About 20,000 people will pay $100 to enter and the winner will get $1 million. To keep with tradition, DraftKings is offering brackets. There are more users, more states on board, and more offerings.” But forget the fact that we missed the tournament last year, the growth from 2019 to 2021 in sports betting across the U.S. We saw intense action when we put the lines up on Sunday. “We sorely missed the tournament last year. “It will be the biggest ever,” says Johnny Avello, DraftKings’ head of race and sportsbook. March Madness should only add to that winning streak. The company recently reported impressive $322 million in revenue, a 146% increase from $131 million in the prior year, and also reported that monthly users have risen by 500,000 to 1.5 million from the previous quarter. DraftKings, which was founded in 2012, has been on a tear since the company went public through a reverse merger last April-its stock price jumped has 260%. Credit: GDP Photos/ MediaPunch /IPXĪt DraftKings, the proliferation of online sports gambling made company cofounder and CEO Jason Robins a billionaire earlier this year. Hoop Dreaming: The crowd at the Wesgate casino in Nevada may not be back to 2019 levels, but the handle is higher thanks to mobile gambling. While the number of Americans placing bets this year-47 million-is expected to stay flat from 2019, wagers are expected to break the 2019 record of $8.5 billion. “There is a migration from the illegal market to the legal market,” he continues, “and there is excitement and pent up demand for March Madness and the opportunity for people to bet legally and safely has never been better.”

“States recognized that people have been betting on sports since there’s been sports to bet on.” “We have seen a massive increase in legal sports betting,” says Miller. By population, 45% of American adults now live in a state with legalized sports betting. ) that have legalized sports betting, with 21 markets operational. Miller says the dramatic increase in online betting is thanks to the fact that 13 new legal sports betting markets have opened up since the 2019 tournament, bringing the total to 25 states (and Washington, D.C. About 18 million people will bet online while 8 million will bet in-person at a sportsbook. “I can’t tell you what March Madness will bring, but it will be exponentially bigger.”īill Miller, the president and CEO of the American Gaming Association says that the number of people betting online this year is up more than 200% from 2019. “Brackets bring in about $2 million,” says DraftKing’s Johnny Avello.

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