On Sunday, the sports betting geolocation firm GeoComply reported a 22.3% year-over-year increase in geolocation checks during Super Bowl weekend in 28 states (as well as Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C.) where it collects data.
“The continued transition to the legal market set the stage for a historic first Super Bowl in Las Vegas, and the record-breaking results we saw did not disappoint,” Anna Sainsbury, CEO and co-founder of GeoComply, said in a press release. “Every year the legal market grows is good news for consumers and states and bad news for illegal offshore sportsbooks that become marginalized.”
With the Kansas City Chiefs playing in their fourth Super Bowl in five years, GeoComply’s data again told a “tale of two Kansas Cities,” illuminating the difference between a pair of border states — Kansas and Missouri — and their varied approaches to sports betting. A real-time pin drop map showed numerous successful logins to sports betting apps in Kansas, where such gaming is legal, along with several unsuccessful attempts in Missouri, which has no legal market.
Newly legal markets crucial to surge
Since the start of the 2023-2024 NFL season, GeoComply’s customers added more than 13.7 million new accounts — up 28% from the prior season. More than 1.77 million of these bettors signed up in the two weeks leading up to the Super Bowl.
Shortly before kickoff Sunday, GeoComply recorded nearly 1.5 million transactions per second (TPS), which is the highest TPS ever recorded and nearly double last year’s Super Bowl peak.
Part of the explanation for the surge in activity can be attributed to newly regulated betting markets in Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Puerto Rico. geoComply’s data did not include wagering in Florida, a large and relatively new legal market where Hard Rock Bet has a monopoly on mobile sports betting.