Ask anyone across the U.S. if they’re a fan of sports, the odds are good that they will give you a resounding yes.
From Super Bowl parties to March Madness brackets, it’s safe to say Americans are a bit mad for sports, and that’s not going to change anytime soon.
But one thing that might be reversed in the not-too-distant future is mobile sports betting in a variety of states, something New York betting apps have already capitalized on.
Mobile sports betting has been steadily growing since the Supreme Court allowed its legalization, having been readily embraced by 26 jurisdictions, and this is only set to increase from 2023 and beyond.
With this in mind, we’re going to look at how legalization has affected interest in the betting scene in New York, how this compares to other states in terms of legality, and whether or not New Yorkers have a greater penchant for gambling online than other areas of the country.
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Empire State of Mind
Despite being a relative newcomer to the world of online sports betting, with the state government only legalizing it on Jan. 8 of last year, New York has stormed ahead of plenty of other states when it comes to expanding its online betting options beyond operators like Caesars NY.
Those who want to start betting in New York can carry out full mobile betting with a wealth of different options available, provided they’re over the age of 21 and are physically in the state, meaning no more trips out to casinos or sportsbooks when you want to get in on NY NFL betting on an upcoming Jets or Giants game.
Combine this with the potential for decreased tax rates on online betting services in both 2023 and 2024 and it’s looking like gambling in New York will only continue to grow in popularity.
But how does New York compare to the rest of the nation?
Methodology
To find out just which U.S. state is most curious about getting into mobile sports betting, we took 50 of America’s most popular sportsbooks as keywords in Google and used their search volumes over the past 12 months to determine the total search volume for each.
With this data in hand, we then took each state’s population figures and calculated how many searches were being made per 100 people, using the final figures to rank each state from most to least interested.
With this information in hand, we can now reveal the top states that are searching for mobile betting in the U.S.
The Usual Suspects
Given how quickly mobile sports betting has taken off in New York, it probably won’t come as much of a surprise to learn that New York placed 3rd on our rankings, with 26.7 searches per 100 people. That’s out of a state population of 5,256,890! For context, online New York sports betting handle was nearly $332 million for the week that began late in January and ended in early February.
However, at the very top of our list is Nevada. Again, not too surprising when you consider Las Vegas is the gambling capital of the world. With betting online having been legal there since 2010, there were 43.0 betting sportsbook searches per 100 people, showing that Nevada’s love of gambling isn’t going anywhere.
As for our second-place spot, and moving well ahead of New York, is its neighbor, New Jersey. With 38.4 searches per 100 people out of a population of 3,552,690, New Jersey’s decision to legalize mobile betting in July of 2018 looks to have paid off when it comes to sparking interest in the topic.
And finally, our fourth and fifth biggest states for gambling searches were Pennsylvania and Michigan, both of which closely follow New York’s search trends. With 26.5 and 26.0 searches per 100 people, respectively, both of these states look to have seen a rising interest since legalizing the activity in 2019 and 2021.
States Worth Noting
When looking at our ranking, the majority of data shows that those states that have legalized online sports betting to some degree tend to also have more searches in this area. However, this isn’t always the case.
Interestingly, Kentucky, which placed 7th on our list with 20.8 searches per 100 people, is still yet to legalize online betting. However, they did come close in 2022, and another bill is set to be put forward in 2024, meaning Kentucky gamblers might not have long to wait.
And gamblers in Vermont might also be in for a bit of luck in the next few years. Coming in at 20th in our rankings thanks to a search score of 15.6, Vermont is essentially surrounded by states that already have legalized online gambling, which may very well encourage its state authorities to do the same.
Finally, California only came in at 27th and with just 14.7 searches per 100 people, interest in this activity doesn’t seem to be there quite yet. And with two recent proposals on the matter recently failing, changes to this state’s regulations might not come until 2024 or later.
And there you have it. That’s how New York compares to other states for online betting.
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