With both in-person and online sports betting made increasingly legal nationwide, Americans wagered $79 billion in the first nine months of the year, for a nearly 33% increase from the previous year, according to a recent report by the American Gaming Association.
And that number is only going to grow over the next couple of years, said David Forman, vice president of research at the AGA. Americans are on track—for the first time ever—to legally bet more than $100 billion on sports by the end of the year, he said.
“Part of that is due to expansion into new markets that we didn’t have last year,” Forman said, noting that sports betting through the third quarter brought more than $7 billion in revenue for the commercial industry, up 53% from last year.