A new study from PlayUSA.com revealed an estimate for the amount of money consumers will wager on National Football League and college football games in the upcoming 2021-2022 season.
What Happened: PlayUSA estimates $20 billion in bets will be made for the upcoming football season, split as $12 billion for NFL games and $8 billion for college football games.
The estimate would nearly triple the $7.5 billion bet on football during the 2020-2021 season. The raised estimate comes as more states have legalized sports betting and the season will be less disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Propelled by the launch earlier this year of legal sports betting in relatively large states like Michigan and Virginia, in addition to states such as Arizona that are expected to launch near the beginning of the 2021 football season,” PlayUSA lead analyst Dustin Gouker said.
The analyst says the upcoming season will be “unlike any we’ve seen before.”
Variables in the projection include the timing of additional states launching during the football season with up to 11 states possibly launching before the end of the 2021 season.
Related Link: Big 3 Sports Companies Continue To Dominate Michigan Market
Why It’s Important: The report says that sports betting companies could see more than $1.5 billion in revenue in the 2021-2022 football season.
“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,” PlayUSA analyst Eric Ramsey said.
The huge revenue number for sports betting operators would come a year after sports seasons had fewer games to bet on. A strong football season could also produce some strong quarterly earnings reports from operators after the summer months that are considered the slowest in the sports calendar.
Draftkings Inc DKNG and FanDuel, a Flutter Entertainment PDYPY unit, continue to rank in the top two in the majority of states for online sports betting and could be top winners with the new estimated total from PlayUSA.com.
MGM Resorts International MGM joint venture BetMGM has gained market share in several states and is becoming a bigger player.
A company that could benefit from a recent deal with the NFL is Genius Sports Ltd GENI, which landed an exclusive deal to provide in-game data to sports betting providers.
Other stocks to watch in the space are Penn National Gaming, Inc. PENN, Rush Street Interactive Inc RSI, Caesars Entertainment Inc CZR and Sports Entertainment Acquisition Corp SEAH, which is taking Super Group public via SPAC merger.
Another way to play the growth of sports betting is the Roundhill Sports Betting & iGaming ETF BETZ, which owns over 40 positions in the industry.
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