GTE USA / Sectors / Sports Betting

Sports Betting

$167B wagered in 2025

Americans wagered $167 billion legally in 2025, producing $16.96B in operator revenue. Online betting is live in 31 states plus DC — roughly 200 million people.

$167B
2025 handle, up 11%
31 + DC
States with online betting live
~200M
Americans reachable
$416M
Operator national TV spend, 2024
Where we buy — national broadcast, cable and Connected TV
The map

Where sports betting is live.

Online betting live 31 + DC
Retail only 8
Not yet legal 11
~200M
Americans in live online states
$26B
New York 2025 handle
$416M
Operator national TV spend, 2024
39 states plus DC legal in some form; online live in 31 plus DC. Wisconsin signed, not launched. July 2026. Sources: Legal Sports Report; AGA.
What matters

The read on this market.

New York alone is 16% of the market

$26 billion in wagers in 2025 — the largest single market in America. Illinois and New Jersey add $27.7B combined as the #2 and #3 markets.

Live sport is the best adjacency in US media

NFL games made up more than 80 of the 100 most-watched US broadcasts in 2025. Super Bowl LX peaked at 137.8 million viewers — the largest audience in US television history. Your customers are already inside live TV.

The category bought its lead on television

FanDuel and DraftKings are the two biggest TV advertisers in US gaming and its two market leaders. Below the top five, almost nobody is on TV at all — while every operator fights the same saturated social auctions.

2026 seasonality warning

This is a midterm election year. Political money floods swing-state linear in Q3–Q4 — and Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona and Nevada are betting states too. Linear inventory there will spike. CTV is far less exposed. We plan flights around it.

Largest markets by 2025 handle
MarketHandleNote
New York$26B~16% of the national total
Illinois$15.5B#2 market
New Jersey$12.2B#3 market; iGaming pioneer
All others~$113B28 states plus DC
Why TV here

Built for this market.

Planned to the sports calendar

NFL season, March Madness, and the promotional window around every new state launch. Timing is the strategy.

Trust converts deposits

46% of US adults rank TV the most trustworthy ad channel; 19% say the same of social. In a deposit-led category, that gap is the conversion rate.

The media

What you can actually reach.

120M
US households watch Connected TV — 243.6 million viewers
47.5%
Of all US TV time is now streaming (Nielsen, Dec 2025)
210
DMAs — the local units linear TV is bought in, mapping to licence lines
$38B
Projected US CTV ad spend in 2026
How it’s bought

Four routes in. Two are yours.

RouteTimingRead
The Upfront12–18 months aheadBillion-dollar commitments. Wrong door for a market entrant.
Scatter2–13 weeks aheadYour linear entry. Flexible, market-priced, includes local DMA buys
Programmatic CTVDaysYour fastest entry. Geo-fencing built in. Minimums $25K–$50K
Managed serviceWeeksDirect with Hulu, Peacock, Amazon, YouTube. $100K+ minimums

The operational surprise nobody warns you about: most US networks require a US-registered entity, US credit, or a US-based Agency of Record to transact at all. We are that AOR. One signature and you’re transactable in America.

What it costs

Directional, and honest.

FormatTypical CPMRead
Live sport (NFL / NBA)$18–$40+Most expensive inventory in US TV — and the best betting adjacency
Broadcast primetime$13–$30+Mass reach, trust halo
Premium CTV$13–$30Geo-fenced, measured, brand-safe
Programmatic CTV$8–$23The workhorse of a compliant launch
National cable$4–$18Efficient frequency layer
AVOD (Tubi, Pluto, Roku)$6–$15Cheap incremental households
Local broadcast / cable$3–$10Licensed-state DMAs at regional cost
Live in 30 days

Signature to on air.

Week 1 — Map and plan

Licence map confirmed. Target states, audiences and budget set. State-by-state plan across linear DMAs and CTV. Creative brief agreed.

Week 2 — Produce

Script to finished spot. We produce your broadcast-ready creative, included. Compliance and responsible-gaming elements built in at production, not patched in after a rejection.

Week 3 — Clear and book

Network clearances secured. CTV campaigns built with state geo-fencing. Linear placements booked.

Week 4 — Launch and measure

Live on CTV, linear flights begin. Measurement baseline set from day one: geo-level incrementality design, promo tracking, MMM inputs.

Measurement

TV you can hold accountable.

Geo-level incrementality

Matched-market designs across DMAs and states. The gold standard for proving TV causes growth, not just correlates with it.

Impression-level CTV data

Every impression logged by household geography, feeding cost-per-install and cost-per-first-time-depositor by state, daypart and creative.

Spike analysis

Minute-by-minute response in downloads, site traffic and brand search after every linear spot airs.

Marketing mix modeling

TV’s contribution read alongside every other channel, so budget follows evidence, not attribution bias.

Weekly reporting: cost per install and cost per first-time depositor, by state, by daypart, by creative. If TV isn’t paying back, we’ll be the ones to show you.

Free · 21 pages

The US Playbook

Every vertical mapped. Footprints sized, buying routes explained, costs benchmarked, compliance and measurement laid out.

Get in touch

Contact

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