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It's a Gamble 🎰

It's a Gamble 🎰

SportsBall #55

Riley Martin
November 15, 2024

Happy Friday!

This past week we did yet another SportsBall learning series - this time on sports betting in America.

There’s a ton of available data on the topic I found at the American Gaming Association and Covers so feel free to go wild on the data set on your own!

OUR FAVORITE BREAKDOWN 💡

Money Heist 🎰

Watch here → Instagram TikTok

Vision 👁️

Every time I turn on a game, it seems there’s no escaping the barrage of sports gambling ads. “Get your bonus bets now!” or “Live odds now at +380!” - who cares? This oversaturation of gambling spots on broadcasts was one of the main reasons we started SportsBall in the first place.

But let’s face it, America loves betting. In 2023 alone, over $120 billion 💰 in legal bets were placed.

That’s the equivalent of every American wagering $400 last year. 😵

With those staggering numbers, we decided to create a miniseries to better understand the impact of the industry—and follow the money.

This analysis serves as the introduction to our series - how widespread sports betting is and what trends 📈 we should be paying attention to.

CHARTS 🌁

Buy One Get One 1️⃣

Chart Type - Spire and Line Chart ⛪️

When the federal sports betting ban was lifted in 2018, it kicked off a rapid domino 🁂effect. Now every year, about 5 to 7 states join the legalization bandwagon. That original group of seven ballooned 🎈 to 38 in just five years.

The top chart here captures this explosive growth. Each horizontal line marks a new state jumping in, with the line’s length showing when they legalized. One by one, they added up—and as they did, the critical mass started building.

Of course, the money followed.

More states legalizing gambling obviously means more money in the pot. But we weren’t expecting quite this much:

Year	Handle	Percent Change
2018	$6,608,072,006
2019	$13,073,426,594	+97.8%
2020	$21,476,520,882	+64.3%
2021	$57,525,518,127	+167.9%
2022	$93,726,726,923	+62.9%
2023	$121,064,466,469	+29.2%

In just five years, the sports betting handle—the total amount wagered—has skyrocketed 🚀 nearly 20x, jumping from $6.6 billion to an astonishing $121.1 billion.

For the chart, we wanted to showcase state legalization growth alongside dollar volume growth, so we used a shared x-axis between both graphs. This alignment allows the eye 👁️ to track vertically between the charts seamlessly.

How we rate it ✭✭✭✭✩

This is only the second time we’ve used a “spire chart” in a breakdown, but honestly? I’m loving it.

Cumulative data like this should really hit the reader 💥. You want them to feel how big the shift is even at first glance. This chart delivers, especially for binary values like individual states legalizing sports betting. The finishing value dwarfs the start, just as it should.

And let’s not forget the shared axis. As we said before, it makes this section a BOGO deal—and that “double-up” theme runs through this entire breakdown.

Seasons of Life 🍁

Chart Type - Timeline and… Timeline ⏱️

One of the most fascinating aspects of sports betting is its seasonality.

The sports world revolves around major events, and the gambling industry follows that rhythm. To illustrate this, we overlaid the season lengths of the four major American sports leagues to highlight how overlaps create prime gambling opportunities. 🎰

The goal here is to spotlight 🔦 those moments. By shading the chart areas where the NFL season kicks off and runs through March Madness, the data clearly shows just how dominant football is in the betting world.

The most intriguing part of the chart? The noticeable dip in February.

You might be thinking, “Wait, isn’t the Super Bowl the biggest gambling day of the year? What gives?” The explanation lies in the number of games played each month. While the Super Bowl reigns supreme in sports betting, it’s also the only football game in February.

NFL Games by Month - 2024:

January: 28
February: 1

January is packed with playoff action, creating a gambling frenzy, but by February, it’s all about the Super Bowl—a single, monumental event that carries the entire month. .

Looking at the year as a whole, the stark contrast between “offseasons” and peak periods is striking. For example, in July 2024, the total handle was under $6 billion, whereas March—boosted by March Madness—soared to $14 billion. 📊

It’s further proof that football is, without question, the driving force in the sports betting world.

How we rate it ✭✭✭✩✩

I’m a big fan of annotations.

Shading specific regions or adding notes to a chart ✏️ is like sprinkling Italian seasoning on a dish—it always works. By highlighting the football season here, we can zero in on the massive spikes in the sports betting market during certain times of the year, while summer remains relatively quiet.

My one gripe with this chart is the space constraints at the top. Those season lines were supposed to be a key feature, but they felt a bit too cramped. Ah well— that’s just how it goes. 🤷

This whole breakdown was inspired by a Tableau project I did back in 2022 where we looked at the state of sports gambling. Most of the visual elements were brought in from here. See the live version at this link.