The Olympic Rings placed in front of the Eiffel Tower to celebrate the French capital winning the right to host the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images
Sportsbooks and daily fantasy managers are gearing up for the Summer Olympics.
The games in Paris, which start on July 26, will be the first to take place since legal gambling became widespread in the US. , football and tennis.
“The Olympics and gambling, for decades, have looked at each other from afar. This year we will see them merge,” said Max Bichsel, executive vice president of North America at Gambling.com Group, a global digital marketing company. online gaming industry.
These Olympics come at an opportune time for sportsbooks, during the offseason of high-volume betting leagues like the NFL and NBA. But whether they move the needle for gaming operators remains to be seen.
The effect could be more muted for giants FanDuel and DraftKings, which together hold about 80% of the US online gambling market share, than for smaller players.
“If you want to look at it from an annual perspective for a company like DraftKings or FanDuel, it will still have a relatively small impact,” said Jordan Bender, senior equity analyst at Citizens JMP. “Obviously a positive, but it’s not going to be as big as we think and a lot of it is going to be heavily dependent on viewership.”
A representative of FanDuel, which is owned by Agitation, said the Olympics probably won’t move the needle much for the sportsbook. DraftKings did not respond to a request for comment.
Even so, the expected rise in Olympic gaming highlights just how much the market has grown in recent years.
Development of gambling
More than 30 states now allow some form of sports betting, and many of them allow mobile and online betting, a dramatic increase over the last Summer Olympics.
The Tokyo Olympics came just a few years after a Supreme Court ruling that cleared the way for legal betting in the U.S. In 2021, 97 million American adults were able to bet, compared to 164 million American adults who will be able to bet this year. according to the American Gaming Association.
“Bettors are looking for something to bet on, and incremental events will help,” Bender said. “The die-hard gambler, someone who bets every week on the NFL, the NBA, the NHL … there’s still a lot of money to be made there.”
However, the Olympics may not cause the wave of betting seen with other sports in the U.S. Some state regulations may prevent betting on many events, and users may only be able to bet on medal events.
U.S. Olympic viewership has suffered in recent years, particularly due to the difficult time difference in Tokyo in 2021 and Beijing in 2022 (home of the Winter Games), as well as the absence of fans during the pandemic.
US bettors will also face a time zone problem this year. While Paris’s time zone — six hours ahead of Eastern time — presents less difficulty for Americans than Tokyo’s 13-hour gap in 2021, prime-time events won’t be live this year.
Prime-time replays will air on the NBC broadcast network and the entire Olympics will be available on NBCUniversal’s Peacock, the first time there will be a major streaming presence for the games.
Sportsbooks will be keen to see if this access improves betting interest.
Preparing for a summer wave
Tokyo, Japan, Sunday, July 25, 2021 – Men’s Basketball, USA vs. France at Saitama Super Arena.
Robert Gauthier | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images
However, many in the industry are thinking about the Olympics one chance to increase engagement and betting during the usually slow summer months.
The roughly two weeks of games in Paris is a boon for bettors because it comes during a typical lull in U.S. sports. Many leagues, including the NFL, NBA and NHL, are in the offseason.
The Olympics being held in the summer could also reduce competition for viewers.
Brandon Friedman, vice president of operations at PrizePicks, a daily fantasy operator that allows users to buy contest tickets but is not considered gambling under federal common law, said the company offered Olympic events in Tokyo and Beijing and learned that the users prefer summer contests.
“As a result, we’re heading into the 2024 Paris Olympics with a broader offering for our members to enjoy than ever before,” Friedman said.
The picturesque setting of Paris and the ability for American viewers to watch many of the competitions live during the day are also expected to drive engagement.
“Beach volleyball in front of the Eiffel Tower and Equestrian in the Gardens at Versailles will undoubtedly be the most spectacular venues of recent years,” said Bichsel.
The sports included in the Summer Olympics also help. Many operators, incl FanDuel and Rush Street InteractiveBetRivers sportsbooks expect basketball, tennis and soccer to be the top sports for bets. He also noted that the recent surge in popularity of women’s sports will likely carry over to the Olympics.
Basketball betting made up about half of FanDuel’s betting handle on the Tokyo Olympics. The company expects the emphasis on basketball to continue this year, a FanDuel spokesperson said.
Additionally, the patriotism fueling Olympic fans will play a factor in betting.
“Patriotism is No. 1 at the Olympics and punters love to support their country’s heroes no matter what,” said Tim Whitehead, head of sports betting at BetRivers, which is operated by Rush Street.
This can also bet in other countries.
“In the US, you see a melting pot of faith like where people not only support the US but also have faith in their heritage in countries like Italy and Korea and Croatia and Brazil,” Bichsel said. “Well, some sportsbooks, depending on states and demographics, will respond differently to the Olympics and international games in general. For example, you might see an influx in betting volume from New York and New Jersey if a country in Eastern Europe or Italy plays.”
— CNBC’s Jessica Golden contributed to this article.
Disclosure: Comcast’s NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC.
