The 2022 FIFA World Cup™: What Does It Mean For The North American iGaming Market?
It’s called football, not soccer! Now that we’ve got that settled for us here in North America, it’s time to analyze what the 2022 FIFA World Cup™ could mean for the regulated iGaming market. This World Cup has great prospects to bring revenue growth as well as partnership opportunities for new gaming markets.
Revenue Growth
Regulated iGaming and sports betting markets are growing quickly across North America. As of 2022, there are more than 20 states with regulated sports betting markets in the US. Also earlier this year, the Canadian province of Ontario went live with its regulated iGaming market. While there weren’t many big sporting events happening at the time when some of these markets launched, now there is a huge international event like the FIFA World Cup™ happening. According to a survey released by the American Gaming Association, it states that 20.5 million American adults plan to bet $1.8 billion on the World Cup. The survey further states that 3 in 10 American adults who plan to watch the World Cup intend to wager on the tournament. Now while these differ from Super Bowl numbers, they are still important. This World Cup and the figures from the survey could bring a noteworthy amount of revenue to emerging online gaming markets.
Partnership Opportunities
Revenue growth is noteworthy, but partnership opportunities are equally important. This is the first World Cup where many new online gaming markets in North America have launched. We are seeing a lot of collaborations between operators and the sporting organization itself. Plus we anticipate football-linked shows or content makers in the coming years. Most recently, Betano was made a regional supporter of FIFA in Europe. This partnership between FIFA and Betano expands the potential for sponsors in other regions such as the US and Canada. This will have licensed operators excited and ready to bring a fun and safe soccer (apologies for using soccer) betting experience to their players. Furthermore, these partnerships will strengthen the brand awareness strategies for operators who have launched in newly regulated online gaming markets.
There are only a few weeks left before the World Cup final. And with new regulated online gaming markets growing across North America, fans will not only be excited to watch the matches but will also be keen to place wagers on their favourite teams. And through this excitement brought by the World Cup, there will be more possibilities for revenue growth as well as forming partnerships with a variety of sports-linked organizations and people.
