culminates with the Final Four, which takes place on the first weekend of April, where the remaining four teams compete in two semifinal games, with the winners advancing to the championship game to determine the national champion. Check out our Final Four odds page to see which teams are most likely to advance to the NCAA Tournament's semifinal round.

March Madness odds explained

Sportsbooks will post odds for the NCAA men's basketball championship as early as the summer before the season starts. These odds are constantly adjusted throughout the offseason as players get hurt, suspended, or are traded. Once the season begins in November, title odds will change as often as daily as teams win and lose games and as players get hurt or suspended. Sportsbooks will also adjust the March Madness futures odds based on handle and liability to certain teams.

March Madness futures odds will usually look like this:

  • San Diego State +550

This means that on a $100 bet, you'll stand to win $550 if the Aztecs win the NCAA men's basketball title. If it's close to the end of the regular season or even during the tournament and college basketball has a very dominant team, you might see that a team has a minus sign (-) ahead of its odds. 

  • UConn Huskies -120

This means that you would need to bet $120 to win $100 on a UConn championship.

Above we have posted the American odds for March Madness futures. However, these are easy to convert to decimal odds or fractional odds with our odds converter tool.

Popular March Madness markets

How to bet college basketball futures

Learning how to successfully bet on March Madness is one of the hardest things to do in sports betting. The lose-and-go-home format of the NCAA Finals and the fact that a school needs to win six straight games against quality opponents means that the favorites don't always take home the title.

Another factor that comes into play is that the tournament bracket isn't set until Selection Sunday. As the college basketball season winds down, you can be pretty sure that the big favorites will slide into the bracket as top seeds. But for teams in the middle of the pack, nothing is certain.

As always when betting futures odds, be sure to look into injuries and suspensions. You might find some current value in a team that is expecting to get a key player back before March Madness begins.

Where can I find March Madness spreads?

Check out our college basketball scores and matchups page daily to see the latest college basketball lines. In addition to March Madness spreads, total, and moneyline info, you'll also find game previews, betting trends, line movement history, and ATS and O/U consensus data for every March Madness game. We don't sleep until the nets are cut down.

Past March Madness winners

Year Champion Opening odds Runner-Up
2012 Kentucky +550 Kansas
2013 Louisville* +800 Michigan
2014 Connecticut +7,000 Kentucky
2015 Duke +1,000 Wisconsin
2016 Villanova +2,000 North Carolina
2017 North Carolina +2,400 Gonzaga
2018 Villanova +1,200 Michigan
2019 Virginia +1,800 Texas Tech
2020 No tournament (COVID-19) NA NA
2021 Baylor +800 Gonzaga
2022 Kansas +2,000 North Carolina
2023 Connecticut +1,600 San Diego State

• Of the 20 teams that have entered the tournament with undefeated records, only seven have gone on to win the national championship.

• Only 13 teams successfully defended their national championship the following season.

• UCLA has the most NCAA titles of all time (11), although the Bruins have not won the tournament since 1995.

• A No. 1 seeded team has won the national championship 59.1% of the time since regional seeding was introduced in 1979.

Best March Madness betting promos

Betting boosts are special promotions offered by legal sports betting sites that increase the odds for a specific game, event, or prop, designed to give you better value on your bets or encourage you to sign up for a new sportsbook with unique rewards and offerings.

They can be a great way for bettors to get better value for their wagers, as the odds are temporarily increased, thereby increasing a potential payout. The promotions are usually limited to a specific period and are subject to terms and conditions, so it's always important to read the fine print for more details.

Types of odds boosts

There are a number of different types of betting boosts available, with some targeting specific games, some aimed at specific leagues, and some just enticing users to try a new sportsbook. Here are the most common types of betting boosts:

  • Odds boost: When a sportsbook enhances the value of a specifically chosen player prop or a curated parlay/SGP, offering better odds than if you normally bet or created the wager yourself.

  • Profit boosts: When you are given a token that increases the value of any bet you want (such as a 25% boost on one Super Bowl bet). Sometimes these tokens are for all bets, while sometimes they have specific criteria (such parlays/SGPs only or bets above a certain price).

  • Sign-up offers: Operators offer benefits such as free bonus bets after your first wager, bonus bets offered as insurance if your first bet loses, an initial account deposit match, or even giving you discounts on other services for signing up with a sportsbook.

Take advantage of our best March Madness betting promos — from our best March Madness betting sites — to see if any other promotions appear that you can place a wager on!

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Jason Wilson Covers.com
Publishing Editor

Jason Wilson is an experienced journalist who has worked in a variety of roles within the industry for the past 18 years. Working at community newspapers in New Brunswick, Jason wore many hats as a reporter, editor, and photographer, covering everything from sports to courts to municipal politics. After shifting gears and working as an educator for a few years in the 2010s, Jason returned to full-time work in media as an MLB news editor for six years at theScore in Toronto before joining Covers in late 2021.

He has honed his editorial acumen over his years in the industry, showcasing flexibility, patience, and a strong work ethic. While he was relatively new to sports betting upon joining Covers, Jason has taken the plunge with gusto to learn the ins and outs of the industry, both as a method to improve professionally and to add an extra angle to his sports fandom.

In addition to sports, Jason is an avid film nut and former movie critic who monitors the Academy Awards betting odds for Covers. Jason holds a Bachelor of Arts in journalism degree and a Bachelor of Education degree from St. Thomas University.

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