An increasing number of Americans are taking a shot at online sports betting play this year, pulling more billions of dollars in bets with the 2021 Super Bowl and NCAA Madness than the previous year's games.

Over the course of the Super Bowl LV, Players have put $4.3 billion in bets, tagging "the largest single-event legal handle in American sports betting history," according to the estimate of the American Gaming Association. In e-online sports gaming,

a "handle" is the total amount of bets made by wagers. Platforms like FanDuel and DraftKings are being used to place wagers on a sporting event and there were about 7.6 million people placing bets. In comparison to 2020, this is a 63 per cent increase.

 For the time being, over 47 million Americans have wagered, as per the association. Since 2019, the amount of online bets on the game has tripled.

According to experts, there are two trends driving this growth. One of the reasons is sports betting is becoming increasingly allowed in more states.  Second, hundreds of millions of individuals have been compelled to stay at home due to the coronavirus pandemic, which has increased the popularity of online betting.

Casey Clark, the American gaming association's (AGA) senior vice president said, "The pandemic had a lot to do with Americans not going to physical locations anymore,"  "You weren't going to in-person sporting events and you weren't going to brick-and-mortar sportsbooks [where players can wager on various competitions]," He added.

Tribunal’s Resolution on legitimizing Sports Betting

There was a Supreme Court decision from 2018 which knocked down a federal statute prohibiting betting on football, basketball, baseball, and other sports. The ruling gave states the green light to legalize sports betting. Numerous jurisdictions jumped at the opportunity expeditiously.

Arkansas, New Hampshire, Indiana, and other states spent 2019 developing and passing sports betting legislation. These regulations went into force in 2020, according to Clark, kicking off the current sports betting boom. Sports betting are currently legal in 25 states, with another 16 contemplating similar legislation, including California, Massachusetts, and Ohio. As a result of this law, it has been a game-changer in New York sports betting too.

Sports leagues are also profiting from the surge in sports betting by selling official team data to betting firms. The NBA, for instance, has a six-year contract worth more than $250 million with Sportradar. Once other states allow sports betting, such contracts may quickly reach billions of dollars.

Being a responsible Gamer

People's proclivity to become obsessive bettors may rise as well if there will be more states to open if additional states are making sports betting legal. The sports betting sector is making a concerted effort to encourage safe betting. Clark mentioned the associations have a Game Plan program, which encourages bettors to set a budget.

Moreover, some sports betting organizations employ technologies that would block the players automatically from visiting their sites too frequently.  Unibet, an online betting platform, has partnered with Gamban, a company located in the United Kingdom, to develop blocking software that allows users to effectively exclude themselves from betting sites across numerous devices, hence reducing compulsive betting. Thousands of legitimate and illicit gaming sites are blocked by the program, which is continually updated to add new ones as they emerge.

However, Indiana resident Isaac Puff, who begins sports betting on DraftKings shortly before the pandemic began, is not worried about the risk of addiction. Puff, 36, said he sets aside $200 each month for sports betting and only bets extra if he wins money from earlier bets.

His new sports betting passion has been exciting so far, stating that he has gained $10,000 this year after placing his bet of $2,000 on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Super Bowl, despite them being the underdog. Puff admitted that he attempted betting on the spur of the moment last year to see if he might win and was astonished by the results.

"Last year, I put in total about $2,000 and I walked away with $20,000," he said.

He also mentioned that thorough research and not always going with the obvious option is the key to his gaming success.

Puff said, "I have the tendency to bet on the underdog if I think they have a chance,"  He added,  "To me, betting is all about data. It's all about analyzing numbers and trends."