Every year, teams representing schools in the NCAA Big East Conference come together at Madison Square Garden in New York City to play in the Big East Men’s Basketball Tournament.
You can get in on the action by betting on the 2023 Big East Tournament at Pennsylvania sportsbooks.
The single-elimination tournament champion gets more than just bragging rights and the opportunity to hold up the Big East Men’s Basketball Tournament trophy. The winner also receives the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament. In other words, a ticket to March Madness and a shot at a national title.
About the Big East Men’s Basketball Tournament
The Big East Tournament is college basketball’s longest running conference tournament held at the same venue, the Mecca of Basketball, Madison Square Garden. The 2023 Big East tournament runs March 8 to 11.
The tournament features all 11 teams in the Big East Conference:
- Villanova Wildcats
- Butler Bulldogs
- Creighton Blue Jays
- Connecticut Huskies
- DePaul Blue Demons
- Georgetown Hoyas
- Marquette Golden Eagles
- Providence Friars
- St. John’s Red Storm
- Seton Hall Pirates
- Xavier Musketeers
If you are used to betting in New Jersey on basketball games, here is the biggest reason you may want to pop over to Pennsylvania to bet. The Garden State does not allow sports betting on NJ college teams, but this is a problem you shouldn’t have at most sportsbooks in the Keystone State.
How the tournament plays out
The Big East seeds the teams one through 11 according to regular season conference records. The top five seeds have first-round byes, and the six through 11 seeds play first-round games to determine the second-round opponents of the top three seeds.
The third round is also the semifinals with the winners moving on to the Saturday evening final game.
All told, the tournament features 10 games over four consecutive days until a Big East Conference champion is crowned. The NCAA hosts its Selection Sunday the very next day, announcing the names of all 68 teams invited to play in the NCAA tournament and the First Four. This includes the Big East Conference champion as an automatic bid.
Fox Sports 1 (FS1) has televised the Big East Tournament since 2014.
How to bet on the Big East Tournament in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania sportsbooks take basic bets on all the games in the Big East Tournament, including:
- Futures – By definition, a futures bet is one where the outcome of the bet is not determined until a future date. Traditionally, this would be a bet on who would win the Big East title before the start of the season. However, Pennsylvania sportsbooks are likely to continue to accept futures bets on Big East teams throughout the regular season and into the tournament, as long as the team is still in the running for the title.
- Moneylines – Here you pick the winner of any Big East Tournament game and get paid based on odds set by sportsbooks.
- Spreads – Here you pick the betting winner of any Big East Tournament game with a line set by oddsmakers factored into the final score.
- Totals – Here you pick if the final score of any Big East Tournament game will be over or under a line set by oddsmakers.
- Parlays – This is a combination of two or more bets. Parlays pay better than individual bets. However, every bet must win for the parlay to pay. A parlay could include bets on Big East Tournament games or any other available games in other sports as well.
Where to bet on the Big East Tournament in Pennsylvania
In addition to online Pennsylvania sportsbooks, bettors can wager at the following list of retail Pennsylvania sportsbooks for Big East Tournament bets:
- Hollywood Casino
- SugarHouse Casino
- Rivers Casino
- Parx Casino
- South Philadelphia Turf Club
- Harrah’s Philadelphia
- Valley Forge Turf Club
- FanDuel Sportsbook at Valley Forge Casino
- Valley Forge Casino Resort
- Presque Isle Downs & Casino
Here is a look at the complete PA sports betting landscape to date:
| Casino | Online Sportsbook | App? | Bonus | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DraftKings (The Meadows) | Live as of Nov. 2019 | Android and iOS | $50 Free | Play now! |
| BetMGM Sportsbook (Hollywood Morgantown) | Live as of Dec. 2020 | Android and iOS | $1,000 Risk Free | Play now! |
| FOX Bet (Mount Airy) | Live as of Sept. 2019 | Android and iOS | $50 Risk Free | Play now! |
| FanDuel Sportsbook PA (Valley Forge) | Live as of July 2019 | Android and iOS | $2,500 Risk Free | Play now! |
| Unibet (Mohegan Sun Pocono) | Live as of Nov. 2019 | Android and iOS via GeoGuard | $500 Risk Free | Play now! |
| BetRivers Online Sportsbook | Live as of June 2019 | Android and iOS via GeoGuard | $500 Deposit Bonus | Play now! |
| PlaySugarHouse Sportsbook PA | Live as of May 2019 | Android and iOS via GeoGuard | $500 Deposit Bonus | Play now! |
| Parx Casino Sportsbook | Live as of June 2019 | Android | ||
| BetAmerica (Presque Isle Downs) | Live as of Dec. 2019 | GeoGuard web access | ||
| Caesars Sportsbook (Harrah's Philadelphia) | Live as of March 2020 | Android, Desktop, iOS | ||
| Barstool Sportsbook (Penn National) | Live as of Sept. 2020 | Android and iOS | ||
| Betfred Sportsbook (Wind Creek) | Live as of Dec. 2020 | Android, iOS, and Desktop | ||
| Live! Hotel & Casino | TBA | TBA |
Big East Tournament betting tips
- High seeds don’t normally win titles. In 2011, Connecticut was a part of a larger Big East Conference and 16-team tournament, becoming the first and only team in history to win five games in five days to take the title. In other words, teams that play first-round games (now No. 11 through No. 6 seeds) don’t regularly make the Big East Tournament championship game, let alone win it. And that UConn team went on to win the national title, so they are the exception rather than the rule.
- In the Big East, there are those that have and those that have not. Georgetown has won a record eight Big East Tournament titles, Villanova has won six, St. John’s and Seton Hall three each, and Providence two. The rest of the schools in the conference have never won the tournament, a stat you may want to consider when betting Big East Tournament long shots.