U.S. Sports Betting Markets Flying High

Since humankind first discovered contest; since it first felt the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat, it has wagered on something. On gladiators at the Coliseum, and on knights at jousting tournaments. On battles, or on rain-or on rain during battles, like Napoleon. You name it, and somebody somewhere has probably placed a bet on it. Sometimes they win, and sometimes its Waterloo and a one-way trip to a remote island. But on either side of any contest, there will always someone taking or placing bets on some aspect of that contest. 

Americans are no different in this regard; and with the Supreme Court's 2018 striking down of the federal ban on sports betting, there are a whole lot more Americans placing a whole lot more wagers on sporting events in the United States. With thirty-eight states and Washington, D.C. now offering some form of legal sports betting, the U.S. sports betting market is a burgeoning one. Indeed, the data indicates that the number of Americans placing bets and the amount of money being wagered by those Americans are both on the rise.

Generating $10 billion in annual revenue already, sports betting in the U.S. is only projected to increase as additional states consider legalizing the practice. According to an evaluation by Goldman Sachs earlier this month, U.S. sports betting is forecast to become a $45 billion a year industry based on "a combination of new state openings and a higher share of the consumer wallet being spent on sports betting over time." The burgeoning industry's rapid growth is not just limited to the U.S. either. With a compound annual growth rate, or CAGR, of 10.26%, the value of the global sports betting market is expected to reach $167.66 billion by 2029.

Of the most bet-on sporting events in the U.S., there is no single sporting event more wagered on than the NFL's championship Super Bowl game. According to the American Gaming Association, 50.4 million Americans wagered an estimated $16 billion on Super Bowl LVII in 2023, and 67.8 million Americans bet a record breaking $23.1 billion this week on Super Bowl LVIII, a marked increase of 35%. The FIFA 2022 World Cup, by comparison, tallied $35 billion in global wagers over the course of 64 games played over 29 days. Indeed, Super Bowl LVIII became the biggest sports betting event in U.S. history with $185.6 million wagered in Nevada alone. 

And the bets were coming in hot and heavy-like at a rate of 15,000 transactions per second hot and six- and seven-figures heavy. GeoComply, a company that verifies the location of online gamblers before they can place their bets, recorded its highest level of traffic ever on Sunday with over 122 million checks in 28 of the 29 states offering online sports betting. One of those seven-figure wagers, a $1.15 million bet placed by the multi-Grammy Award-winning rapper Drake, was a double win for the celebrity. Long afflicted by a phenomenon known as the "Drake Curse" in which the team or athlete he bets on loses, Drake's bet on the Chiefs' victory will finally break the curse and net him $1.196 million. 

Drake and his fellow seven-figure winners are not the only ones raking in piles of money on NFL wagers. Despite prohibiting its players from gambling at Las Vegas casinos or placing bets on NFL games under penalty of fines or suspension, the league profits from agreements with betting sites and casinos to use the league's logo in advertisements as well as from the billions it earns from television rights holders paying to broadcast its games. Incidentally, the NFL has not always looked as favorably on gambling being associated with its games. Until recent years, the league would not allow ads broadcast during games that even implied a connection to Las Vegas. That curse appears to have been lifted as well.