Division 1 college football, the NFL and the MLB postseason are manna for sportsbooks. The U.S. Open tennis matches in Queens? Not much of a draw, even with sports betting legal in New York.
Heck, Labor Day at the Open was AWOL as far as sportsbooks, according to US Bets.
“The sport of tennis has perhaps been more conservative than others in inviting that aspect of fan engagement into its universe,” Kirsten Corio, the U.S. Tennis Association’s chief commercial officer, recently told Adweek.
“We understand that it’s here to stay, and that many fans do consider that an important part of their engagement with a live sporting event—and that evolution is inevitable. But how that comes to be embraced by official tournaments and official governing bodies like ours is still a work in progress.”
Joe Favorito, a sports media consultant and a professor at Columbia University, told US Bets that U.S. Open officials have an excellent opportunity in coming years.
“Kiosks on site and betting parlors taking dollars at Wimbledon and the Australian Open were in place over 20 years ago, and there is so much data that shows how much betting already occurs in tennis,” Favorito said. “So the U.S. Open taking on a betting partnership—maybe numerous ones—will get a pretty immediate return on investment as the dollars and sponsorship works its way forward in the next few years.
“It’s hard to think of an event anywhere in the world where sports gambling is legal that hasn’t enjoyed the engagement and the revenue from gambling thus far, other than the Open,” Favorito added. “And when it does get sorted through, it should be a nice additional enhancement for fans on site as well as for the partners.”
