Business

Online sports betting doubled in the US in 2021 – and it will continue to grow

Online sports betting has become a well-known phenomenon for most. This is where sports fans or devoted gamblers have the opportunity to bet on certain events during a sports match, in hopes of earning from their guesses. Today many online sites offer to bet on almost any sport out there, and most American states are either offering sports betting or are discussing legislation for online gambling.

Betting in 2021

In the year 2021, the sports betting industry exploded. It doubled in size, and an American wagered more than $52.7 billion throughout the year. This was with the help of online sportsbooks and betting sites where users can place wagers at any time, from any place. Point Spreads Betting and other sites are there to aid betters with tips, news, and odds, to make the betting easier, and hopefully more profitable.

Betting in 2021 is very trend-based, and some events get especially a lot of attention. The NFL is one of them, and the Super Bowl Finale particularly. As the 2021 NFL season continued into 2022, the football match between the Buffalo Bills and the Kansas City Chiefs earlier this year got an impressive viewer rate of 34,5 million total viewers. This set the mark for the opening season for online sports betting.

The massive increase

While sports betting has been around for ages around the world, it especially boomed in 2021 due to the launch of legal wagering in 11 new states. In addition to this, more than $1 billion was invested in marketing and advertising by some of the biggest sportsbooks in the country. This unsurprisingly led to a bigger hype and more people that wanted to place bets themselves. Legal sports betting is now available in 30 states, plus Washington D.C. it is also expected that more states will join this year. Ohio bettors are expected to be allowed to place wagers within the year, and there have been efforts to expand the legalisation of sports betting in Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, and North Carolina.

2021 was also the year when more sports events were allowed to open up after the pandemic. The sports scene in 2020 was highly impacted by the pandemic and it was no easy task to manage and go through the biggest events that we are otherwise used to seeing. The Super Bowl had record-low viewing and could not allow a full stadium like we are familiar with.

Becoming a better bettor

One of the main reasons why online sports betting is becoming increasingly popular is the fact that it is so easy to start up. There are plenty of sites online where you can bet or read tips and tricks to get started. The many betting sites are well marketed, and the sites are developed to be highly user-friendly and easy to navigate.

The convenience of online sports betting should also be mentioned. Nowadays you can place bets whenever you like, just with the help of your phone or computer, and internet access. Sites are also developing further, giving the bettors tools to make their experience better, this is one reason why we think the betting wave has only just begun and will continue to rage over the U.S.

The rise of betting

While betting on sports has been around for ages, it is now growing like never before. At the beginning of 2022, they expected betting to grow even more than in 2021, and sports bettors did not disappoint. The number of Americans who bet on sports grew by 30% over 18 months ending in September, and no less than 15.3 million new bettors were recruited. This also shows in the betting results in 2022. The Super Bowl is the most betted on sports event of the year, and in 2022 it was better for an estimated $8 billion on the Rams vs. The Bengals.

The rise of betting also increases the number of viewers of different sports events, and the amounts of sports fans created. Studies show that people who bet get greater ownership of the matches and the teams and are thus more likely to become a supporter looking forward. This is of course the advantage of sports channels and online streamers of live matches, and it is probably in their best interest to keep the betting wave floating.

Online sports betting has undoubtedly become a great thing in America, and it is also on the rise in the rest of the world. More people are opening their eyes to this form of gambling, and it will likely continue to rise looking forward. Numbers from formerly recruited betters, and from this year’s biggest sports events support this claim, and we are all eager to see how the betting industry will perform looking forward.

About the author

Saman Iqbal

Saman is a law student. She enjoys writing about tech, politics and the world in general. She's an avid reader and writes fictional prose in her free time.







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