2022 was a transformative year for the sports betting industry. The number of states where it is legal increased by five, including gambling heavyweight New York, leading to record bets across the country. Now, VIP+ has updated its “Sports Betting and Media” special report for the third time, focusing on what the rise of mobile sports betting means in particular for media partners.
In addition to our comprehensive coverage of the emerging market, VIP+ hosted a webinar with industry experts from across the media landscape. Joining Senior Media Analyst Gavin Bridge to discuss the opportunities presented by sports betting, media partners included Chris Bevilacqua, CEO of Simplebet; Raph Poplock, SVP of Business Development, Bleacher Report; Liam Roecklein, SVP of Content, PointsBet; and Jason Steeg, President of ECI Research, the company that designed the VIP+ sports betting survey, which was conducted by its parent company CRG Global.
One of the key topics discussed was what is driving the rise in sports betting. Even if the 2022 total is not complete, it has risen sharply ($38.2 billion, or 75%) compared to 2021, and this cannot be attributed to New York (January), Louisiana (January), Arkansas ( March), Kansas (September) and Maryland (November) legalizing operations last year.
PointsBet’s Roecklein noted that the increase in gambling is a combination of additional states legalizing, but also an increase in gambling behavior in states where the practice has been legal for some time. Bleacher Report’s Poplock added that the sports betting industry has done a good job of innovating new betting markets based on user behavior. Bleacher Report has noticed a trend in younger viewers not watching full games, so it introduced a quick-resolve betting line that has seen increases in engagement and wagers with its sportsbook partners.
While winning money is the number one reason to bet on sports, more than half of bettors in the CRG Global/VIP+ survey said doing so was fun. The panel discussed why, with Bevilacqua and Roecklein noting that gambling is becoming intertwined with sports content on television, such as PointsBet’s on-screen partnership with NBCUniversal, and is driving an increase in casual punters placing single bets. .
These casual players often graduate to more complex betting, but there is also a social aspect behind the entertainment factor, as people wager with their friends and communicate with them about their status.
VIP+ has previously pointed to the positive relationship between betting and increased viewership for games, but Bevilacqua gave a very interesting example of how this works in real time. Simplebet data showed that the aftermath of the 2022 NFL season opener, which was followed by a huge baseball game between two teams with nothing to play for, had many NFL bettors getting involved in the tie. of the MLB to the extent that it had the largest total bets placed on Simplebet for any baseball game in 2022.
The CRG Global/VIP+ study found that betting results in the formation of new team fans, with more than a quarter of players reporting this. When asked why, ECI Research’s Steeg was not surprised by this, but added that the phenomenon will extend to people who become fans of specific players. This was something PointBet’s Roecklein said occurred during the World Cup, where Messi fans eventually became Argentina fans during the tournament’s successful run and betting activity increased.
VIP+ research with CRG Global found that people who have an active bet during an explosive game are much less likely to lose their attention in a one-sided explosive game, keeping their engagement.
Simplebet’s business is geared toward in-game betting, and CEO Bevilacqua noted that in a recent NFL wild card game, which turned out to be a huge success, they saw more bets placed in the second half, when the cap had been reached. highly successful state, than in the second half. first when the game was competitive. This shows how explosive games can still be attractive to viewers, but also how micro-stakes can increase that interest.
Watch the full webinar above to hear how TV/streaming latency impacts betting behavior, how additional media is being created to meet sports bettors’ content needs, who is betting, whether we can expect further integration between sports on TV and betting, the seasonality of betting and many more details on the topics covered above.
And of course, click below and dive into our extensive special report…
