Bettors could plunk down more than $20bn in wagers on NFL and college football games at legal US sportsbooks during the 2021 season, resulting in as much as $1.5bn in revenue for operators.
Those are two of the projections unveiled Tuesday by PlayUSA, which tracks the regulated sports betting market in the United States.
In releasing the results of its latest study, the firm noted significant variables, such as when a slew of new markets launch later this year, make a precise prediction difficult. Still, PlayUSA said football-related handle in 2021 could triple the estimated $7.5bn bet on football during the 2020 season.
According to PlayUSA, at least $12bn will be bet on the NFL this season, excluding parlay bets, producing at least $800m in revenue.College football will attract $8bn in wagering, excluding parlay bets, with sportsbooks expected to win more than $550m from those wagers.
PlayUSA said operators are expected to invest millions in promotions involving football.
Since the end of 2020, Michigan and Virginia have successfully launched full-scale sports betting to become the fifth- and seventh-largest markets in the US, respectively. The biggest variable could be which states launch during the football season, PlayUSA said, noting Arizona, Connecticut, Florida and other states could launch or expand sports betting in some form by the end of the 2021 football season.
Other factors affecting projections include the factcollege football should play a more robust schedule after a pandemic-marred 2020, and the continuing expansion of the roster of new operators. Many of these have made marks, PlayUSA said, including popular upstarts such as the Barstool-branded app, which has expanded its footprint significantly since the 2020 football season.
Another high-profile newcomer is SI Sportsbook, based on the Sports Illustrated brand, which recently launched in Colorado and is expected to expand its reach through the year.
Including SI Sportsbook, Colorado leads all markets with 26 sportsbook brands active in the state.
“Propelled by the launch earlier this year of legal sports betting in relatively large states such as Michigan and Virginia, in addition to states such as Arizona that are expected to launch near the beginning of the NFL season, the US market has grown significantly since the beginning of the 2020 football season,” Dustin Gouker, lead analyst for the PlayUSA.com Network, said in a statement. “The US sports betting market looks entirely different than it did just one year ago. There is no question that it will be a historic football season – unlike any we have seen before.”
Eric Ramsey, data analyst for the PlayUSA.com Network, added, “The expansion of sports betting over the last year has been relentless, with far more legal markets and more operators than ever before. That has made the industry ultra-competitive, with football being a litmus test of sorts for the coming year. Operators such as DraftKings and FanDuel are gearing up for massive football-related media campaigns to drive customers to their sites, harkening back to the days of the advertising onslaught both operators made surrounding daily fantasy sports in 2015.”
