Over 23 Million Sports Bettors in America to Wager on Super Bowl LV

23.2 million Americans are looking forward to spending a combined total of about $4.3 billion in wagers on the upcoming Super Bowl LV clash between the Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The match will be played at the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida on 7th February and will kick off at 6: 30p.m E.T.

The findings were published on Tuesday by the American Gaming Association (AGA), the USA’s trade body for the gambling industry, after an online survey conducted on its behalf by the Morning Consult from 25th to 27th January 2021. Upon the public release of the report, Bill Miller the President and CEO of AGA shared a few sentiments about the analyzed data saying in part;

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"This year's Super Bowl is expected to generate the largest single-event legal handle in American sports betting history. With a robust legal market, Americans are abandoning illegal bookies and taking their action into the regulated marketplace in record numbers."

Despite Miller’s optimistic words, however, this year’s projected Super Bowl handle is a far cry from 2020’s numbers as it has dipped by 37%. In fact, in 2020, the US gaming trade body had projected that 26 million Americans would spend about $261 each on the big game, to generate a total handle of $6.8 billion. Unfortunately, the pandemic changed the game completely and from AGA’s Tuesday update, there’s a drastic change in the numbers.

Bigger Things to Come as US States Continue Regulating Sports Betting

Since the previous Super Bowl LIV match between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers played on 2nd Feb 2020, the legal sports betting landscape has grown by leaps and bounds. Within the last year, 36 million more gambling-legal adults in America have received the okay to place wagers in regulated sportsbooks within their state lines.

Compared to a year ago, 6 more states; Virginia, Tennessee, Montana, Michigan, Illinois, and Colorado, plus the District of Columbia have launched legal sports betting markets. As more states continue legalizing the activity, the USA’s sports betting scene is expected to get even more interesting.

Currently, a total of 25 states and the District of Columbia have given a thumbs up to legal sports betting, with 21 of these jurisdictions having already started their regulated sports betting operations. Meanwhile, 13 more states have either pre-filed or active legislation aimed to make sports betting legal for their residents.

More Findings from AGA’s Recent Sports Betting Survey

Besides the general decline in the volume of wagers, AGA’s latest report also indicates a shift in bettor’s patterns influenced by the pandemic as well. For instance, in 2021, 1.4 million sports bettors in the US plan to place wagers in-person at a retail sportsbook, which is a 61% drop over the same period last year. Additionally, among the sports bettors who plan to bet on the Super Bowl event on Sunday night, 7.4 million of them will be placing their wagers on an online sportsbook. This reflects a 63% surge year-over-year.

For this year’s installment of the Super Bowl, here’s what else the survey uncovered compared to 2020;

• At 1.8 million, the number of bettors who plan to bet with a bookie has reduced by 21%
• 4.5 million sports fans will be placing wagers on squares, a pool, and other associated bets, representing a 19% slip.
• The number of betters who plan to casually bet with friends has decreased by 18% to 11.9 million.
• Kansas City Chiefs are this year’s favorite on a 14 to 11 ratio against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
• 34% of Americans have come to contact with responsible gaming messages, up 5%
• Super Bowl bettors have a higher likelihood of seeing responsible gambling information. 53% of them saw the messages over the last year.
• 65% of sports bettors who plan to wager on the Super Bowl insist on the importance of placing wagers on a state-licensed sportsbook

Super Bowl aligned numbers aside, AGA’s new report cements the fact that more Americans are increasingly embracing legal sports betting sites and shunning the black market. In anticipation of a steady growth trajectory in the coming years thanks to the current wave of legalizing sports betting across the states, AGA President Bill Miller further added that;

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“This data is an encouraging sign that our efforts to ground the expansion of sports betting in responsible gaming is taking hold. Responsible gaming is core to legal sports betting’s long-term success, and this is borne out by continued demand for consumer protections only available in the legal market.”