After being seen as a stigma for decades, sports gambling was legalized outside of Nevada on June 5, 2018 when the first wager was placed in Delaware. The popularity of sports gambling has grown tremendously since the summer of 2018. Placing online wagers with a sportsbook is now legal in thirty states. Companies like FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM, and more are raking in the cash, netting $7.5 billion in revenue in 2022 according to Yahoo.
Sports were already appealing to the mass public and have been popular forever, but now since betting is so common some people are watching games just so they can wager. “Massachusetts just recently legalized sports gambling and it is now becoming one of the top five markets in sports gambling,” said Andrew Bacigalupo, a producer for SportsGrid. “That's just attest to people wanting to get involved in this sports gambling world and the advertising that is pursuing these people to do that.”
What is even more interesting is that while people have their eyes on the game with bets already live, almost all of these broadcasts will have commercials of sportsbooks promoting themselves. For example, during every intermission of a New York Islanders broadcast, a FanDuel ad will be shown, telling the viewer what the live lines currently are and what the payout would be if the viewer were to place a $100 wager. During Fox broadcasts of NASCAR events, the company shows odds of the driver to win pre-race. Every time a driver is shown during the broadcast, Fox will provide the pre-race betting lines for that driver through their own sportsbook, FoxBet. The XFL, which is aired on ESPN, has the betting lines shown in the score bug of their broadcast. XFL broadcasters will even mention the betting lines during the show. That is something that was completely forbidden in the past, but it begs the question, will betting lines be shown on more sports broadcasts in the future?
During sporting events, betting promotions are now often showed during commercials and the live broadcast itself. Here is an example from a 2023 Yankees game race on YES. (Photo by David Patalano)
This is something that is very new and only started in the past five years. “Advertisements are rampant,” said Mike Mazzeo, a national writer for Legal Sports Report. “You see them everywhere. Not only are they are on TV, but you see them in places like Monyihan Hall in Penn Station and even on some of the LIRR trains.”
These companies have cracked the code and figured the more eyes they can get on their product, the more people will bet on sports. In 2020, DraftKings spent $500 million in sales and marketing and then spent another $400 million in just the first half of 2021 according to Action Network.
This shows the relationship between sportsbooks spending on advertising and their handle (the amount customers are wagering) in New York during Week 1 of the 2022 NFL season. (Graphic by David Patalano on Canva)
Just like any company that wants to make a profit, these sportsbooks have continued the trend of spending money on advertisements and increasing the amount of advertisements
they are showing. According to Nielsen, so far in 2023 online sports gambling ads control 2.1% of all television advertisements. Out of 1,200 products that show ads on TV, online sports gambling ranks 11th in advertising dollars.
An example of live betting lines being shown during a broadcast. This is from NASCAR's EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix and shows Bubba Wallace's odds to win the race at +4500 or 45-1. (Photo from FOX)
It has grown at such a rate that lawmakers are attempting to put regulations in place. One of the leaders of this movement is U.S. Representative Paul Tonko from New York. Tonko filed a bill in early 2023 that he calls the Betting on Our Future Act.
“When you're watching TV, when you're going to a podcast, when you're just scrolling on any website, it's all over social media. It was really hard to ignore it, it was something that the Congressman picked up on and said, ‘hey, you know, this feels really unchecked,’” said Darian Harbeck, a senior legislative assistant for Congressman Paul Tonko. “We're kind of living in this wild west of sports betting advertising that is really reminiscent of the golden age of tobacco advertising.”
“There’s nothing really regulating sportsbooks from throwing these advertisements in the face of the consumer,” said Mike Mazzeo. “Lawmakers are putting the pressure on them. If they aren’t going to regulate themselves, then government officials are going to step in and do it for them.”
In 1971, the cigarette broadcast advertising ban was put into place, which no longer allowed cigarette and tobacco companies to air advertisements on television. This forced these companies to put all of their money into print media like newspapers and magazines. Rep. Tonko believes that a similar ban should be put in place to dissuade people from legal sports gambling.
Legal gambling advertising has long been prevalent in European countries. Some countries have tried to put a ban on it, similar to Tonko, but there was backlash from professional soccer teams who partnered with companies like William Hill and Ladbrokes.
“In Europe, there's been some pushback in various different countries that banning advertising, particularly with relation to soccer teams, on jerseys and things like that is actually going to hurt the teams enough, and in some cases, that there won't be a team because that's where they get a lot of their advertising from,” said Jill Dorson, a managing editor for SportsHandle.
Jeff Edelstein, columnist for the Trentonian, sees where these lawmakers are coming from, but does not think that anything can really be done to change how many eyes are on the sports gambling market.
“I don’t think Congress is going to get any bills passed the way things are right now. It’s in the spotlight because of a few articles, but I think that was unfair to the sports betting industry,” said Edelstein. “The industry does need to do a better job of policing itself, though. This is what happens when you don’t police yourself.”
This two-part podcast lays out how much of an affect sportsbook advertising is having on the media and how it is now showing up in other places, like college campuses and on billboards. (by David Patalano)
The general consensus seems to be that while governments and lawmakers go back and forth with advertisements, more focus should be put into problem gambling helplines. New York’s helpline originally was not available 24/7, but they have made progress and now 877-8-HOPENY is a 24/7 helpline. Problem gambling helplines are absolutely vital in states where online sports gambling is legal. This was proven true in Ohio, where it was legalized in January right before the Super Bowl.
“Ohio just went up in January and you saw the promotional spend. I think it was $320 million that the companies gave out in January,” said Mike Mazzeo. “I think they said in their first two months, calls to the hope line went up 158%. They said 68 people called during the Super Bowl. That seems small, you know, but are the 68 people calling if there's no legal betting?”
It is certainly going to be intriguing with how all of these advertisements will be handled. Legal sports gambling is in its infancy and there is too much money involved to have it go belly up already.
“As long as gambling is legal or even illegal, people are going to gamble,” said Jeff Edelstein. “People have been gambling probably since day one, I mean like literally day one.”