2022 was yet another record for the mobile sports betting industry in the United States.
With all states now reporting their complete wagering data, last year’s $93.4 billion represented a gigantic increase of $42.7 billion (+84%) over the 2021 total.
A substantial increase in wagering totals should have been expected given how many states either entered the mobile gaming market for the first time in 2022 or had their first full year. New York and Louisiana began operations in January 2022, Arkansas in March, Kansas in September and Maryland in late November, with Connecticut, Arizona, Iowa and Wyoming each having their first full year of operations in 2022.
In economic terms, the addition of new markets to old is known as artificial growth, which can sometimes give the illusion of growth when the existing market is flat. To assess whether that was the case for mobile sports betting, VIP+ conducted an analysis among only those states where betting was legal in both years. This showed that $60.2 billion was wagered in 2022, an increase of $9.5 billion from 2021 or, in percentage terms, growth of 19%.
New York was the state with the greatest amount wagered in 2022, with its $16.2 billion accounting for 17% of the entire total. The northeast of the country certainly has a taste for gambling, with four of the top five states coming from the region, accounting for almost half of the total wagered online on sports at $42.9 billion (46%).
While winning money was the most popular reason for sports betting, data provided by VIP+’s research partner CRG Global in our “Sports Gambling & Media” report show that one of the most popular reasons was that betting “makes the games I watch more exciting,” with several other reasons relating to watching televised games also important to some betters.
A closer integration between sports broadcasters and sportsbooks can therefore be expected to occur over the next year or two. For example, look at NBC Sports’ partnership with PointsBet, which is focused on local sports games airing across NBC’s RSNs in legal states.
The partnership sees NBC offering alternative commentary feeds of live games dubbed “BetCasts,” which feature an overlay of sports-betting data on the game feed as well as commentary from PointsBet analysts like the “Prop Queen” Ariel Epstein in a studio alongside NBC Sports commentators.
With the state of the RSN business a little hazy for some networks, closer integration with gambling is something that VIP+ expects to be leant into more in an effort to engage the most passionate local fans. Ultimately, sports betting overlays and alternative game feeds can be anticipated for most major sports in the coming years as media partners look for new revenue streams and ways to engage fans for longer.