This week marks the start of the NFL's most heavily-bet season. Legal sportsbooks are available in roughly half the US states.
The American Gaming Association released Tuesday's survey results. They found that 45.2 million Americans will bet on the NFL in the coming season. This is a 36% increase over last year's survey. This is due to an expanding sports betting market.
18 states and the District of Columbia allowed legal sports betting at the beginning of the 2020 NFL season. One year later, 23 states, and the District of Columbia, have active betting markets. Arizona, South Dakota, and Washington are poised to launch before Thursday's NFL opening between the Dallas Cowboys, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Overall, 32 states have passed legislation regarding sports betting.
The NFL has partnered up with seven U.S. sportsbook operators to create a new environment that will allow for sports betting ads to be broadcast during game broadcasts. To avoid excessive saturation, the NFL has limited sports betting commercials to six: one each pregame, one per quarter, and one at halftime.
Chris Halpin, chief strategist and growth officer at NFL, stated that they had looked at many different options and decided that the spacing of the commercials for sports betting made sense. "Our media partners and partners also agreed. It was a fair way to include sports betting advertising in our national broadcasts.
However, the NFL isn't ready to discuss point spreads or odds during broadcasts. The NFL has asked media partners not to talk about such topics. However, betting will be more prominent in pregame coverage and shoulder programming, as well as scrolling tickers on the NFL Network.
According to the American Gaming Association, 37% of NFL fans plan on betting on the league this season. This includes 47% of respondents who identified themselves as "avid" NFL fan. Sixty-three per cent of NFL fans responded to the survey saying that sportsbooks at stadiums add to the in-person experience. While the NFL allows betting lounges to be opened in stadiums that are located in legal sports betting states, it does not allow them to accept in-person wagers.
In the release announcing the results, Bill Miller, president and CEO of the American Gaming Association (AGA), stated that fans are the heartbeat professional sports.
Online betting is now the most popular method of betting in the United States. According to AGA's survey of 2,200 Americans, an estimated 19.5million adults will place a NFL bet online, up 73% from 2020. This year's survey revealed that 14.6 million Americans will participate in paid fantasy content and other types of pool competitions, an increase of 69% over the previous year.
According to the AGA, nearly $27 billion was bet on U.S. sportsbooks during the first seven months in 2021.
