The Supreme Court threw open the door to sports betting in 2018, and it’s been a wild ride since then. Almost every state now has legal sportsbooks, and new online operators are popping up all over the country. New Jersey, which led the way by bringing the sports gambling case to the Supreme Court, has become known as “the gold standard.” Its sportsbooks are set to break records in 2023 thanks to a competitive market and an operator-friendly system that encourages new models like the betting exchange Prophet.
In addition to standard straight bets on individual game outcomes, many states offer a wide variety of other wagers called props. These bets focus on specific player performance in a game, rather than the overall outcome of a match. For example, bettors can place props on how many yards Patrick Mahomes throws for the Chiefs in a given game, or whether a team will score first.
Another big trend is the rise of sportsbooks inside NFL stadiums. In some cases, the teams are running them, but in others, the NFL is working with a third-party operator to provide sportsbooks on game days. This is a huge change from the early days of sports betting, when the league worried that it would harm the integrity of the games. ESPN’s David Purdum is one of the most knowledgeable experts on this subject, and he joins us to talk about how sportsbooks are changing the game.