Mobile sports betting is less than a week away from launching in North Carolina, and the excitement is reaching a fever pitch as sports fans await their chance to bet on their favorite teams… especially with the ever-popular March Madness tournaments coming directly on the heels of the betting launch.
While sports betting at physical retail locations first kicked off in 2019, this is the state’s first rodeo when it comes to the mobile gaming industry. Because more than half the nation has already begun legalized sports betting, fans in North Carolina aren’t entirely in the dark on how the industry will take off, particularly how it will affect fan engagement: here’s a look at what we can expect in the days following the March 11 launch.
Betting Causes Interest…
Something that I think doesn’t get talked about enough with regards to the betting industry is how it’s helped to give oft-maligned sports legitimacy overnight. If you were to fast forward five or six years on social media and go to the comments of any post about golf, soccer, auto racing, video games or, all too often, women’s sports, you were sure to see dozens of toxic comments ridiculing the sport for a lack of legitimacy compared to more physical sports like football.
That doesn’t happen anywhere near as much these days, and while one could chalk it up to the general enlightenment of a society that has become more accepting, I think that the explosion of the sports gambling industry plays a massive role in it as well. With the introduction of BetMGM North Carolina Bonus Codes field wagers on all of those sports, and people will bet on just about anything if they get an opportunity to do so, especially because of the popularity of things like parlays that allow you to wager on a handful of different events and outcomes at once.
Rather than bashing sports that don’t fit exactly with the American ideal of what athletic competition should be like, fans these days are tweeting about how they’ll wake up early to watch women’s basketball leagues in Lithuania, often soccer they’re better prepared to water and win on the outcomes.
It’s a fascinating example of how globalization applies to sports, how our around the clock media connectivity gives us more access than ever before. With the press of a button—and perhaps the help of a streaming service or two—fans can immediately find sports to watch anywhere in the world. It doesn’t matter if it’s 5 a.m. on the east coast, because that just means it’s prime time viewing hours in Japan, Australia and Korea.
…And Interest Drives Betting
As you might expect, people are also more likely to bet on sports that they’re interested in, creating a positive feedback loop as they try their hand at a new betting category—perhaps because of a championship event, a well placed promotion, or because they want to flesh out a parlay with some extra legs.
Betting helps to spark interest in new sports, and as these budding fans continue to get sucked in, they’re more likely to place more bets. Most wagering platforms are pretty good about creating targeted ads, so if you live in North Carolina, you’re going to see promotions for parlays that deal with the Tar Heels, Blue Devils or the Hurricanes. Emailing fans about teams that they have a direct connection to gives these promotions a far better chance of succeeding.
Similarly, betting always sees an uptick when the local teams do well. It’s more fun to bet on a team like the Hurricanes with real championship hopes than it is to bet on a cellar-dweller.
Changing World of Sports
Last but not least, I’m extremely excited to see how the budding esports industry meshes with the world of online gambling. Betting platforms are starting to lobby for esports to be fully included amongst the list of wagers they offer, and the frequency of video games means they could be a betting home run.
NFL players can only play 17 to 20 games a year because of the physical demands of their sport, while top gamers can take part in that many matches—if not more—in a single day’s work, opening the door for thousands of betting opportunities every day between all the ranked competitors in the world.
Video games also have the power of innovation on their side, with new games coming out on an annual basis for some of the top franchises as well as independent studios making it big with a blockbuster title. With constant new options to bet on, it isn’t hard to see why video games could change the betting industry forever… and because anyone can play a game, fans could gain an even greater sense of involvement.