Everyone speculates on the most popular bets, but it is all just speculation without data to back it up. As we inch closer to a new NFL season, it is time to reflect on lessons learned from the previous year. Kambi’s Senior Director of Sales for the US David Bretnitz breaks down some insights and key learnings from Kambi’s 2021/22 NFL Season Report:
Each year, the sports betting juggernaut that is football season comes with much anticipation and excitement from fans across the US. Since sports betting became legalized in the United States, engagement and familiarity with football betting have grown substantially and its popularity is only likely to grow further.
Kambi’s performance throughout the season grew year-over and was highlighted by the introduction of Game Parlays in both NFL and NCAAF markets. Bettors took advantage of being able to combine bets on their favorite teams and favorite players all at once, further shedding light on why it is so important to have a quality combinability product moving forward.
Kambi’s most recent NFL Season Report provides insights into not only betting trends on the professional level but player behavior trends throughout the NCAAF season as well.
Combinability is king
Going into the 2021-22 football season, we knew that a quality combinability product was going to be a huge draw for bettors, which is why Kambi worked endlessly to launch Game Parlays ahead of the season to maximize bettors’ experience. The results of its popularity exceeded expectations as 45% of NFL bettors placed at least one game parlay throughout the season, and Game Parlays accounted for about 24% of all bets placed on the NFL. With our extensive Game Parlays supporting 95% of Kambi’s NFL markets, bettors had a limitless number of parlay bets that they could create.
Kambi’s offering during the Super Bowl between the Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals scored a market-leading 87% for the breadth and depth when looking at our per-match and live markets. Throughout the Super Bowl, Kambi also saw bettors widely utilize our combinability product, with half of all Super Bowl bettors placing a wager using Game Parlays and 31% of all pre-game bets that were placed being Game Parlays. There was certainly no shortage of markets for Super Bowl bettors to take advantage of, as Kambi offers more than 300 player prop offerings, with the most popular being anytime touchdown scorer.
There was also no shortage of star power surrounding the top player props that bettors placed wagers on. Kansas City Chiefs quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, led all players by handle during the regular season, followed by Josh Allen, another player at the position only for the Buffalo Bills. Second-year running back for the Colts, Jonathan Taylor, broke the trend of QB’s as the third most bet-on player by handle after putting together a stellar sophomore season in the league.
Spreading the love
Last year, local teams proved popular as fans would place wagers on the team whose jersey they had in their closet. This season, we saw bettors not only back the home team, but a lot of other teams across the country as well. In some of the largest sports betting states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Illinois – the Chiefs, Rams, Buccaneers, Cowboys, Bills, and Packers were among some of the most bet on teams. This is a trend that followed suit with the rest of the country’s top teams by handle.
The team that took the biggest leap as far as handle was the Los Angeles Rams, who became a trendy pick following an offseason trade that landed them Matthew Stafford as their new quarterback. After being in the middle of the pack as far as handle in 2020, they became the second most bet-on team only behind the Kansas City Chiefs. We saw a similar trend the season prior with the Buccaneers after Tom Brady chose to take his talents to Tampa Bay, and we may see it again this coming season after the Denver Broncos made a blockbuster trade for Russel Wilson.
All of these insights and more can be found in the full report at Kambi.com, which also features additional insights and data points on college football and an examination of how Super Bowl bettors are retained.
As sports betting continues to grow in the United States and North America, so does the popularity of betting on football during the season. You can expect to see even stronger results in the upcoming seasons as our products and offerings continue to expand, giving NFL bettors the best experience possible.
