Highlighting Four Years of US Sportsbook Operators

by Dave Schwab - 5/23/2022

May 14, 2018 has turned into a very significant date in the history of betting on sports in the United States. Prior to that date, Nevada was the only state in the country with legal sports betting within its borders.

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Going back another decade, New Jersey led the fight to change the existing federal laws that prohibited any other state from joining that list.

This landmark court case against the federal government went all the way to the US Supreme Court. Siding with the federal government, major professional sports leagues such as the NFL fought hard against a state’s right to govern and regulate sports betting withing its own borders.

In the end justice prevailed and the country’s highest court ruled in favor of New Jersey on behalf of all 50 US states. That landmark decision was made on May 14, 2018.

Fast forward four years later and there are more than 30 states plus the District of Columbia offering some form of legal sports betting. Some states continue to limit sports betting to retail sportsbooks located in land-based casinos. For the longest time, that was how most of the sports bets in Nevada were booked.

In reality, more than 90% of the sports betting handle in the legal US market is booked online.

New Jersey wasted little time going live with legal sportsbooks in race tracks and casinos by June of 2018. However, the big twist in the Garden State was the move towards online sports betting through the use of mobile sportsbook apps.

Daily fantasy sports operators FanDuel and DraftKings were quick to get on board with their own mobile sports betting app. Behind a fast start out of the gate, these companies remain the two biggest US sportsbook operators in the US based on market share.

As more and more states put the proper laws in place to legalize sports betting, more and more mobile sportsbook operators joined the party.

Representing the huge Nevada casino gaming contingent, BetMGM, Caesars Sportsbook and WynnBET are the mobile sports betting arm of the three biggest casino entertainment corporations in the country.

Regional casino gaming powers are also right in the mix. Penn National Gaming is the parent company behind Barstool Sportsbook while Bally’s Corporation leads with Bally Bet as its mobile betting app.

Other prominent gaming companies with a piece of the US sports betting action include Rush Street Gaming with BetRivers, Australia’s PointsBet, the UK’s 888 Holdings with Sports Illustrated Sportsbook, Bet365 and the Carousel Group with MaximBet.

Sports betting in the US outside of Nevada has been around much longer than 2018. Back in the mid-1990’s, offshore sportsbooks started to use internet technology and specialized gaming software to launch their own online sports betting platforms.

Long before any US-based sports fan placed a NFL bet with FanDuel, they were turning to global online sportsbooks such as Bovada, BetOnline and MyBookie for all their sports betting action.

Before 2018, the US Government estimated the offshore global sportsbook industry to be worth around $70 billion. Further gaming records indicate that since 2018 more than $125 billion in sports bets have been booked by US operators.

The state of New York alone has taken in more than $5 billion in sports bets since legal mobile sports betting first went live in early January of this year.

As much as industry experts and analysts focus on the tremendous success of the US sports betting industry over the past four years, the upside potential remains staggering. Legal sports betting through US-based operators is not up and running in Florida, Texas and California at this point in time.

Even if just one or two of those markets comes online with mobile sports betting, the impact will be felt all across the US market.

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Pick:	CHICAGO BEARS +3
Start:	November 24, 2024 @ 1:00 PM
Expert:	Doc's Sports

Analysis:

Free Play from Doc’s Sports. Take #256 Chicago Bears +3 over Minnesota Vikings (1p.m., Sunday, November 24 FOX) We used the Bears as a free play winner last Sunday and easily covered the spread and should have been an underdog outright winner. Now we will ride them for a second straight week against another NFC North rival, the Minnesota Vikings. The Vikings are 8-2 on the season, yet are only around a field goal favorite. I still do not trust Sam Donald to win consistently over the course of a 17 game regular season. Minnesota is not as good as their 8-2 record would indicate and playing outdoors in Chicago on Sunday will cause issues for them on both sides of the ball. Chicago has been hit or miss this season, but they will be up to play another divisional rival and we expect them to take this down to the wire as well. Do not miss out on Doc’s Sports Weekend Card featuring top plays in college and NFL football. Read More Read Less

Highlighting Four Years of US Sportsbook Operators

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