Tens of millions place bets on the NFL each season, and that number only increases when the NHL, NBA, and MLB seasons start. This time of year, all major leagues start to heat up TV screens, and sports betting enters its heyday.
In 2021, the sports betting industry generated revenue of $4.29 billion. The total sum of bets placed was $57.22 billion.
In the first half of 2022, sports betting revenue passed $3 billion. According to predictions by Morgan Stanley, it will pass $7 billion in the next three years.
In qualitative terms, the industry is exploding in perplexing sectors. Users on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok build sports-betting-focused communities. ESPN has dedicated programs to odds-making and wagers. The Washington Post is issuing a sports betting guide.
According to experts, the future of sports gambling is irrevocably linked to sports culture, technology, and the economy in America. Sports betting will keep growing throughout next year, without a doubt. Here are three reasons why.
1. Growing Legalization
The Supreme Court repealed the federal ban on gambling in 2018, leading the floodgates for the sports betting industry to open. Under the ban, sports betting had been illegal on the college and professional levels outside Nevada since 1992.
Thirty-one states legalized sports betting in the four subsequent years, and more are following in their footsteps. Ohio is launching sports betting on Jan. 1, 2023. With that, leading operators are vying for a share of the market by offering lucrative ways to make bets, like this DraftKings Ohio promo code.
Voters in California rejected Propositions 26 and 27 to legalize sports betting, but that doesn’t mean the battle is over. Stakeholders have spent tens of millions to support campaigns for the propositions. For example, large indigenous tribes spent $60 million on campaigns for Proposition 26. If it had been adopted, tribal casinos would have been allowed to offer in-person bets.
Leading sports betting platforms like FanDuel, BetMGM, and DraftKings have spent over $160 million on campaigns to approve Proposition 27. It would have made mobile sports betting legal in California.
Mobile betting is legal in fewer states than sports betting. For instance, sports betting in Washington is only legal only in person on the properties of tribal casinos. Bettors in Montana are only allowed to gamble at physical venues.
2. More players signing deals with sportsbooks
The number of players signing deals with sports betting sites is on the rise. Auston Matthews and Connor McDavid, two NHL MVPs, have deals with Bet99 resp. BetMGM. Wayne Gretzky is a BetMGM ambassador. Racecar driver Bubba Wallace, Jerry Rice of the NHL Hall of Fame, champion golfer Bryson DeChambeau, and Michael Jordan have deals with DraftKings.
Some of these partnerships are promoted quite aggressively. NHL teams started revealing their jerseys for the upcoming season, which can include any ad for the first time in league history. The ad is placed next to the team logo on the upper right chest.
Of the 32 teams in the league, three had revealed gambling-related partnerships at the time of writing. They are the Vegas Golden Knights and Circa Sports, Gila River Resorts and the Arizona Coyotes, and Caesars and the Washington Capitals.
The NBA still bans sportsbooks from taking part in these deals, although it approved jersey sponsorships a few years ago.
3. High Investments in Advertising
No legal action is being taken to limit sports betting, a fact particularly noticeable in the advertising industry. The NFL is not only the biggest of the American major leagues but also the dominant and most profitable in the area of sports betting.
Caesars, DraftKings, and FanDuel spent more than $1 billion on NFL sponsorship. Fox Bet, BetMGM, WynnBet, and PointsBet signed commercial deals with the league as well.
Unexpectedly, only the league itself set regulations, capping the number of in-game sports betting commercials at six. This model guarantees a message every half hour or so.
