Early Data Suggest Super Bowl 58 Largest Single-Day Betting Event


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Super Bowl

Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest day of the year for sports fans and sports bettors across the country, and the 2024 edition of the Big Game exceeded most expectations.

Super Bowl betting volume appears poised to pass an estimated $1.3 billion for the matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers, topping last year’s record by around 20%. Final numbers are still pending in a majority of states.

The Chiefs won for moneyline bettors and covered the consensus spread (+2) with a 25-22 victory in overtime. The game score of 47 points was right on the number, so results on the total went all three ways.

Top states for Super Bowl 58 betting

Nevada historically dominates Super Bowl betting, and this year’s numbers were exceptionally strong with Las Vegas hosting the game at Allegiant Stadium. Betting volume in the state soared to $186 million, beating its own record from 2022 to lead the way. Sportsbooks won $6.8 million, or 3.7% of those bets.

New York churned out $162 million in handle on the game, up 31% from 2023 and beating estimates in a solid second-place finish. Revenue on those bets totaled $12.5 million, creating a 7.7% hold for operators.

New Jersey also overperformed an optimistic forecast, racking up an impressive $142 million in wagers to approach its own 2022 record. Sportsbooks in the state held 6.0% to win a combined $8.5 million on the day.

Super Bowl betting in other states

Operator data from Super Bowl 58 bets

National leader FanDuel reported Super Bowl betting handle in excess of $307 million from more than 2.5 million active customers around the country. Former NFL player Rob Gronkowski returned as the brand’s ambassador and stuntman for the second year in a row, missing the Kick of Destiny once again as part of a $10 million promotional giveaway that drew 1.8 million entries.

DraftKings boasted the most-downloaded and most-used sports betting app for Super Bowl Sunday according to third-party data. The company did not provide specific numbers, but a breakdown of top player props did help quantify the popularity of Travis Kelce with bettors.

A senior trader for BetMGM meanwhile called it “a bad Super Bowl” given the public’s love affair with Kelce and the Chiefs. The Vegas-based outfit reported 63% of its wagers against the spread and 74% of handle on the Chiefs, along with 75%/72% moneyline splits on the underdog.

Smaller operators chime in on Super Bowl bettig

Limited highlights from bet365 echo those data points, with the Chiefs drawing 73% of its bets in the markets it serves. One particularly interesting note: the company saw more tickets on Kelce to score a touchdown than on the 49ers to win outright.

Betting exchange Sporttrade provided an arbitrage opportunity with its KC +122 moneyline offering. Nearly 1,200 trades flowed through Sporttrade’s app on Sunday, generating around $1.2 million in volume.

Third-party analysis of Super Bowl 58 betting

Postgame notes from Eilers & Krejcik counted 898,000 sports betting app downloads during the game, down 7% year over year. The firm estimated that FanDuel and DraftKings achieved a nationwide hold percentage in the mid-teens, fueled by their promotional efforts and their expansive menu of props and same-game parlays.

A summary from Citizens JMP meanwhile anticipated mixed results for all operators despite the record-setting handle. The group noted the effect of overtime on the number of props that cashed along with the overall theme of the Chiefs being the darling side for bettors as a collective.

Pessimistic analysis from Macquarie estimated a -4% hold for sportsbooks and a loss of approximately $64 million to bettors nationwide. Beyond the direct financial results, however, the report notably keyed in on the ways operators are truly measuring Super Bowl success:

Super Bowls are always great events for acquiring new customers, but with Super Bowl LVIII likely setting viewership records, partly driven by over 50% of the US population now having access to OSB in addition to Taylor Swift’s involvement which has brought interest from a whole new demographic, mostly women, we view Super Bowl LVIII as unequivocally positive for sportsbooks.

Chad Benyon – Macquarie

Digital data from Super Bowl 58 bettors

Mobile app data from Juice Reel indicates that parlays accounted for 34% of wagers and 25% of handle for Super Bowl 58, with the average number of legs reaching a staggering 5.1 per ticket. Singles generated the bulk of the remaining volume, while in-play betting remains a small sliver of the overall pie. A corresponding increase in total volume and decrease in sports betting app downloads hints at the growing level of adoption nationwide.

GWS Magnify, which tracks app activity for users who opt in, shed more light on the brand-level betting data for the Super Bowl. According to its report, DraftKings (41%) was the most-used sports betting app during the game, with national leader FanDuel (34%) trailing at arm’s length.

Geolocation provider Geocomply reported a 15% increase in active player accounts and a 22% increase in location checks this year, mirroring the overall financial growth for Super Bowl betting. At its peak immediately before kickoff, the company was logging a record 14,750 transactions per second from a gameday total of 8.5 million accounts across the 28 states it monitors.