Americans love sports betting. The evidence of this newly legal love affair continues to pour in regulated wagering enters its second year in most states where it is legal.
To wit: a recent report from Morgan Stanley shows that September 2021 downloads of sports betting apps are up an astonishing 183 percent over 2020’s totals. While that number would be impressive under any circumstances, it’s worth noting that regulated operators have greatly benefited from a steady market expansion that’s been going gangbusters all year.
The Morgan Stanley report, which was drawn from cell phone tower data gathered by mobile app Sensor Tower, shows that two operators are benefiting from regulated sports betting much more than their competitors, FanDuel and DraftKings.
According an analysis of the report published on SportsBettingOperator.com, downloads for FanDuel and DraftKings constituted a full 59 percent of all sports betting app downloads. That breaks down to 32 percent market share for DraftKings and a 27 percent market share for FanDuel.
Of course FanDuel and DraftKings weren’t the only operators benefiting from the US boom. BetMGM and Caesars Entertainment both grabbed around 12 percent of the total downloads. Given that both operators have launched major marketing campaigns to coincide with American football season, these numbers could look a lot different when the October totals are released.
Tagging along for the ride was BarStool Sports, with just seven percent of the download totals. That’s actually down from a 13 percent market share from the August report. The BarStool surge is likely due to the company’s expansions into the Colorado and New Jersey markets earlier in the summer.
Will DraftKings and FanDuel remain the big dogs in regulated sports betting? Or will BetMGM and Caesars leverage their established brands to take them on? The coming months and years will be very interesting to anyone watching the US sports betting business.