Read time 4 minutes
Key Findings:
The data reveals that March Madness does not bring new bettors to sportsbooks; it activates the ones already there. Across every stage of the tournament through April 6, from Selection Sunday through the Championship game, ninety-seven percent (97%) of depositing players (bettors) were existing customers. Even during the tournament's biggest spike, a 60% surge in betting activity during the First and Second Round weekend; first-time depositors represented just 3% of the depositing base. That ratio barely moved regardless of the stage.
For sportsbook operators, the message is unambiguous: March Madness is not a customer acquisition event. It is primarily a retention opportunity.
The tournament generates a clear and predictable surge in betting activity at every stage, measured against a February 2026 sportsbook betting baseline:
The surge is real. But who is driving it matters more than how big it is.
With 97% of depositing players being existing players (customers) at every stage, operators who direct the bulk of their March Madness investment toward retention — personalized promotions, loyalty rewards, and targeted re-engagement — will see a stronger return than those focused on acquiring new signups.
This does not mean acquisition should be ignored entirely. Even 3% of a very large pool represents meaningful new customer volume. But the primary opportunity is clear: know your existing players, engage them personally, and give them compelling reasons to stay, bet more, and come back round after round.
This report is based on a sampling of data from over 3.1 million US sports bettors. Tournament-period betting activity is measured against a February 2026 baseline, calculated from the post Super Bowl period (February 10–28) to exclude major sporting events and reflect organic, day-to-day sportsbook activity. During this window, daily active bettors averaged around 200,000, and daily bets placed averaged around 2.7 million - making it a reliable benchmark against which tournament-period spikes are measured. March Madness data covers Selection Sunday (March 15) through the Championship game (April 6), encompassing the First Four, First and Second Rounds, Sweet 16, Elite Eight, Final Four, and Championship.
Optimove is the creator of Positionless Marketing and the #1 Player Engagement Solution for iGaming and sports betting operators. Positionless Marketing frees marketing teams from the limitations of fixed roles, giving every marketer the power to execute any marketing task instantly and independently. Positionless Marketing has been proven to improve campaign efficiency by 88%, allowing marketing teams to create more personalized engagement with existing customers.
For two years running, Optimove has been positioned as a Visionary in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Multichannel Marketing Hubs, recognized for its AI-driven decisioning, prescriptive insights, and proven ability to orchestrate thousands of personalized campaigns in real time across channels. AI-led marketing is a hallmark of Optimove’s visionary leadership.
By embedding AI directly into its platform as early as 2012, Optimove paved the way for today’s Positionless Marketing standard. Its Positionless Marketing Platform includes Optimove Engage and Orchestrate for cross-channel campaign decisioning and orchestration; Optimove Personalize, a digital personalization engine; and Optimove Gamify, a loyalty and gamification platform.
Today, its comprehensive AI-powered suite is at the leading edge of empowering marketers to streamline workflows from Insight to Creation and through Optimization. Optimove provides industry-specific and use-case solutions for leading consumer brands globally.
Optimove Insights is the analytical and research arm of Optimove, dedicated to providing valuable industry insights and data-driven research to empower B2C businesses.
For more insights, contact us to request a demo.
