Even as the Super Bowl LV TV audience declined, the amount of money betting on the game has skyrocketed in some states – especially in New Jersey, where players have doubled their shares, regulators said.
Garden State football fans bet $ 117.4 million on the professional football title game, marking an increase of 116% over last year’s $ 54.3 million, according to data from the Inspection Division of New Jersey Games.
New Jersey’s Super Bowl bets significantly closed the gap between the country and America’s gambling center, Nevada, where players placed $ 136.09 million in Sunday’s game – down from $ 154.67 million in 2020 , showed state data from the Gaming Control Board.
Sports betting is now legal in 20 states and the District of Columbia, and the smallest TV audience, the pandemic, and the accompanying economic impact have slowed down Sunday’s game, which was won by Tampa Bay 31-9 by Buccaneers on the current champion Kansas City Chiefs.
As in New Jersey, the Super Bowl’s stock in Iowa also more than doubled to $ 16.3 million, from $ 6.5 million a year ago, officials said.
The attraction of a game with Bucs quarterback Tom Brady, considered by many to be the greatest of all time, and his apparent heir, the Chiefs’ signal caller Patrick Mahomes, attracted many casual punters, regulators said.
The general TV audience, however, was not as captivated by the Brady-Mahomes, Bucs-Chiefs showdown, as an average of 96.4 million viewers on TV and streaming platforms tuned on Sunday, according to CBS data, who broadcast the game. It is the smallest audience since the Super Bowl XLI in 2007, which was also on CBS.
“I believe that people love great sports, regardless of a pandemic,” said Wes Ehrecke, president and CEO of the Iowa Gaming Association. “This epic GOAT-baby GOAT showdown would have been touted the same way, anyway”, referring to the acronym for “the greatest of all time”.
Pennsylvania nearly doubled its bets on the Super Bowl on Sunday, with a bet of $ 53.6 million, compared to $ 30.6 million in last year’s Super Bowl, representing an increase of almost 75 percent.
Super Bowl action also increased in Oregon, to $ 3.46 million on Sunday, from $ 1.95 million last year, the state lottery commission said.
Mississippi increased its Super Bowl betting market to $ 8.1 million, from $ 6.7 million in the 2020 title game, according to the state Gaming Commission.
The value of the West Virginia big game was $ 4.3 million, an increase from the $ 3.9 million total for the 2020 Super Bowl, lottery officials said.
Players in Arkansas wagered about $ 922,000 on Sunday’s game at three casinos, up from $ 705,000 last year, the Department of Finance and Administration said.
Rhode Island raised $ 6.5 million in Super Bowl action, which improved on its $ 5.5 million handle in 2020, according to the Revenue Department.
Delaware may have been one of the few places to see a decrease in Super Bowl bets, where there were only $ 1.9 million in bets placed on the Bucs-Chiefs game compared to $ 2.1 million a year ago, according to with the state Finance Department.
New Hampshire regulators were expected to release their Super Bowl data sometime this week.
Indiana will not make the Super Bowl data available until next month and New York has refused to release that information, state officials said. In New Mexico, sports betting takes place only in Native American casinos and is not subject to state reports.
Players were able to place their first legal bets on the Super Bowl in Washington, DC, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, Montana, Tennessee and Virginia.
Illinois books accepted an incredible $ 45.6 million in the state’s first Super Bowl bets, the Gaming Board reported.
Meanwhile, Colorado players put $ 31.2 million into Sunday’s game, according to the Revenue Department.
The Michigan Gaming Control Board and Virginia Lottery will not have Super Bowl betting data until March 10 and February 20, respectively, said representatives from those agencies.
Tennessee and District of Columbia regulators do not collect data on Super Bowl bets, officials said. A Montana Lottery spokeswoman said Tuesday night that her researchers are still trying to dig up the 48-hour data.
For decades, Nevada was the only state to accept sports betting. But that changed after the Supreme Court in 2018 lifted out-of-state gambling bans.