The action started on Thursday and just didn’t stop. This weekend, records were shattered as fans turned out in droves to put money down on a new NFL season. The number of bets placed between Thursday and Sunday was up 126% from one year ago.
GeoComply, a company that provides geolocation services to sportsbooks, reported 58.2 million bets made at online books. New Jersey saw the most activity followed by Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona and Illinois.
Speaking of Arizona, that state legalized online betting just hours before the Buccaneers and Cowboys kicked off the season. GeoComply tracked 271,000 new accounts created and 6.1 million transactions in the state between Thursday and Sunday.
“It’s probably going to be one of our biggest weekends ever,” DraftKings sportsbook director Johnny Avello told ESPN on Sunday night. “All the numbers look very positive.”
A rising tide floats all boats as the saying goes, and that certainly seems like the case for gambling this weekend. In addition to major growth year-over-year in the NFL market, college football betting also increased by 50% in its first week of action over the 2019 season according to Jeff Stoneback, BetMGM’s director of Nevada sportsbooks.
