Not All Sports Bettors Are Created Equal

In May 2018, the Supreme Court repealed a 1992 federal law which banned commercial sports betting in most states. Since then, eighteen states have received approval for legal, state-regulated sports betting and various leagues have struck initial deals with sports betting partners. 

To understand brands and the broader marketplace should react to this nascent category, Horizon Media surveyed over 1600 sports viewers and 350+ sports bettors within them and found that sports betting growth isn’t guaranteed to gain mass appeal, despite its fast track legalization and recent growth. However, within sports bettors, there are three distinct kinds of bettors based on their attitudes towards sports betting. Brands can use this as a foundation for understanding:

  • If they should enter the sports betting space
  • Which segment(s) they should engage
  • How to drive relevance and intrigue with said segments

Finally, from a sponsorship perspective, certain categories stand to gain more than others. Horizon’s proprietary sponsorship potential scoring system found that brands that have more direct ties to the game experience will benefit most from sponsoring sports betting.

While legalization is on a fast track, most sports betting is infrequent. Will legalization across all 50 states change this dynamic? Not necessarily: interest in legal sports betting is quite polarizing.

Click ‘Download PDF’ below to access the full report.

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