GeoComply Report Highlights Year-Over-Year Super Bowl Betting Activity
GeoComply, a sports betting geolocation firm in charge of tracking wagering transactions in the broad and ever-expanding U.S. legal sports betting industry that features the best sportsbooks, issued a Super Bowl weekend report highlighting the overall increase in betting activity between last year's Super Bowl weekend and this year's contest.
The combination of the mainstreaming of the best sports betting apps for legal wagering in the U.S., the accessibility, and the platform’s launch in more U.S. jurisdictions expectedly produced a surge in sports wagering across the country.
GeoComply was able to identify just how big of a wave actually materialized.
“The continued transition to the legal market set the stage for a historic first Super Bowl in Las Vegas, and the record-breaking results we saw did not disappoint," said Anna Sainsbury, the GeoComply Co-Founder and CEO. "Every year the legal market grows is good news for consumers and states and bad news for illegal offshore sportsbooks that become marginalized.”
The study's findings
GeoComply was able to take geolocation data from 28 legal U.S. states, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico for its study. The statistics cited in the GeoComply study are from transactions throughout Super Bowl weekend, and it used 800 data points across the country for the findings.
The company is reporting an eye-opening 22.3% year-over-year increase in geolocation checks year-over-year for Super Bowl weekend. The 2023 Super Bowl set what was then a record in terms of geolocation transactions, with over 100 million for the weekend. Then 2024 blew those numbers out of the water.
Through the weekend, GeoComply reported 8.5 million active user accounts in the jurisdictions it spotlighted, a 15% year-over-year increase from last year's game. During the two-week lead-up to the contest, the firm saw more than 1.77 million new users sign up for a new online sports betting account through one of the legal sports betting sites.
Wagering activity was the most brisk right prior to kickoff of the NFL Championship game. GeoComply recorded a staggering 14.75 thousand transactions per second in the minutes prior to the first whistle of the game. That figure nearly doubled compared to 2023.
Looking at the big picture, GeoComply was able to identify 13.7 million new sports betting customer accounts since the start of the 2023-24 NFL season. That's a 28% increase from the same NFL season-long signup period last year.
Possible conclusions we can draw from the GeoComply report
GeoComply has been able to show just how popular and prevalent legal sports betting has become in America since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned PAPSA in 2018. The company has been able to identify just how much the present sports betting platforms are being utilized and could function as serious motivation for prospective new sports betting jurisdictions going forward.
GeoComply will continue its work tracking and ultimately promoting the merits of legal sports betting across America.
“GeoComply’s technology brings the perfect blend of geolocation precision mixed with a rock-solid player experience,” said GeoComply CEO Anna Sainsbury. “These two aspects of our platform are critical to the industry’s success as a whole, and we designed the solution to meet these massive spikes in demand without compromising on either of them. Innovation is at the core of our brand, and we will continue to improve on our technology with the expectation that by the next Super Bowl, more states and more players will join the masses.”
Interesting fact that may change by this time next year
The U.S. legal sports betting industry consists of 38 U.S. states and is growing. The home states of both participants in this year's Super Bowl are not among those 38. That's something lawmakers and regulators in both California and Missouri are working to rectify. But nothing is coming easily.
Recent challenges from proponents of a sports wagering platform in both states haven't exactly been successful. That leads to the real possibility fans of both teams will need to cross state lines to place a wager on their favorite club.