March Madness on Demand

Over the next 19 days, the much-touted work ethic in America is put to its severest test as the annual basketball tournament, nicknamed March Madness, gets under way.No other event in the nation’s calendar eats into workdays as does the National Collegiate Athletic Association men’s basketball tournament, which involves 65 teams in a knock-out event, played in four cities around the country. In a nation where the average worker feels pressured not to take the usual measly two weeks annual vacation; has rights on a par with those Swaziland and Papua New Guinea (ie. no legally guaranteed maternity leave) and a work week that is edging up above 46 hours, employers in the main turn a surprisingly benevolent blind eye to workers goofing off to watch basketball on TV or on streaming video on their computers. A survey of 100 human resource officers by recruitment specialist, Challenger, Gray & Christmas, revealed that only six were going to take any measures to stop their employees following the tournament. So it’s little wonder that the survey estimates the tournament will cost US business and industry roughly $1.2bn (£616m) in worker productivity and that 22.9 million workers are likely to spend time surfing March Madness-related sites during the tournament. Of course not everyone becomes caught up in the Madness just for the love of the game. Gambling is huge. Last year it was estimated that $8bn changed hands during the tournament but no-one can say for sure what that figure will be this year following the US clampdown on internet gambling. Most of that money is spent with illegal local bookmakers and legal Vegas sports books generate about $80m for the casinos. The office pool is alive and thriving though and is said to churn $3bn in petty cash as workers pick their favourites from the four brackets down to the April 2 final. A study by WorkPlace Media, a research company revealed that about 30% of the country’s employees will be participating in office pools this year. While office pools are technically illegal, authorities ignore them and at least one expert thinks they have deeper values. Stephen Gilliland, a professor at the University of Arizona’s Eller College of Management said: “It can be great on morale, the pools and the brackets. People are actually talking to each other. There is lost productivity in a lot of things in a workplace – the coffee pot or the water cooler – but they still have value.” March Madness Online Betting: (our 5 most popular pages for betting March Madness) Over the years our sportsbetting information has been very profitable for ixgames customers, especially during the March Madness……..GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR BETS!