More Than 50 Million Americans Are Projected to Bet on the Super Bowl
By: Katherine Sayre (WSJ)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Gambling on this weekend's Super Bowl is expected to reach record-breaking levels, with more than 50 million Americans projected to bet $16 billion on the championship game, according to a gambling-industry trade group.
Super Bowl LVII is also the first National Football League Championship to be played in a state with legalized sports betting. Fans inside State Farm Stadium in Glendale,Ariz., will be able to place mobile-phone bets during the game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday. Gambling operator BetMGM last year opened a sports-betting outlet at the stadium grounds.
“The fact that the Super Bowl is being played in a legal sports-betting state was almost unthinkable five years ago,” said Bill Miller, chief executive of the American Gaming Association. “It’s a testament to the progress we’re making.”
About 30 million Americans plan to make Super Bowl sports wagers online—on both legal and illegal sites—as well as in legal sportsbooks and with illegal bookies, according to the survey released by the American Gaming Association. That is up 66% from last year’s Super Bowl. About 28 million Americans plan to bet on the game casually with friends and through pools and contests, the group said.
The gaming association’s estimate of $16 billion in legal and illegal bets is more than double last year’s estimate of $7.6 billion. The estimates are based on a survey of nearly 2,200 adults.
The expected record-breaking game comes as 36 states and the District of Columbia have legalized sports betting. Last year, sports wagering generated about $7.5 billion in revenue for operators after paying out winning bets, according to the trade group. The industry has rapidly expanded since a Supreme Court ruling in 2018 cleared the way for states beyond Nevada to allow sports wagering.
Gambling operators consider the Super Bowl to be a customer-acquisition opportunity in addition to a moneymaker. Companies push to attract new customers, including more casual bettors during the big game , and try to reactivate existing customers.
This year, DraftKings Inc. DKNG -3.27% decrease; red down pointing triangle teamed up with Molson Coors Beverage Co. to offer a contest in which players try to predict what is in the brewer’s Super Bowl commercial for a share in a $500,000 prize pool.
FanDuel Group, meanwhile, launched an ad campaign that is expected to culminate in retired NFL star Rob Gronkowski attempting a field goal in a live commercial during the game. Any FanDuel customer who makes a Super Bowl bet of at least $5 will win a share of $10 million in free bets if Mr. Gronkowski makes the kick, the company said.
GeoComply, which validates online sports-betting traffic to ensure users are in a state with legalized betting, said it processed more than 550 million geolocation checks between the NFL playoffs and American Football Conference Championship from Jan. 14 through Jan. 29. That represents a 50% rise from last year.
GeoComply said State Farm Stadium has already proved to be a hot spot for online betting. Last September, when the Arizona Cardinals played the Chiefs, GeoComply processed 66,000 geolocation checks, nearly the biggest volume in any U.S. stadium that week, the company said.
made it a losing business. Gambling operators poured hundreds of millions of dollars into pursuing new customers as more states adopted online sports betting. Now, in an effort to turn profits, companies have rolled back advertising spending in favor of more targeted marketing.
“I think we maybe hit a soft landing with advertising, where it isn’t so in our face, for this Super Bowl and for the next 12 months,” said Rick Arpin, who leads the U.S. gaming practice for consulting firm KPMG.
About 11% of consumers said they bet on sports through mobile devices in the fourth quarter of last year, down from 19% in the second quarter, according to a survey of 2,835 adults by credit-reporting firm TransUnion conducted during those periods.
The participation rate for adults ages 29 to 43, the largest segment of mobile sports-bettors, fell from 38% in the second quarter to 22% by the end of the year, according to the survey.
Mr. Arpin said gambling operators remain cautiously optimistic for the year because consumers are continuing to spend on entertainment, while rolling back larger purchases.
Next year, the Super Bowl will be hosted in one of the world’s biggest gambling hubs: Las Vegas.
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For many it is the only bet they make all year.
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Hopefully they won't bet the rent/mortgage money! (we know that doesn't happen
I will always take Mahomes and points.
Congrats on last night's victory