The Business Behind the NCAA's Money-Making March Madness Tournament

Benjamin Rains Published on March 19, 2018

Welcome to the latest episode of the Full-Court Finance podcast from Zacks Investment Research. On this week’s episode, we take a look at the multibillion-dollar business that drives NCAA March Madness after a wild opening weekend for the college basketball tournament.

A No. 1 seed lost to a No. 16 seed for the first time ever, big brand name schools busted brackets early, and ratings jumped accordingly. But what might be more fascinating than the craziness on the court is the mind-boggling money that is generated during the event.

CBS and Time Warner’s Turner bet big on the long-term viability of March Madness, committing billions of dollars to broadcast the tournament through 2032. The two media companies broadcast and stream all of the games across an array of networks, and the deal will see them retain the broadcasting rights no matter how fans consume games in the future.

On top of these broadcast fees, the NCAA makes millions from tickets and marketing deals. Capital One (COF - Free Report) , AT&T (T - Free Report) , and Coca-Cola (KO - Free Report) remain the tournament’s biggest sponsors this year. Meanwhile, companies like Pizza Hut (YUM - Free Report) and Lowe’s (LOW - Free Report) will be ever present over the next few weeks, while Google (GOOGL - Free Report) debuted the first advertising campaign for its cloud computing products as part of a new multiyear NCAA partnership.

The players themselves will also act as walking, talking, and dunking billboards for Nike (NKE - Free Report) , Adidas (ADDYY - Free Report) , and Under Armour (UAA - Free Report) . And that is just the start of the major money that fuels March Madness. Check out the show to hear more!

Breaking News: Cryptocurrencies Now Bigger than Visa

The total market cap of all cryptos recently surpassed $700 billion – more than a 3,800% increase in the previous 12 months. They’re now bigger than Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and even Visa! The new asset class may expand even more rapidly in 2018 as new investors continue pouring in and Wall Street becomes increasingly involved.

Zacks’ has just named 4 companies that enable investors to take advantage of the explosive growth of cryptocurrencies via the stock market.

Click here to access these stocks. >>

Zacks Names "Single Best Pick to Double"

From thousands of stocks, 5 Zacks experts each have chosen their favorite to skyrocket +100% or more in months to come. From those 5, Director of Research Sheraz Mian hand-picks one to have the most explosive upside of all.

It’s a little-known chemical company that’s up 65% over last year, yet still dirt cheap. With unrelenting demand, soaring 2022 earnings estimates, and $1.5 billion for repurchasing shares, retail investors could jump in at any time.

This company could rival or surpass other recent Zacks’ Stocks Set to Double like Boston Beer Company which shot up +143.0% in little more than 9 months and NVIDIA which boomed +175.9% in one year.