A recent marketing report, issued by the global research firm YouGov, was welcome news for the sports betting industry.
While many feared the industry might slow due to higher inflation, gambling — especially legal sports betting — remained resilient in the second quarter.
The cost of energy in the US was up more than 30% in Q2 2022, while food prices soared roughly 10%. Those increases in living expenses, however, did little to sports bettors.
Retail sports betting increased over both the first quarter and last year. As the pandemic eased during the second quarter, more Americans traveled. For example, the Harry Reid Airport in Las Vegas broke its all-time passenger record in June, welcoming 4.68 million travelers. So, more people were able to access retail sports betting locations than in 2021.
While online sports betting did ease a bit in the second quarter, it was still up year-over-year. Perhaps the most interesting data from YouGov, were some signs of growing parity among online providers.
Online sports betting competition strengthens
DraftKings and FanDuel enjoy the majority share of the US online sports betting market, but their edge may be slipping as competition grows.
According to YouGov, DraftKings’ ad awareness fell during the second quarter, as in legal sports betting states, significantly fewer people remembered DraftKings after watching their ads.
Meanwhile, FanDuel’s account conversion rates — which measures whether an account is active during the previous seven days — are now neck-and-neck with BetMGM and bet365.
NBA and soccer find more love
YouGov also surveyed the Top 5 sports chosen by regular US bettors.
As expected, the NFL continued to reign supreme, with 25% of regular bettors indicating they bet on football.
But this quarter, both the NBA and soccer found more betting interest than last year. Meanwhile, MLB was the only sport in YouGov’s "Top 5" that didn’t increase in betting popularity over Q2 2021.
Granted, the second quarter ended in June, before Aaron Judge and Albert Pujols started grabbing every sports headline and prop bet.
YouGov also drilled down on the all-important NFL bettor — where a whopping 72% indicated they follow football on TV, compared to just 40% of other bettors tuning in to follow their sport.
Also, NFL bettors appear to be more price sensitive when choosing an online sports betting provider. While 13% of other sports bettors choose an online provider that offered the best promotion, nearly a third of NFL bettors chose a book based on its promos.
