Trying to pinpoint consumer habits is crucial to forecasting profits in the sports betting industry. As it turns out, knowing the demographics is just as important in determining how many potential customers you might have were you a sports betting business. It’s been long known that fans are far more likely to watch games if they can bet on them.
To be truly prepared for the future, as a sports betting operator, you have to move with the times. This is exactly what Bleacher Report is trying to achieve with its first comprehensive national study looking into the betting behaviors of the different strata of society.
The news agency has produced some very interesting results, explaining that Gen Z and millennial sports fans are quite the sports betting buffs after all. According to data produced by the report, these two groups are highly likely to be placing wagers to back their favorite teams.
Bleacher Report partnered up with Ipsos to interview 2,000 US nationals aged 21-34. The survey established that one-in-three Millennials are actually placing down a wager, or at least very likely to do so. Furthermore, the survey also established that two-in-three people also find gambling and sports betting as a socially-acceptable pastime.
Bleacher Report has been long studying sports betting in the United States, including the demographics that practice this pastime. According to Bleacher Report CEO Howard Mittman the company has long been able to establish itself as the leading portal for sports betting, with Bleach only recently starting to offer a betting product.
Legalizing Sports Betting Would Create Better Climate for Sports
Though often decried as a dangerous activity, threatening the integrity of sporting contests, the Bleacher Report study found out that 63% of all interviewees are far more likely to pay attention to sporting contests if they are allowed to bet on the outcome of games.
This insight can serve as a stepping stone to convince regulators that accepting sports betting in its regulated form may actually drive viewership numbers for sporting events.
What’s more, this research, if confirmed by independent third-parties, also means an end to the “integrity fee” saga whereby sporting organizations demand sportsbooks to pay them the said fee, although not specifying the particular reason for it – other than “preserving the integrity of the sporting contest”.
Pennsylvania is currently one of the states that is about to start taking sports wagers. As the fifth largest state in the United States, the Keynote State has quite the potential to develop itself into one of the most-defining sports betting states across the country.
Still, Pennsylvania has been caught up in the Department of Justice Wire Act Opinion saga, which has upset the original plans to use networks and servers based in New Jersey. Even though the state’s regulator has called for a review to address the oncoming changes, Pennsylvania is still on track to adopt the industry.
