An explosion of sports betting is expected in the coming days as people across the country fill out brackets and settle in to watch the Big Dance.
This year’s NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament will see the most wagering in history as states continue to adopt laws to legalize sports betting. The American Gaming Association predicted that more than 17% of adults plan to wager a whopping total of $3.1 billion on this year’s tournament, dubbed March Madness.
The $3.1 billion figure includes all forms of gambling, illegal and legal, explained David Forman, the American Gaming Association’s senior director of research. He said that pinning down an exact number of how much people will wager on sportsbooks for individual games is difficult because states don’t break out those details.
“But if the Super Bowl is any indication, it will be about double whatever was bet last year,” Forman told the Washington Examiner.
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Forman described growth in the sports betting industry as “really significant” given the number of new states that have legalized the practice and the increased interest that the newly legal sports betting market has generated.
In 2018, the Supreme Court ruled that the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992, which prohibited sports betting, was unconstitutional. That landmark decision opened the door to states legalizing sports betting and opened the wallets of gamblers across the country.
During 2019’s March Madness contest, people in only eight states could legally place bets during the tournament. The combined population of those states is less than 34 million. As of this week, 30 states and Washington, D.C., offer legal sports betting, with three more states awaiting launch.
Since last year’s tournament, 29 million more adults can now legally bet on the tournament in their home state. Arizona, Connecticut, Louisiana, Maryland, North Dakota, South Dakota, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming all launched new sports betting markets since the 2021 tournament.
Ken Fuchs is the head of sports for Caesars Sportsbook. He told the Washington Examiner that his company has sports betting in 22 states, with its mobile app operating in 16 of those. He said that as sports betting continues to proliferate society, it is increasingly “becoming part of the culture” surrounding March Madness and other high-profile sporting contests.
“I think people are learning about sports betting and they’re engaging with friends around it. It’s become part of the national and local media coverage, and I think we’re just growing alongside that in every single state we’re in,” Fuchs said.
Sports betting has also been growing noticeably more visible. Today’s sports broadcasts are flush with a smattering of advertisements for various sportsbooks such as Caesars, FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM, and more. The companies reportedly shelled out $1.2 billion on U.S. marketing last year, a number that could nearly double this year.
Caesars, for instance, airs ads featuring Academy Award-winning actress Halle Berry and comedian J.B. Smoove of Curb Your Enthusiasm fame portraying Cleopatra and Julius Caesar. The company also has partnerships with the family of football stars Peyton and Eli Manning.
“The aspirational aspect of our brand fits really well with what’s happening in the space, so we try to convey that narrative in our advertising with Halle Berry and J.B. Smoove and the Mannings — it’s about having fun and enjoying time with your friends and having a little stake on the game as well,” Fuchs said.
The growth of the legal betting market may also be cutting into the illegal market, which has existed in tandem with sporting events for centuries.
Brian Marks, the executive director of the University of New Haven’s Entrepreneurship and Innovation program, said he believes that with the increase in legalized sports wagering, the demand for illegal betting and the use of offshore books has been waning. He noted the parallels between the legalization of marijuana for recreational use.
“It does not mean that illegal gambling has gone away, but it could mean we’re establishing a new equilibrium,” he said.
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The sports betting market has a long way to grow, given that several states have still not legalized it and the practice has not reached peak popularity across the country in states where it is already legal. The industry sees its future as bright.
“There is still a lot of momentum,” Forman said. “It’s moving really quickly, and states are still looking at how best to do it and a lot of them are still moving forward with it.”
