Hardly a day goes by without another US state setting a new high for sports betting activity.
While state reports track revenue and handle, they don’t track participation, as in how many people are actually betting. Thanks to a new survey from market intelligence firm Civic Science, we have an idea.
They say around 6% of adults in legal sports betting states use, or plan to use, FanDuel and DraftKings.
More than it appears?
That penetration may not sound like a lot, but consider the context.
The UK’s most popular betting site, Sky Bet, has around 2 million quarterly customers. That’s about 4.5% of UK adults.
Or another comparison: the UK Gambling Commission said 6.7% of adults bet on sports in the prior month in a recent survey. That’s 6.7% of adults in a mature market across all sports betting apps.
So 6% penetration for a single app in a new market seems pretty strong.
Of course, the comparison isn’t perfect. The UK data is for over-16’s who had bet on sports in the prior month. The US data is over-21’s who have or plan to use the app.
After FanDuel and DraftKings with 6% usage/intended usage, came BetRivers in third with 3%. They are followed by Fox Bet, Barstool Sportsbook and PointsBet, all with 2%.
Barstool popping in brand awareness
In the same research, Civic Science polled nearly 7,000 US citizens across the country on sportsbook brand awareness.
DraftKings and FanDuel again topped the list with 41% and 38% brand awareness respectively.
Those figures highlighted Barstool Sportsbook, which came in third with 27% awareness,
“Barstool proves that new brands can still enter this market and make a name for themselves almost immediately,” Civic Science noted. “After all, the Barstool Sportsbook app launched only in Pennsylvania just last month, and already one-quarter of Americans say they’re aware that it exists.”
There’s likely to be some noise in the data of course: how many respondents had heard of Barstool Sports rather than the Barstool Sportsbook?
That said, Barstool’s early numbers suggest it is indeed making an impact in its first market.
