The sports betting market has taken the United States by storm since the Supreme Court voted to overturn a federal ban on the pastime in 2018. Roughly 75 percent of states in the country have already legalized sports betting, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t still plenty of room left to grow. Here’s a look at what is spurring growth in the gambling industry right now, along with some long-standing trends that can help predict success.
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Emerging Betting Options
One underrated factor that helps the NFL enjoy the level of success it has as a sports betting market is the standard of parity it maintains. The league loves to repeat the mantra that any team in the league — no matter how strong or weak — can win or lose on “Any given Sunday:” the talent gap between the best and worst teams in the league is still trivial amongst a group of professional players.
Sure, you can be a pessimist and bet on your favorite team to lose, but it’s much more fun when you feel like they have a legitimate shot at victory. Take a look at the state of Ohio, for instance. The Cincinnati Bengals and the Cleveland Browns have been two of the worst teams in the league over much of the past decade… even longer than that, in the case of poor Cleveland.
Both of those teams have turned their fortunes around significantly in recent years, though, with the Bengals making it all the way to the Super Bowl in 2022 and the Browns upsetting their hated rivals, the Pittsburgh Steelers, in a road playoff game in 2021: their first playoff win in nearly three decades. Again, any given Sunday.
That year to year volatility means that hope springs eternal each offseason. Combine that with promising new betting markets like ESPN Bet Ohio Sports Betting, set to debut later this month, and you have a recipe for rampant success.
NFL Betting: The Best is Yet to Come
One of the most exciting things about the emerging sports betting market is that we still seem to have a ways to go before hitting the market ceiling. That’s because the three largest states by population in the United States — California, Texas, and Florida — have yet to implement legal sports betting, weather, because they haven’t passed the necessary legislation in order to do so or, in Florida’s case, are waiting on the results of a federal lawsuit before they can get up and running.
Not only do those three states compose more than a quarter of the country’s entire population, but they also host one quarter of the teams in the league between them, including fan favorites like the Dallas Cowboys and the San Francisco 49ers.
It may be some time before voters and legislators in Texas and California vote to legalize sports betting, as they remain steadfastly opposed to the prospect, but when it does happen, you can book it without a second thought that the market will explode.
When New York, the fourth largest state by population, legalized sports betting last year, they immediately set a record for the largest betting handle brought in by any state in their first year of operation.
You don’t have to be an economist to accurately predict that much the same thing will happen in red leaning income tax havens like Florida and Texas. New York still set those records despite the harshest gambling tax laws in the country though, so California will likely follow a similar trend, especially given its reputation as a tourism hotbed.
Diverse Wagering Options
Another thing that helps the gambling market continue to grow is the multitude of options available for the average customer. With dozens of different sports gambling platforms — and more coming out every year, as is the case with ESPN BET — we live in a buyers market where prospective wagerers have plenty of options to choose from.
Similarly, gambling operators know that they’re more likely to bring in a customer if they provide more things for them to bet on. Rather than sticking to the classics with listings like money lines, point spreads and futures bets, sportsbooks are starting to take bets on just about everything.
Player props are one such option, where you can bet on how many yards a wide receiver will rack up or how many touchdowns they score. Sometimes that comes in a traditional format, like a predetermined over/under, but other apps offer sliders where you can increase or decrease totals in order to bet on customized odds. Having a diverse and user-friendly experience is a great way to ensure continued growth.