AGA: Sports betting expansion means legal wagering on the Super Bowl will increase 25%

Tuesday, January 28, 2020 8:04 PM

When Super Bowl LIV kicks off Sunday in Miami, legal wagering on the game will be available in double the number of states compared to a year ago.

The American Gaming Association noted that fact Tuesday when the trade organization released its annual study on Super Bowl wagering.

Of the 26 million Americans who will bet on the game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers, some 4 million will place a bet at a traditional brick-and-mortar casino, a 25% increase from last year.

“With increased visitation to legal sportsbooks, we are successfully drawing bettors away from the predatory illegal market,” said AGA CEO Bill Miller.

Still, some 5 million – 19% more than last year – will wager on the Super Bowl through a mobile application or online, although the bet might be placed through an illegal offshore betting site. Millions of others will wager with a bookie or casually with family and friends.

Miller said the demand for sports betting by U.S. consumers was validation the efforts to legalize the activity is “gaining traction.”

Fourteen states now offer legal sports wagering. Another six and Washington D.C. are expected to launch legal sports betting this year. The AGA is tracking 14 states where sports betting legislation has been introduced in 2020.

“By the next Super Bowl, half of all the states could have legal sports betting,” Miller said. “I’m hard pressed to come up with something that has moved this quickly,” referencing the May 2018 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that allowed states to legalize and regulate sports betting.

Since the ruling, the AGA said more than $17 billion has been legally wagered on sports in the U.S.

Miller cited a comment from FanDuel executives when the company launched legal sports betting operations in New Jersey. Nine out of every 10 customers who signed up stated they had previously wagered illegally on sports.

“We want to create a migration from the illegal markets into the legal markets,” Miller said.

The AGA, citing the results of the Super Bowl betting survey conducted by Morning Consult, concluded approximately $6.8 billion will be wagered in the U.S., although the figure includes both legal and illegal estimates.

Also Tuesday, PlayUSA.com estimated $400 million will be wagered legally on the Super Bowl with regulated sportsbooks.  PlayUSA.com noted states with a combined population of 70 million now offer a means to place a legal sports wager on the game. Eight of those states have both online and retail regulated sports betting.

“With the proliferation of legal sports betting across the U.S., there is no doubt that this will be a record year for legal bets on the Super Bowl,” said Dustin Gouker, lead analyst for PlayUSA.com.

Last year, Nevada and New Jersey – the nation’s two largest sports betting markets – generated more than $180 million in wagers on Super Bowl LIII between the New England Patriots and Los Angeles Rams. The game marked the first time New Jersey sportsbooks could accept Super Bowl wagers.

Nevada’s wagering total of $145.9 million was the state’s second-best all-time, but down from the record $158.6 million in 2018.

“Not only has the number of legal sports jurisdictions doubled from last year’s game, states such as New Jersey and Pennsylvania have boomed,” Gouker said. “That all adds up to a historic weekend ahead for sports betting.”

The AGA cited figures that show legal sports betting increases fan engagement. Viewership for NFL games increased 5% in 2019. Previous AGA research found that 75% of NFL bettors are more likely to watch a game in which they have a wager. Miller said the NFL could earn $2.3 billion annually from sports betting fan engagement.

“What makes this year’s Super Bowl remarkable is that more fans than ever before will have the reassurance that the integrity of their bets on the big game will be preserved,” Miller said. “The continued expansion of legal sports betting — to the detriment of the illegal market — truly benefits all stakeholders, from enhanced fan engagement for teams to added tax revenue for state and local economies.”

Howard Stutz is the executive editor of CDC Gaming. He can be reached at hstutz@cdcgamingreports.com. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.