English: Online NFL Betting Surges as Legal Sports Betting Grows

Atlantic City, N.J. (AP) — In a remarkable development, the legal sports betting industry in the United States witnessed a surge in online bets during the opening week of the NFL season. GeoComply Solutions, a tech company based in Vancouver, Canada, widely used by the legal U.S. sports betting industry to confirm customer locations, reported an astounding 56% increase in geolocation transactions compared to the same period in 2022.

These transactions indicate instances where the company was called upon to verify a customer's location. This serves as a strong indicator of sports betting activity, with over 80% of it conducted online in the U.S. Additionally, the company reported the creation of more than 1.1 million new player accounts during the first week of this year's NFL season, marking a substantial increase of over 40% from the previous year.

Legal sports betting has expanded to encompass 35 states and Washington, D.C., up from 31 states last year at the beginning of the season. Three more states have approved it but have not yet launched operations, according to the American Gaming Association, the national trade group for the gambling industry.

GeoComply's co-founder and CEO, Anna Sainsbury, emphasized the role of consumer awareness in promoting the responsible growth of the industry. She stated that this report underscores the high demand for sports betting in states that have not yet legalized it. Notably, six states—Alabama, Georgia, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, and South Carolina—are currently contemplating bills to legalize sports betting next year.

The report also highlighted instances of individuals attempting to place bets from states where it is not legal, ultimately unsuccessful because of regulatory requirements mandating physical presence within the state to place a bet. GeoComply recorded over half a million attempts to place online bets from Missouri, 262,000 from Mississippi, 92,000 from Georgia, 57,000 from Alabama, 52,000 from Minnesota, and 37,000 from South Carolina.

Furthermore, the data revealed the growing popularity of in-play betting, where customers place bets while a game is already in progress. During the Thursday night season opener between the Kansas City Chiefs and Detroit Lions, GeoComply observed a massive spike in transactions, with over 4,200 per second shortly after Detroit scored the game's first touchdown.

It's important to note that the data does not claim to definitively capture every online bet placed in the U.S. Geolocation checks are conducted at various stages of the betting process, including account creation, login, and actual bet placement.