The iGaming industry has many branches, from lotteries to bingo. Two of them are, in turn, especially popular: online casinos and sports betting. The first is a form of entertainment that comes with a chance to put money in the players’ pockets; the other is connected to sports, something many consider the most popular form of entertainment in the world. But which one of the two is more popular? Let’s take a look at the numbers.
Player base
According to Rudie Venter, a spokesperson at Playcasino.co.za, about 1.6 billion people across the globe participate in gambling activities. Of these, nearly 10%, which amounts to over 155 million individuals, partake in online betting. This statistic is from 2022, indicating a growth of over 15% from the previous year.
This year’s numbers will only come out in 2024, but we can already predict they will be significantly higher. Just look at the recent sports betting growth in South Africa and the speed at which online gambling is spreading in the US.
Regarding the player base (without considering the likely overlaps), sports betting was the more popular form of gambling, with almost 110 million active users in 2022 (49.5% of the total). Casino games came in second, with 38.2% (close to 60 million players), followed by online lotteries with 12.3%.
Advertising
iGaming is an incredibly competitive industry. Any online casino or sports betting outlet is as good as dead without advertising. iGaming companies engage in various forms of advertising, from affiliate marketing to sponsorship deals and TV spots. Assessing the global spending on iGaming advertising is hard, considering the incredibly diverse policies that apply to gambling ads in different jurisdictions.
Companies worldwide spend most on sports betting advertising in parallel with the number of high-profile sporting events in the region. The best example is the US, where the start of the NFL season or the Super Bowl routinely attracts tens of millions of dollars worth of ad spending from the biggest local operators. In 2022, for example, the four biggest sportsbooks in the US spent more than $24 million on betting ads on NFL TV alone in the first week of the season.
Revenues
Recent estimates put the total revenues of the global gambling industry at close to $750 billion and online gambling revenues at $63.5 billion in 2022. Out of this total, sports betting was responsible for almost half of the revenues. Casino games and online lotteries, not to mention other forms of online gambling, make up for the rest.
It’s safe to say that sports betting is more popular than casino gambling, and it is by far the most popular form of gambling worldwide. This is due not only to the popularity of sports in general but also to the sports betting operators’ consistent ad spending and sponsorship deals worldwide.