The Fantasy Sports and Gaming Association (FSGA) has released the data from a survey that they conducted about the legal sports betting market over the past year. The study revealed a number of significant findings, most notably strong growth in both sports betting as well as fantasy sports.
Increased access to legal sports betting not hurting fantasy sports
The FSGA unveiled the results of a large study at their summer conference at the MGM Grand in Detroit. The results were encouraging for the sports betting industry as a whole as well as providing a number of stats to counteract the prevailing theory that
legalized sports betting
would cause sports fans to switch to betting with sportsbooks rather than playing the variety of fantasy sports games that were already legal when the Supreme Court struck down the federal ban on traditional sports betting. The study found that more than 60 million adults, nearly 25% of the total population, bets on sports. This number represents a 20% increase over 2021, and the growth is expected as many states have legalized sports betting in the past year.
More surprising was the growth in fantasy sports, with the 50.4 million fantasy sports players representing 13% growth over the 2021 mark. Fantasy sports got a big boost while fans looked for new at-home entertainment during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the data in this survey indicates that the popularity of fantasy sports is not waning as the country reopens. The number of active players in 2022 also represents a 12% increase over the 2019 numbers, obviously calculated before both COVID as well as the widespread legalization of sports betting changed the landscape of the industry.
Fantasy players not giving up the game
The data was resoundingly clear that legal sports betting is not cannibalizing the fantasy sports industry. The study found that 98% of sports bettors who played fantasy sports before plunking their money down in a sportsbook continued to play those fantasy games. The data revealed plenty of crossover between the two hobbies as well. 69.5 million people either bet on sports or play fantasy sports, and a 59% majority of them do both. The number of crossover players is a 9% increase over 2021, indicating that rather than depressing fantasy sports participation, legal sports betting has a “rising tide lifts all ships” effect as fans seek out multiple ways to engage with sporting events and leverage their knowledge in an attempt to turn a profit.
In terms of popularity among bettors, the NFL reigns supreme on both fronts. Unsurprisingly, football was the most popular sport both among sports bettors as well as daily fantasy sports players. The NBA was a strong second among sports bettors with MLB coming up third, while on the fantasy side MLB edged out the NBA in terms of popularity. The largest growth in popularity among fantasy sports was the burgeoning eSports category. The popularity of live betting is evident as it represents 31% of the sports betting handle, and that number has the potential to increase as newly legal markets continue to mature.
Still room for growth due to expansion and education
In spite of the already impressive statistics, there is still plenty of room for growth in the sports betting industry. Sports betting is still illegal in more than a third of US states, and many of the currently legal states have been active for less than two years. There are still plenty more sports fans with the potential to get in on the action, and the industry could find more growth simply by educating current sports bettors on the legality of sports betting. The FSGA’s data shows that only 19% of bettors who utilize an unregulated offshore sportsbook are aware that they are not betting with a legal and regulated company.
As more US residents gain access to legal
online sports betting sites
and more active bettors become better educated about their hobby, participation is likely to continue its rapid growth. The data in the FSGA’s survey strongly indicates that placing wagers on sporting events in any form is becoming more popular, and fantasy players should take solace knowing that their hobby appears to have avoided suffering the fate that many industry experts predicted.
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