Europe's Influence on Sports Betting in the U.S.

When the U.S. Supreme Court lifted the ban on sports betting in the U.S. in May of 2018, it caught the attention of the international sports betting community. Why? With experts claiming that the U.S. sports betting market held the potential of $150 billion a year in of handle, that’s a number that catches the attention of everyone in the gambling industry.

Close to four years later, it has become very clear that the European sports betting community has had a lot of influence over what is happening in the U.S. While mobile sports betting operators like BetRivers (Rush Street Interactive) and PointsBet are home-grown operators, they are out in the market competing against some of Europe’s biggest sports betting conglomerates on U.S. turf.

The influence of top European sports betting operators like 888 Sport, William Hill, Unibet, Entertain, and bet365 is undeniable. In fact, it has proven to be a huge benefit to a U.S. sports betting community that had little to no experience in the mobile/online sports betting space. The Euros were able to come in and show American bookmakers how the mobile/online game needed to be played.

A Look and the Whos and Hows

Over in Europe, the sports betting community has been very competitive for decades. With powerhouse bookmakers like Paddy Power, William Hill, and bet365 lining up to compete, it’s the sports bettors who benefit by having quality sports betting options that come with very competitive bonus offers. It makes sense the U.S. sports betting community would want to create a similar sports betting market.

The following list shows the influence of Europe’s top mobile/online bookmakers either via mergers/acquisitions or direct competition.

1. Entain and MGM Resorts International partnered up to create BetMGM, of of the top online bookmakers in the U.S.

2. In 2021, Caesars Interactive Entertainment purchased William Hill to immediately push the Caesars Sportsbook brand towards the top of the list as a U.S. mobile sports betting operator.

3. In June of 2021, 888 Group inked a deal with Sports Illustrated to bring the 888 Sport online sports betting brand to the U.S. They are currently operating in five states.

4. In 2020, bet365 moved into the New Jersey sports betting community to compete directly with top U.S.-based mobile/online sports betting operators.

5. Unibet took the very same path as bet365 and came to the U.S. to compete directly. They are currently offering sports betting services in New Jersey, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Indiana, and Virginia with more states to come in the future.

6. Maxim and the European gambling conglomerate came together to create MaximBet for the U.S. market. While only operating in Colorado at this time, they are currently looking to expand into Iowa and Indiana.

Could the U.S. sports betting market have grown so fast without help from the Euros? That’s a question that the U.S.-based operators might not want to answer. The fingerprints of European bookmakers are all over the U.S. market.