Will 5G become the catalyst for sports betting in the US? Part I
After the abolition of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), the development of the US sports betting industry has been steady, granting every state control over the regulation of sports betting. Nevertheless, there is also a feeling that we are yet to witness the ‘explosion’ moment in sports betting, and that there is a lot of untapped demand in the industry. This is pointed out by the financial results. According to the Legal Sports Survey, sports betting income after the revocation of PASPA is $1.2B, but that is far behind the estimates produced by market experts prior to the May 2018 ruling.
For instance, Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, a gambling research company projected that more than $3B in sales will be produced by the end in 2019. It is important that the development of the industry would have to intensify to meet the $6B annual sales target set by Eilers & Krejcik Gaming by 2023. There are several reasons that may make things harder, but the advent of 5G mobile networks is a mechanism with the most possible effect.
Next, it is important to understand that mobile betting would continue to be a core catalyst for US sports betting to optimize its business potential. The strongest predictor of that is the latest sales figures in New Jersey, where the smartphone betting business is the most mature. Besides getting a strong gambling sector (Atlantic City) as well, internet sports betting accounted for 82% of all sports betting income in New Jersey in 2019. The percentage increased to 87% in January 2020. This indicates that the capacity of mobile sports betting networks is far greater than that of traditional sports betting outlets, even though operators were prepared to carry out costly retail shops or kiosks at places such as sports stadiums.
Of course, the effect that 5G would have on mobile sports betting in the US would be highly affected by improvement in state-by-state legislation, which is largely optimistic. In addition to New Jersey, West Virginia, Ohio, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania have also initiated licensed for mobile sports betting. California, Nevada and Oregon now authorize digital sports betting for players who access their casino accounts. Rhode Island is promoting internet sports gaming through the state lottery.
In addition, Illinois, Michigan, Tennessee and Washington DC all enacted laws enabling mobile sports betting, but no providers have yet been introduced in these nations. According to the Action Network, some studies expect that as many as 40 countries would have legal sports betting in some way by the end of 2021.
(to be continued…)
