SPORTS BETTING
US – Record 46.6m Americans plan to bet on 2022 NFL season
By Phil - 7 September 2022
A record 46.6m American adults (18 per cent) plan to bet on the upcoming National Football League (NFL) season, up three percent year-over-year, according to new American Gaming Association (AGA) research.
Importantly, since the NFL kick-off coincides with the beginning of Responsible Gaming Education Month, nine in ten (92 per cent) US sports bettors report awareness of responsible gaming tools.
“The sustained interest in NFL wagering reflects the growth and continued maturation of legal sports betting across the country,” said AGA President and CEO Bill Miller. “Consumers clearly want legal sports betting options and understand the regulated industry’s foundational commitments to responsibility.”
As legalization spreads, bettors are moving away from bookies and toward regulated options. Of American adults 23 million will place a bet online this season, up 18 per cent from 2021 whilst 10.6m will place a bet in-person at a sportsbook this season, up two percent from 2021.
Just 13 percent of NFL bettors say they will use a bookie, down two points from last year (15 per cent) and five points from 2020 (18 per cent). Bookie usage is 50 per cent higher in states without legalized sports betting.
Today, more than half (132 million) of American adults can legally wager in their home state, 18 million more than this time last year. Demonstrating consumer confidence in regulated sportsbooks, nine in 10 (89 per cent) of past-year sports bettors say it is very or somewhat important that they bet with a legal, regulated sportsbook.
Consumer protections are central to the legal marketplace, and past-year sports bettors recognize the industry’s responsibility commitments with 90 per cent recall seeing or hearing about responsible gaming in the past year with 51 per cent saw or heard more responsible gaming information in the past 12 months than they had in previous years.
The majority of past-year sports bettors believe responsible gaming programs are very or somewhat effective (82 per cent) and that the gaming industry is committed to encouraging responsible gaming and combatting problem gambling (81 per cent).
“Responsibility is an underpinning of regulated U.S. sports betting and a clear competitive advantage as we continue to build a sustainable marketplace,” Miller added.
Among NFL bettors, the Buffalo Bills and Tampa Bay Buccaneers (nine per cent) are the most popular picks to win Super Bowl LVII, followed by the Los Angeles Rams and Kansas City Chiefs (eight per cent) and the Dallas Cowboys (seven per cent). The Super Bowl will be played in a legal sports betting jurisdiction (Arizona) for the first time in February 2023.
