Eilers & Krejcik Gaming Managing Director Chris Krafcik has shared insights from the analytics firm’s latest report in a LinkedIn post, in which he outlined the evolution of legal sports betting on the National Football League (NFL), with a particular focus on how much money is estimated to be wagered on this year’s Super Bowl event.
According to Krafcik, this year should see a $1.5bn plonked down on the biggest sports event in the United States, citing the 34 states with commercial sports betting. This projection, Krajcik says is a 20% increase on last year, citing the Taylor Swift effect and others.
Nevada is another interesting part of the analysis and will capture 13% of the total betting handle that will go down on the Big Game, a notable trend for a state that does not offer online sports betting. New York should come second with 11% and New Jersey third with 10% of the total handle.
In-play wagers will then represent 15-20% of the online handle, the analysis continues, which it says is below the industry average, but this may be due to the fact that the event attracts a dynamic crowd of recreational bettors who prefer to use pre-game betting options as they are less involved and more accessible.
This being said, Krafcik cautions that the analysis comes with a few pinches of salt. For one, it does not include bets that are placed at tribally regulated sportsbooks, such as Florida, North Dakota and Washington.
Should it include it, the estimation of $1.5bn is very likely to be exceeded. Another thing to note is that the analysis relies on officially reported data and specifically data that is released on the Super Bowl. The drawback is that there are only a few states that actually engage in such tabular data reporting.
The analysis also fails to account for the illegal gambling market and if anything – Krafcik says that the report is erring on the side of caution, meaning that the $1.5bn figure cited is most likely an underestimation.
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