The March Madness Effect: Why Loss of Worker Productivity Isn’t a Bad Thing

For most sports fans, the annual NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament (aka March Madness) is one of the most hotly anticipated events of the year. People from all walks of life and organizations big and small take time at the beginning of March to participate in the craze. From filling out brackets to researching the 10th level of player stats for bubble teams, even casual fans tend to take their predictions seriously.

Why is it so serious? Well, March Madness can garner you big bucks through workplace pools and sports betting, especially if you have that inside knowledge about a Cinderella team poised for a huge run! An estimated $10 billion (!) will be bet on the tournament, and only 3% of that will be wagered legally.

Despite the questionable (and arguably outdated) illegality of workplace pools, it is one of the main draws to watching the tournament. People not only love watching underdogs stories in the tournament, but they love winning the office pool because of the underdog. (And if you’d like a slice of the pie, chances are your workplace will host an office pool. Over 50 million people are expected to fill out tournament brackets for March Madness.)

In 2016, more than $4 billion dollars were lost in productivity to the opening week of March Madness. It’s no…