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The 2009 March Madness betting season officially got underway just after the Selection Sunday show with preliminary traffic numbers suggesting records may once again be broken.
The period from Sunday evening through to late morning Thursday is considered one of the busiest of the year in terms of betting.
"At times Sunday night, the traffic coming into the Gambling911.com website was greater than that of the 2009 Super Bowl," said Payton O'Brien, Matriarch of the Gambling911 site. "It will be interesting to see if this is a sign of things to come and March Madness betting, like with the Super Bowl and Oscars, bucks the downward spiraling economic trend."
That seemed a strong likelihood as traffic for March Madness continued to flow in during the late night hours of Sunday.
The online gambling sector has noticed only a minor impact from the recession.
"People are still betting but maybe not the same amounts," commented Mickey Richardson, CEO of Bookmaker.com. "Our bigger players do not have the same liquidity," he added.
Companies like Bookmaker.com, which are dependent to a degree on professional gamblers who in the past were not afraid to lay $10,000 and up on a game, are relying heavily on customer volume this season to make up for those numbers.
Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
