Since 2018, the online betting industry, including sports betting, has seen a huge rise in popularity. This is largely due to the Supreme Court lifting a federal ban allowing licensed and legal online sportsbooks to operate on a state-by-state basis. More bets are being placed and more sports betting advertising can be seen on NBA broadcasts.
All that adds up to increased revenue for teams and the NBA yet the impact is said to go further. You can see how enjoyable sports betting can be when you visit us at FanDuel.com.
Adam Silver’s Influence
You could say that one man has had a big influence on how the NBA has adapted to the impact of sports betting and that’s Adam Silver. He’s been adept at allowing the influx of legal sports betting to come through, indeed, how was an advocate of it before it was green-lit. He’s embraced the trend, though you can expect that seeing dollar signs has been part of that decision. There is simply an insane potential for funds to be made for both teams and the NBA when it comes to sports betting and Adam Silver is keen to make it happen.
How Much Sports Betting Is Worth To The NBA
Back in 2018, a pro-betting firm known as the American Gaming Association estimated that the NBA could increase its revenue by close to $600m every year once sports betting was legalized. You can imagine the dollar signs that sprang up when that was announced. Even then, the estimate looks to be conservative due to how much advertising you can see for sportsbooks and sports betting during each and every NBA broadcast.
The Impact Of NBA In Sports Betting
While the amount of money looks to be mind-boggling, it is likely to increase year-on-year. That can have a huge impact on every facet of the NBA, from how much each franchise brings in revenue to how the NBA is presented to its audience. What was largely a family-friendly product is now being geared toward adults and those who can legally gamble. There is a sense that legal betting adds a sense of excitement to every game and broadcast yet that brings with it some concerns too.
To make the most educated sports bets you need to keep up to date with NBA news. While adult NBA fans will be expected to show some sense in limiting their bets, the temptation is there for young fans. That presents a problem for the NBA in how they present legal sports betting to a younger audience who are not able to gamble yet but may be tempted. Sports betting has had to find ways to present itself to fans of the NBA without being perceived as problematic.
How The NBA Players Are Affected By Sports Betting
The NBA players are also impacted by the higher expectations placed by fans after they have placed their bets. With more at stake than just the win, fans have turned on players should they lose their wagers. Bradley Beal of the Washington Wizards found himself under police investigation following an altercation with a fan following their 122-112 defeat to Orlando Magic. Understandably, the NBA players are there to win a game for their team, not so a fan wins a bet but those disappointed fans fail to see it that way.
Sports betting has arguably changed how players have been perceived by fans too. Instead of playing on the court to do a job for their team, they can be seen as pawns to engineer a set of circumstances that rewards fans with winning bets. When they fail to perform as expected by those placing the bets then that comes with a different sense of disappointment, one that comes with a financial impact. The NBA has grown to be a family-friendly product and if these sorts of altercations continue then that may have an impact on how sports betting is perceived.
The Influx Of Data
What does come with the influx of sports betting is a huge influx of data as more and more people want to know the ins and outs before they place a wager. That means more sportsbooks, more paid experts, and more analysts. All of that put together can seem somewhat overwhelming yet each aspect adds a little more detail to the bet you can put on. The data could shed new light on player performance as more analytics become data-driven and players understand their roles better with more detail.
There are traditional statistics that are easily recorded such as points, assists, and rebounds yet success can be measured with different nuances. More data means more ways you can capture an individual player’s performance with something like tracks per-minute productivity. This type of data really looks at how a certain player can influence a game and when they are likely to do it.
Through partnering with various sportsbooks, the NBA has changed how data-driven sports betting can be. Integrity analysis has also improved as broad data is made on trends in sports betting and you can even pull anaymized data from individual bets. Even the full-scale legalization of sports betting means data from each individual state can show their own trends. Perhaps how fans bet on teams from their own state versus those from other ones.
The role of data analysis is also changing as hypothetical situations come into play. What if certain players were to get injured? How would that affect betting patterns and trends? There is even some scrutiny on how players’ injuries are detailed due to their impact on sports betting.
Summary
Even before sports betting was legalized, the NBA had already begun the first steps to capturing more data. In 2014, video technology was first used to record the movements of the ball, ten players, and three referees. That in itself will generate data points in the millions which helps analysts to study a player’s movements. The data is then used by sportsbooks to look for patterns and a narrative that can help predict what might happen on the court.