Sunday (February 12) saw the Super Bowl arrive back on our screens. Serving as the final game in the National Football League (NFL) season, the Super Bowl brought about all the expected rumblings from sports betting operators up and down the industry.
A total of $153.2m was wagered on the Super Bowl in Nevada, according to the state’s Gaming Control Board.
The game also propelled Kambi’s second-highest turnover game ever, while GeoComply recorded over 100 million geolocation checks over both Saturday (February 11) and Sunday.
In the lead up to the Super Bowl, Simplebet saw success in the first three rounds of the NFL playoffs, particularly within micro-betting opportunities.
A number of record predictions were also made pre-game. The American Gaming Association (AGA) projected a 61% year-on-year increase in the amount of adults it expected to bet on the Super Bowl, while online sportsbook and casino Cloudbet estimated that the game could see $500m in cryptocurrency bets.
With that said, here’s a rundown of the industry’s success off the back of Super Bowl LVII.
Total of $153.2m wagered on Super Bowl in Nevada
The Nevada Gaming Control Board revealed that $153.2m was wagered on the Super Bowl in the state, across its 185 sportsbooks.
This was down by 14.8% year-on-year.
“Unaudited figures show a sportsbook win of $11,287,594 was recorded on wagers totaling $153,183,002,” said Nevada Gaming Control Board chairman Kirk Hendrick. “This resulted in a hold percentage of 7.4%.”
“The Nevada Gaming Control Board looks forward to Allegiant Stadium hosting Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas next year.”
Kambi’s Bet Builder propels Super Bowl success
Kambi approximated that 25% of all pre-game money was bet via Bet Builders, its wager-combination tool.
The company attributed its second-highest game turnover to Bet Builders’ popularity.
Kambi also estimated that Bet Builders accounted for half of all bets placed through the operator during the Super Bowl. In total, 97% of all bets submitted were accepted.
“Super Bowl LVII will be one sports fans remember for a long time to come,” said Simon Noy, senior vice president of trading, Kambi. “We saw fantastic engagement throughout the product, however, it was our best odds Bet Builder that took centre stage as large numbers of bettors combined bet offers to create their own Super Bowl stories, while our operational excellence delivered the type of friction-free live experience you would be hard pushed to find anywhere else.”
Geolocation checks hit record 100 million at GeoComply
GeoComply recorded a record total of 100 million geolocation checks over Super Bowl weekend, up by 25% year-on-year. The highest amount of checks – 13.9m – took place in New York.
The checks took place over 23 US states and the District of Columbia, to determine where sports bettors were located.
The company also registered 7.4 million accounts during the same period, a rise of 32%.
AGA projected 50 million Americans betting
Before the big game, the AGA estimated that a record 50.4 million Americans would bet on the 57th Super Bowl. This would be a stark increase of 61% from 2022.
Additionally, the AGA said that bettors planned to wager $16bn on this year’s game. If accurate, this would be more than double the estimate projected last year.
The estimations were drawn from a survey conducted by the ASA among American bettors.
Pre-Super Bowl hype upped engagement at Simplebet
Micro-betting operator Simplebet said that its market offerings, including ‘Who will score a touchdown on this drive?’, saw $1.5m in handle over the NFL playoffs, which took place before the Super Bowl.
Of all players who wagered on SimpleBet’s partner operators, 26% placed at least one bet on the aforementioned market.
The market ‘Will this kickoff result in a touchback?’ accounted for 6.5% of all micro bets.
“We saw an incredible amount of action on our highly detailed markets, and with points being scored seemingly every drive, more and more bettors wanted a piece of the action, and our markets proved to have the most uptime for the ordinary bettor who is looking for instant gratification,” said Chris Beviliacqua, co-founder and CEO at Simplebet.
Cloudbet estimated $500m of Super Bowl turnover could be crypto
Cloudbet estimated that out of the $20bn of worldwide turnover approximated from the Super Bowl, $500m of this could come from crypto betting.
“Several states across America have legalized sports betting over the past few years, pushing trade groups there to estimate at least $16bn in US turnover alone for the 2023 Super Bowl,” said a spokesperson from Cloudbet.
“We see the US market making up about two-thirds of Super Bowl betting, meaning at least $20bn in worldwide turnover is entirely possible.”
Cloudbet said that two specific trends would help to predict crypto’s success at the Super Bowl. These are the ongoing acceptance of crypto betting, and record user growth.