In-Game Sports Betting For Casual Fans Is Future Of Sports Gambling In US
By ALAN SNEL
LVSportsBiz.com
Wednesday’s headline G2E event was ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt serving up a keynote chat on the future of legalized, regulated sports betting in the U.S. and the first question out of the box came from a Canadian woman who asked whether Van Pelt’s chatter on his nightly SportsCenter show about sports bets was leading to gambling addictions among his viewers.
Van Pelt responded by saying he was sensitive to the addiction topic, sharing with a crowded audience in the main stage event that his father died from alcohol addiction. The sports show anchor then explained that his show’s Bad Beats segment should provide appropriate fodder to show that not only is winning sports bets “incredibly difficult” it also can be immensely painful.
“The idea of addiction — it’s not to be trifled with,” Van Pelt told the crowd.
The gambling trade show, which drew 30,000 visitors and media, highlighted sports gambling Wednesday at the Sands Expo trade show center.
Sports gambling has emerged as a mega trend topic in the sports-business world, with the U.S. Supreme Court removing the legal hurdles to allow states across the country to legalize sports betting. In Las Vegas, MGM Resorts International has become the official sports betting partner of the NBA; the Vegas Golden Knights and the AGS gambling supplier became official partners; and the Las Vegas Lights FC and VGK partnered with the powerful William Hill sports gambling outfit.
After Van Pelt’s chat with Sara Slane, senior vice president at the American Gaming Association, there was a business of sports betting overview that included Major League Baseball gambling head Kenny Gersh and gambling consultant Stephen Master.
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With sports gambling now legal in five states and another three, including Pennsylvania, on the way in the new few months, the big takeaways from MLB’s Gersh is that in-game sports betting is the way of the future. It’s going to be the sweet spot for younger fans.
In fact, Slane, citing sources, said that 70 percent of sports betting will be coming from in-game wagers. “The is the future. This is where we want to head,” Slane told the audience. It’s already generating major revenues in the United Kingdom.
Consultant Master, former head of the Nielsen Sports Group, said it will be casual fans who will drive the traffic to in-game sports betting.
“All the growth will be the from the casual fan,” Master said.
He noted with the expected trend of in-game betting, mobile apps will be the key to driving that traffic.
Major League Baseball has been preparing for this new frontier of sports gambling, MLB’s Gersh said.
He said MLB has spent millions of dollars on installing cameras and radar devices to track everything at games, from velocity of the baseball off the bat to the speed of pitcher’s fastballs to create a pool of reliable data for potential gamblers.
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