Exciting times for sports betting stakeholders
A new report by management consulting company Activate suggests the United States sports betting market could reach $149bn in value by 2023.
The study concludes that the US will see exponential growth in this industry over the next few years. This could see the sector grow from current levels of about $13bn towards the $149bn mark.
The firm behind the research focuses on areas of technology, media, and sports businesses.
Reasons for this potential exponential growth
Activate’s sixth annual report states that when the market gets access to most states in a legal manner, more institutional investors will get involved. There will also be sophisticated data sets and artificial intelligence used by companies to try and get an edge over their competitors.
global esports sector to be worth about $7bn by 2023
Esports is also set to play a significant role in the growth of the sector in the coming years. The report says esports could rival traditional sports in the not too distant future in terms of revenues and audience figures, with the global esports sector to be worth about $7bn by 2023.
Many innovations ahead for the sector
Activate’s CEO co-founder Michael J. Wolf said the company looked back at previous predictions to see how it helped shaped current trends, such as in gaming, betting, and artificial intelligence.
Sports betting access and key areas for growth
Currently, there are 14 states with open legal sportsbooks. Five states have passed a sports betting legalization bill and are in the process of rolling out its sports betting offering. Only eight states do not have a sports betting legalization bill introduced into their respective legislatures.
This means that almost one in three adults in the country will soon be in a state where they can legally place a sports bet. Over 90 million Americans are either current sports bettors or likely to place bets in the future.
The Activate report also highlights key areas that will allow the market to eventually reach its full potential. These include having federal regulation that allows interstate mobile gaming, network performance, reliability of live betting, and having sufficiently low taxes.