Although COVID restrictions will see casinos and sportsbook rooms a lot less crowded this year, legal online betting on the Super Bowl is soaring. According to the American Gaming Association, the addition of 36 million adults in seven new legal sport betting states — for a total of 21 states — is expected to drive a 63 percent increase in digital bets on the big game.
In total, the AGA is projecting a record 7.6 million people will place some form of online wager on Sunday’s game — accounting for one-third of a total $4.3 billion betting pool — marking the latest milestone in a fast-growing industry that only became legal nationally in 2018.
Although the industry is still young, the marketing muscle at some of the big players is already in high gear, rolling out creative new ways to reel in bettors. For example, Denver-based Pointsbet is offering “Big Game Goat Insurance” (a play on the acronym Greatest Of All Time, often linked to Tampa Bay quarterback Tom Brady) that will refund up to $50 in free bets “so long as their selected team loses by 43 points or less, and they live in one of the six states where Pointsbet currently operates.”
“This year’s Super Bowl is expected to generate the largest single-event legal handle in American sports betting history,” said AGA President and CEO Bill Miller. “With a robust legal market, Americans are abandoning illegal bookies and taking their action into the regulated marketplace in record numbers.”
Bye Bye, Bookie?
While the legalized sports betting industry and state regulators have a clear interest in protecting their investment against illegal operators that often have links to organized crime, a survey by the AGA showed that 65 percent of gamblers said it was important to them to bet legally with a regulated sportsbook.
Even so, that implies that at least one-third of bettors are still openly comfortable with the black market (and tax-free version) of betting, which — by design — is hard to track.
“Hundreds of thousands of people in Michigan and Virginia placed legal online bets for the first time this past weekend,” said Seth Palansky, vice president of corporate social responsibility at Conscious Gaming, an independent nonprofit created by GeoComply. “This demonstrates that Americans will abandon illegal websites and the street corner bookie to place their trust in companies that are accountable, and provide robust consumer protections and responsible gaming measures.”
A Growth Industry
Other areas of soft gambling, such as office pools or score square sheets, are also expected to be down 19 percent this year, the AGA said, with similar declines projected for wagers between friends. That said, the sharpest drop of all is the 61 percent plunge the AGA is forecasting for in-person sports bets, which it said reflects “dramatically shifting betting patterns amid the COVID-19 pandemic.”
As much as sports betting may be fun for fans, it’s also becoming an increasingly large employer and economic engine that creates activity ranging from media shoots and advertising buys to payments processing, geolocation and other ID verification services. In fact, according to the latest AGA statistics, more than $21 billion was wagered on sports in 2020, a 60 percent spike from 2019, generating more than $210 million in state and local taxes.
For what it’s worth, the AGA said that 56 percent of Super Bowl bets have been on the defending champion Chiefs, with 44 percent going for the Buccaneers.
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