This year’s Super Bowl, pitting the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots, is expected to draw a record $1.7 billion in legal gambling even as bettors increasingly turn to exotic and unregulated wagering markets.
The Sports Betting Alliance, a trade group whose members include DraftKings and FanDuel, estimates the nation will plunk down 20% more on this year’s game than last via regulated operators. New Jersey is one of the market leaders, along with Nevada and New York, according to Joe Maloney, the group’s president. The Garden State, where sports betting was legalized in 2018, will see almost $150 million in such wagers, he said.
“The most popular types of bets when it comes to the Super Bowl are overs on touchdowns being thrown by the quarterback, overs on a popular star wide receiver having a certain amount of receiving yards or touchdowns,” Maloney said.
Increasingly, though, gamblers are flocking to prop bets, which are tied to tangential game action, from the coin toss to the halftime show and even the broadcast length.
Also growing are prediction markets, or platforms whose users can change their wagers while the game is in progress, much like stock brokers buying and selling equities. Industry groups including the American Gaming Association says the platforms may confuse users because they’re often billed as financial products.
“If you’re hearing about exotic bets that have nothing to do with what’s happening on the field, you are probably in an illegal or unregulated setting,” Maloney said.
Luis Del Orbe, executive director of the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey, said more bettors view gambling as a way to make money rather than entertainment.
“Enjoy the game,” Del Orbe said. “When the game is no longer enjoyable and gambling is no longer fun, pull back.”
New Jersey lawmakers are considering restricting “micro-betting,” or rapid-fire wages on such outcomes as whether the next ball pitched will be a strike. Experts say such high-frequency bets may encourage compulsive behavior — and doing so on unregulated platforms carries more risk than typical.
“You don’t know if you’re going to get paid if you do win,” Del Orbe said.
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