Sports Betting Surge is Expected With This Years NFL Season

AGA Forecasts Surge Sports Betting

AGA Forecasts Surge in NFL Betting

By Blake Roberts Founder & Editor in Chief Updated: 13 September 2021

Blake Roberts Founder & Editor in Chief

Blake Roberts is the founder of Betting.US and is currently heading the creative team as Editor in Chief. Born and raised in Morgantown, West Virginia, Blake is a great sports fan, with football and basketball being his favorite. He’s our trusted voice for all betting-related matters.

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According to officials from the American Gaming Association, there could be a sharp sequential increase in the number of people betting on National Football League (NFL) games. The group predicts that this figure could rise by as much as 36 percent, with its data showing that a staggering 45.2 million people are planning to place bets on a professional game this season.

The AGA said that it had conducted its own research in an official press release last week. With over 45 million planning to place a bet, this equates to 18 percent of adults in the country. The season has already kicked off, and sports fans in 18 states as well as the District of Columbia will be able to place bets on the action.

Figure Could Rise Further

The AGA has also stated that the figure could rise even more than predicted because, by the time the football season comes to an end, a number of other states may have legalized sports betting. This means that even more sports fans may get the opportunity to place bets on football games, and this could make a big difference to the figures already predicted.

AGA president and CEO Bill Miller said prior to the start of the season:

Sports betting is more popular than ever among Americans, and the enthusiasm of bettors for the upcoming NFL season highlights the remarkable growth of the industry over the past three years.

He added that more than 111 million Americans would be able to place bets through regulated sportsbooks rather than turning to the illegal unregulated market, which has become a huge issue around the country over recent years.

Online Betting to See Largest Increase

The press release also went on to indicate that increased betting is set to occur across all betting platforms. However, the platform likely to see the biggest rise throughout the season is online betting, the popularity of which has rocketed over recent years.

Over the past 18 months, online betting has become increasingly popular because of the global pandemic that meant many places were closed for a period and stay-at-home orders were in place. Many people turned to digital betting over this period, and they continue to use this form of betting now even though COVID-19 regulations have been relaxed.

In addition, a rising number of states have introduced mobile sports betting over the past 18 months, and this has further helped to boost its popularity, as people now have better access to this type of betting. This will also help to increase NFL betting via mobile sportsbooks.

Interestingly, the slowest growth is set to be among illegal sportsbooks. AGA officials said that with the increase in legalized sports betting across the nation, illegal sportsbooks are set to take a real hit. The fact that a lot more states have now legalized sports betting or are in the process of doing so means that fewer people will turn to illegal operations in order to place their bets this football season.