Sports Betting and iGaming Look Like Profitable Gambles for Brands

With another football season already in full swing, sports gambling is adding an increased element of entertainment to the on-field action as America’s love of gambling and gaming continues to soar, according to Getwizer research. 

Americans have splurged more than $125bn on legalized sports betting just four years after the US Supreme court gave the go-ahead for legalized gambling on sports. Before the ruling in May 2018, Nevada was the only state in America that allowed legal betting on sports. Now over 30 states have legal online sports betting, with many more in the process of passing legislation. 

The rapid growth and increasing popularity of sports betting is seeing organizations sit up and take note. Disney, for example, is maintaining its ownership of ESPN solely based on the growth of sports betting and is currently developing its own sports betting app. 

Disney’s wager on sports betting looks like a good one given that just over 36% of people have bet on sports in the US, according to Getwizer research. This highlights substantial room for growth given that in the UK 47% of adults had participated in gambling in the past four weeks prior to being surveyed by The Gambling Commission.

Gender and Youth Play a Key Role  

Football, according to Getwizer’s research, is the most popular sport that people in the US like to gamble on, followed by basketball and then baseball. Gender plays a key role, with men far more likely to wager on sports. Getwizer found that almost 46% of men have placed a sports bet, but only just over 25% of women. Betting also appears to attract a more youthful audience, with most sport betting enthusiasts falling in the 18-44 age category.

The Rise of iGaming 

Even though sports betting now eclipses traditional gambling, casinos and gaming mobile apps still produced $53 billion in revenue last year, according to the American Gaming Association. And while Las Vegas is still seen as the king of gambling in America, bringing in more than $7 billion in revenue in 2021, gaming apps generated an impressive $3.71 billion in revenue, up 139% from 2020.

Gaming apps are categorized in a sector of their own called iGaming, which is expected to growing substantially over the coming years. Getwizer research underlines the popularity of iGaming, finding over 32% of us are playing online and mobile games every day and over 21% play a few times a week. In fact, only just over 20% of us are not playing iGames of any sort. 

Similar to sports betting, iGaming is most popular with younger audiences. Only 8% of under 25s, 12.2% of those aged 25-34 and 8.9% of 35-44 year olds do not play online games. However, unlike sports betting, women are more likely to take part, with 41.6% saying they play everyday compared to 34.9% of men. 

When it comes to splashing the cash and playing for real money, however, the men edge out in front with almost 26% playing for cash and just less than 23% of women. But the majority (28.5%) of us like to play it safe and prefer free-to-play games with no real money on the line. 

The Most Popular Games — Men V Women

The battle of the sexes becomes very obvious when looking at the games we like to play. When the games women like are compared to those men like, only Word Games and Solitaire make it into both top fives. However, for women these capture first and second place, but only fourth and fifth in the men’s top five. The research tends to show that women seem to like games based on concentration and problem solving, whereas men tend to prefer action and sports games. 

Betting on Strong Consumer Loyalty 

With the market for sports gambling and iGaming on an upward trajectory, the good news for companies investing in the sector is that customers display strong levels of brand loyalty. A total of 72.5% tend to stick with the same platform and only 27.5% switch between multiple platforms. This loyalty also remains relatively consistent when age groups and gender are taken into account. 

Brands looking to develop such loyalty have clearly targeted attributes they should be focusing on, thanks to Getwizer’s research. Users rank safety (50%) and ease of use (49.7%) as the top two “extremely important” elements they look for. These are followed by trustworthiness (46.7%), ease of withdrawing money (45.8%) and good odds (42.8%).

With online gambling now more pervasive than ever thanks to the relaxation of laws and the popularity of gaming, it is likely to continue to drive towards becoming a more mainstream activity, which will likely increase the number of brands entering the market. From the revenue figures already being reported, it looks like this will most likely be a safe bet. 

For those that win big in sports betting or iGaming, read how Getwizer research suggests that most won’t turn to cryptocurrency to invest their dollars with the majority skeptical of the likes of Bitcoin.