ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. ( Associated Press) – A record 50.4 million adults in the United States plan to bet on the Super Bowl this year for a total of $16 billion, the sports industry chamber of the business forecast Tuesday.
The American Gaming Association estimates that one in five adults will bet on Sunday’s American football championship game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs.
This count includes both legal bets and illegal bookmakers and informal bets between friends or relatives.
The forecast figure more than doubles from last year, as the sports betting market continues to grow.
Kansas, Ohio and Massachusetts join the states that allow legal betting this year for a total of 33 plus Washington, the capital. Maryland allows online betting, but last year only allowed in-person betting for the Super Bowl.
More than half of adults in the United States live in a district where sports betting is legal.
“Every year the Super Bowl tries to emphasize the benefits of legal betting: bettors are turning to the benefits of a regulated market, and sports leagues and the media are seeing an increase in conversation and legal operators benefiting bettors. .state,” said Bill Miller, AGA President and CEO.
Hard data supports the prediction of a record betting market for this year. GeoComply, which handles online betting traffic for the entire US market and verifies that a customer is in an area where these bets are legal, said it collected a total of 550 million post-season bets between January 14 and 29. Geolocation points have been entered.
This represents a 50% increase over the previous year and the group predicts record volume during the Super Bowl.
A survey by the AGA found that bettors were divided, with 44% backing the Chiefs and a similar percentage betting on the Eagles.
The Eagles were a 1.5-point favorite on Monday in FanDuel, the company that provides odds ratios to The Associated Press.
The range of bets on offer is huge, from the most basic to who will win and how many points they will score in the game.
Bets are also placed on individual players, such as whether Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes will throw two touchdown passes or fewer, or how many Eagles running back Miles Sanders will have.
There are also unusual bets such as whether the coin toss will initially give heads or tails; If the final result is recorded in the previous Super Bowl and even the color of Gatorade thrown at the winning coach.
