28 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 IS SPORTS BETTING THE BIGGEST THREAT TO LOTTERY IN 2024? Simon Jaworski, Founder & CEO, Lotto Research On the last day of 2023, my wife Beth and I stood in line for delicious pizza (L’industrie Pizzeria) in the West Village, but it was the conversation behind us in line that was even more interesting. The two couples (who were strangers) had started a deeprooted discussion, not about their New Year’s Eve plans, or even the Powerball New Year’s Rockin’ Eve draw, but about their NFL parlays and how they had failed that afternoon. After joining in with our new found friends, the tête-à-tête weaved between the NFL and betting on the games as seamlessly as holding hands and singing Auld Lang Syne at midnight. There is no way that conversation would have happened five years ago. The game plan. The negative stigma attached to betting on sports has all but disappeared. Sports betting is now legal in 37 states in the U.S., with mobile sports betting allowed in 28 of those states. That’s massive growth since the national law that prohibited states from regulating sports betting (PASPA) was rescinded just six years ago. If this is the landscape of sports betting and online betting today after such a short period of time, how much more will it grow in the next ten years? There are still states where sports betting remains illegal, and those are Alabama, Alaska, California, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Minnesota, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and Utah. Yes, three of these will not see any effect on lottery sales if (when?) they legalize some form of sports gambling. However, three of these, Texas, California and Georgia, own three of the top seven lottery sales* in America (*2022 numbers). So it’s time to reexamine what kind of risk sports betting poses to our beloved industry’s ‘good cause’ generation. The kick off. Men dominate the sports betting landscape Sports betting has always been one of the most male dominated forms of gaming and gambling, but there has been a marginal shift in play within the genders in the past two years, from 77% of past year sports bettors being male, down to 74% in 2023. However, for the higher spending sports bettor ($500+ per month) it is still a 5:1 male to female ratio, with only 17% of women accounting for the higher spending category. Incidentally, this group bets around $1,200 on average per month. Where we have seen another notable shift is in demographics is within age groups. Sports betting has gotten significantly younger in 2023, with 75% of all sports bettors being 44 and under, compared to 69% in 2021. There has also been a notable increase in Hispanic sports bettors over the past two years, up from 22% to 29%, significantly over-indexing to the size of their population in the U.S. I have been very vocal to the lottery industry in explaining that the Hispanic audience is still very much underserved by Lottery games and products. If anyone talks to the Texas Lottery about the success of their $100 Loteria ticket, I think they might come to the same conclusion. Gambling as a whole is also moving up the hierarchy of popularity in terms of recreational activities, from 46% in Q4 of 2021, up significantly to 52% in Q4 2023, now ahead of Reading! And in terms of preferred activity, Gambling is also up significantly from 9% (’21) to 14% (’23). Continued on page 41
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