As of February 2025, sports betting has gained legal status in 38 states and Washington, D.C., marking a significant expansion of the industry across the United States. However, only 24 of these jurisdictions offer full online sports betting with multiple operators. The latest addition, Missouri, legalized sports betting through a ballot initiative in November and aims to launch operations by mid- to late-summer. Meanwhile, the industry anticipates the inclusion of potentially just one new state in 2025.
In 2024, digital sources accounted for 30% of all commercial gaming revenue, a substantial increase from 25% in 2023 and 13% in 2021. This surge underscores the growing preference for online platforms in the sports betting sector. The fourth quarter of 2024 was especially noteworthy, with the industry recording its most profitable quarter ever at $3.66 billion, marking a 7.3% increase over the previous record set in Q4 2023.
New York retained its status as the largest sports betting market nationwide, generating $2.1 billion in revenue for the year. Illinois surpassed New Jersey to become the second-largest market, with both states surpassing $1 billion in annual sports betting revenue for the first time. Legal sportsbooks accepted nearly $150 billion in bets throughout 2024, a 22.2% rise from 2023. Sportsbooks also saw a slight increase in their national hold percentage, winning at a rate of 9.3% compared to 9.1% in the previous year.
The American sports betting industry posted an unprecedented $13.71 billion in revenue in 2024, up from the previous year's record of $11.04 billion. New entrants like North Carolina and Vermont contributed significantly to this record-breaking revenue in their first year of operation.
David Forman emphasized the role of digital growth in this success:
"Last year saw brick-and-mortar revenue growth slow, while online gaming and sports betting continued to grow," – David Forman
He further noted that existing markets were key drivers of this growth:
"A lot of the growth really was driven by existing markets. Even markets that have been online for some time now, we saw really good growth," – Forman
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