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During Barack Obama’s time as president from 2009 to 2017, the president released an annual March Madness bracket for the men’s and women’s national tournaments. The tradition has seen limited participation by the presidents that followed him.
What Happened: The 2023 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament is expected to have 68 million Americans bet on the games through sportsbooks and among friends, as well as compete in bracket competitions.
On Thursday, President Joe Biden released his March Madness bracket, sharing it publicly on Twitter at 12:34 p.m. ET. Some users on social media were quick to call out the president for sharing his bracket after the first game had tipped off and the tournament had started.
Biden’s bracket shows a final 4 of 2-seed Arizona, 2-seed Marquette, 2-seed Texas and 1-seed Kansas. The bracket shows Arizona beating Kansas in the national championship game.
Biden’s bracket shows nine upsets in the first round, the same number picked by Obama. Big upsets selected by Biden include 12-seed Charleston, 10-seed Utah State, 11-seed Providence, 10-seed Boise State, 11-seed Arizona State, 10-seed Penn State and 11-seed Pittsburgh.
Outside of the first-round upsets, Biden’s bracket shows preference to the favorites and is mostly “chalk” with the top four seeds in each region selected to advance to the Sweet 16, selecting 0 upsets to advance to the Sweet 16.
Last year, Biden selected 15-seed Delaware, his alma mater, to win the tournament.
Obama submitted his March Madness bracket earlier, which included the final four consisting of 3-seed Baylor, 5-seed Duke, 1-seed Houston and 2-seed UCLA. In the championship game, Obama picks Duke to beat Houston.
The bracket from Obama would mark the first time a 5-seed has ever won the tournament since it expanded to 64 teams in 1985.
Obama’s bracket has a total of nine upsets selected in the first round, including a 12 seed and 13 seed.
Related Link: March Madness Perfect Bracket Odds: Hold My Beer, Mega Millions And Powerball
What’s Next: Around 35% of U.S. adults said they plan on watching the NCAA Men’s Tournament, up 6% from last year’s survey.
The interest in watching the games could be good news for Paramount Global PARAPARAA and Warner Bros. Discovery Inc WBD which share television coverage.
Over $15 billion could be bet on the March Madness tournament in 2023.
Odds on DraftKings Inc DKNG has Houston and Alabama as the two favorites for the tournament at odds of +450 and +650.
Arizona, selected by Biden, has odds of +1400 to win the tournament. Arizona was selected to reach the final game in 4.9% of brackets in the ESPN Tournament Challenge.
The odds for the Final 4 teams selected by Biden to win their regions are:
Arizona: +400
Marquette: +400
Texas: +300
Kansas: +350
A parlay combining all the Final 4 selections pays out at odds of +44,900, paying out $449 on a $1 bet. Obama’s Final 4 pays out at odds of +53,768, meaning a $1 bet would pay $538.68.
Biden’s bracket is already in a bit of trouble with his Elite 8 selection of Virginia, the only non-1, -2 or -3 seed selected to reach the round already eliminated in the opening round.
Through the first four games of the tournament, Biden has 2 wins and 2 losses. In the Tournament Challenge on ESPN, only 756,286 brackets are perfect out of more than 20 million submitted.
Read Next: 6 Biggest Upsets In NCAA March Madness History
Photo: Biden, The White House via Flickr, Basketball, Shutterstock
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Image and article originally from www.benzinga.com. Read the original article here.