The Braves-Mets battle for the lead in the National League East is heart pounding. The upcoming basketball season gets the juices flowing. And people still like hockey and soccer. But when it comes to sports betting, nothing compares to the NFL season, which kicked off at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles on September 8.
It marks the beginning of the most popular sports betting period in the U.S. How popular? 18 percent of the adult population will place at least one bet during the NFL season, representing 46.6 million Americans, according to a recent survey from the American Gaming Association (AGA). That’s an increase of 3 percent over last year.
Almost half the bettors, or 49 percent, expect to bet online, an 18 percent gain over last year, while 23 percent will bet at a retail sportsbook, which rose 2 percent. Only 13 percent will go through a bookie, a drop of 2 percent; 44 percent will casually bet with friends and 27 percent through a pool or paid fantasy league.
These percentages also encapsulated bettors who place wagers in more than one location.
“There’s no doubt that football, and the NFL in particular, is the biggest sport in the U.S.” David Forman, AGA’s vice president of research, told CDC Gaming Reports.
The AGA also believes sports betting revenue from legal sources will set another record this year. For the first six months, revenue at commercial casinos exceeded $3.04 billion, up 63.9 percent from the same period last year, with same-market revenue increasing 12.2 percent.
During the first seven months of the year, Americans have legally wagered more than $50.4 billion on sports, which generated $809 million in tax revenue. Forman expects the handle for 2022 to come close to $100 billion.
AGA President and CEO Bill Miller in a statement said that the growth in NFL betting “reflects the growth and continued maturation of legal sports betting across the country.”
As we speak, more than half of American adults—132 million—can legally wager in their home state, 18 million more than this time last year.
Getting into more detail, Forman said the hold for sportsbooks, which usually falls in the 4.5 percent territory, can rise as much as 9 percent where sports betting is a new novelty. The survey also revealed that 89 percent of those who placed a wager in the past year say that it’s very or somewhat important to rely on a legal sportsbook rather than an offshore one.
In keeping with the AGA designation of September as Responsible Gaming Education Month, 92 percent of U.S. sports bettors in a separate survey know about tools to help deal with responsible gaming. And 51 percent found more responsible-gaming information at their fingertips in the past 12 months than they had in previous years.
The polling firm, Morning Consult, conducted the online survey between August 25 and 27 among a sample of 2,210 American adults and weighted their data to approximate a target sample of adults based on age, education, gender, race, and region.
In related news, the Morning Consult survey showed that the Buffalo Bills and Tampa Bay Buccaneers are the most popular picks among bettors to win the NFL championship, 9 percent picking each team. Oddsmakers also choose those two teams. The 2023 Super Bowl, in February at the home stadium of the Arizona Cardinals, will be the first time the championship game is played in a state with legal sports betting.
With the increase in legalized states, bettors are drifting away from bookies to legal operators.
With that in mind, 23 million American adults will wager online this season, up 18 percent from 2021, while 10.6 million will place a bet in-person at a sportsbook this season, up 2 percent. Just 13 percent of NFL bettors will rely on a bookie, down two points. Half the bettors in states without legalized sports betting tend to favor bookies, according to Yogonet Gaming News.
“The sustained interest in NFL wagering reflects the growth and continued maturation of legal sports betting across the country,” Miller said in a release on Wednesday. “Consumers clearly want legal sports betting options and understand the regulated industry’s foundational commitments to responsibility.”
The majority—82 percent— of bettors in the past year think responsible gaming programs are very or somewhat effective and the industry has made efforts to combat problem gambling—81 percent.
“Responsibility is an underpinning of regulated U.S. sports betting and a clear competitive advantage as we continue to build a sustainable marketplace,” Miller said.
