It stood to reason that several of the 62,000 people who will watch Super Bowl 58 from Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on Sunday will place a bet on it.
Mobile sports betting has long been legal in Nevada. So locals and tourists who shell out upwards of $7,600 for a cheap seat are free to sit in it, stare at their phone, and make in-game bets.
But it’s not just a Vegas thing anymore. This isn’t even the first Super Bowl held in a state with legal mobile sports betting since repealing the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act made it a national possibility in 2018. State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, with mobile wagering legal and a retail BetMGM Sportsbook on the property, checked that box last February.
GeoComply spokesperson John Pappas said more than 30,000 new sports betting accounts were created in 16 NFL stadiums this season …
Mobile sports betting is now legal and underway in 30 US jurisdictions. Twenty of those house 13 NFL franchises. North Carolina and the Panthers join the group on March 11.
And according to new information provided by geolocation firm GeoComply, NFL stadiums in several cities have become mobile betting hotspots with a 24% increase in geolocation transactions and a 12% increase in active user accounts during the playoffs compared to last season.
In the conference championship games, GeoComply noted a 35% increase in geolocations and a 13% increase in active user accounts compared to the title games a year ago.
Eight of 14 NFL playoff teams are based in states with legal mobile sports betting. Baltimore was the only conference finalist from one of those states to host, but another, Detroit, welcomed 37,000 into Ford Field to watch the Lions fall at San Francisco. Somebody probably took the over at some point.
Last year, the Eagles were the only title game participant hosting a game in a state with mobile sports betting.
GeoComply’s scrape of the 2023 NFL regular season found that Paycor Stadium (Cincinnati) had the highest average of on-site geolocation events from within the stadium at 67,000 per game. State Farm Stadium (64,000) and Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia (61,000) were next-best.
Pappas said Cincinnati’s total could be slightly inflated because the stadium’s proximity to Kentucky requires precise geolocation.
GeoComply data also suggest that Commanders, Giants, Jets, and Bengals fans used registering for sportsbook accounts to distract them from what was happening on the field.
- Fans at FedEx Field, on average, created 695 new accounts from within the stadium each game.
- MetLife Stadium denizens were next, averaging 438.
- Paycor Stadium partisans averaged 374.
Pappas said more than 30,000 new sports betting accounts were created in 16 NFL stadiums this season where that was possible (and GeoComply is allowed to share information). It’s forbidden to do so because of contracts or regulations regarding Florida and Nevada.
“These are people literally [that] either saw an in-game advertisement or were somehow compelled, because of the action on the field, to say, ‘I want to open a sports betting account.’ And these are new users, new accounts that were created,” Pappas told Gaming Today. “And we know they were created while they were within the stadium, because, as part of their account creation process, they are required to be geolocated.”
Related Pages: Super Bowl Odds | Nevada Sports Betting | BetMGM Sportsbook Review
Nevada Regulations Might Hamper the Pace at Super Bowl
That won’t be happening on Sunday. Unlike most other states, Nevada law requires new mobile betting accounts to be set up at the corresponding retail sportsbook. So fans hoping to place in-game bets from their expensive seats at Super Bowl 58 will need to either be registered with an app licensed in Nevada or visit a sportsbook to do the paperwork for one before the game.
That won’t be news to Nevada residents but might surprise and frustrate visitors.
There is conflicting opinion among Nevada online sportsbooks as to whether the six app brands available there and in at least one other state will work there without additional steps. The Nevada Gaming Control Board told Gaming Today that bettors would have to register for Nevada accounts even if they’d opened one for the same sportsbook in another state.
Chiefs Bettors Seeking Legal Betting Enriching Kansas
Fans of defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City apparently are frustrated not to be participating in this phenomenon. Chiefs Kingdom couldn’t factor in GeoComply’s playoffs figures because sports betting isn’t legal in Missouri, even if the team had earned a home game.
But those Chiefs fans kept trying.
In 2023, GeoComply processed nearly 24.5 million checks from devices within Missouri borders accessing sportsbooks in other states and blocked them from betting. Forty-seven percent were attempting to digitally reach across the Missouri River into Kansas’ legal market.
The annual pre-Super Bowl study from the American Gaming Association predicts that a record 26% of American adults – or a record 67.8 million – are “expected” to bet on Super Bowl 58, marking a 35% increase from 2023. The AGA study claims that “bettors plan to wager an estimated $23.1 billion on this year’s Big Game, up from $16 billion last year,” which includes pools and illegal markets.
A study from Eilers & Krejcik pegs that figure at $1.25 billion legally.
READ MORE:
About the Author
