The Super Bowl and Sports Betting in the United States

It is estimated that Americans will wager about $6 billion on Super Bowl LIII Sunday on the Los Angeles Rams and New England Patriots which is the very first NFL championship game to be played since the Supreme Court legalized sports betting in May last year. With the newly regulated sports betting market in a number of states, at least every 1 in 10 Americans (this is equivalent to 22.7 million people) will place “prop bets” on several different aspects of the game. In essence, 1 in 6 people who will be watching the Super Bowl will have real money on the line, that is, according to Sara Slane, the American Gaming Association’s spokeswoman.
These projections are quite realistic and attainable, to say the least, especially considering the fact that bettors and Super Bowl fans are already preparing for just that. Las Vegas, for instance, has always been the home of fans of the New England Patriots who come out in larger numbers in preparation for a fair-weather party where they place bets on the team’s chances.
Fortunately, they will not have to go all the way to Las Vegas this time around. Rhode Island is among the six states that took advantage of the opportunity that was created by the United States Supreme Court and it now allows betting on sporting events. In fact, it is the only state in New England where sports betting is still allowed which means that it is going to be a focal point for sports betting and Patriot fans from all around Northeast.
The state of Rhode Island receives 51 percent of sports betting revenues which is the highest among all the states.  The Super Bowl serves to boost state coffers even further though but the state lottery and gaming regulator are reluctant to release figures on the exact amount being projected.

A Test for Sports Betting?

Sports betting in the United States has been expanding since last spring when the Supreme Court abolished the Profession and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) thus giving states the right to choose whether or not they wanted to have sports betting within their borders. The Super Bowl, as always been one of the biggest sporting events and since this is the first time it is going down since the Supreme Court decision, we will see the introduction of a new form of gambling that has not been initiated in a good number of sports wagering-friendly states.
Aside from Rhode Island, other states where sporting fans and gamblers will get to enjoy some sports betting action are Pennsylvania, Mississippi, New Jersey, West Virginia, and Delaware. If everything goes well enough, we should expect the same for when the NBA season kicks off.