Geolocation compliance technology specialist GeoComply has elaborated on a “bad weekend for illegal bookies,” as the firm documents developments which it says signals that “consumers favour the regulated US industry”.
According to data from GeoComply, this year’s NFL Conference Championship weekend saw more than 30 million geolocation transactions recorded in 17 US online betting states (including the District of Columbia), an increase of 260 per cent over the same weekend in 2020.
As two new states, Michigan and Virginia, launched legal operations in time for the weekend’s games, those markets alone produced 7.5 million transactions from over 400,000 accounts, making up 25 per cent of overall market volume.
The addition of Michigan and Virginia helped drive all-time high transactions in a weekend that featured a heavy sporting event schedule.
“Hundreds of thousands of people in Michigan and Virginia placed legal online bets for the first time this past weekend,” said Seth Palansky, Conscious Gaming’s vice president of corporate social responsibility.
“This demonstrates that Americans will abandon illegal websites and the street corner bookie to place their trust in companies that are accountable, provide robust consumer protections and responsible gaming measures.”
Legal online betting is now available to 70 million adults in 17 states and provides responsible gaming measures, consumer protections and tax revenues, with seven more states boasting access than at this point one year ago.
Subsequently, the firm asserts that this in turn means that revenues that were once channelled to the illegal market are now staying in the communities where these bettors live, benefiting state governments and taxpayers and creating economic growth.
GeoComply, though its independent non-profit Conscious Gaming, maintains a commitment to technological innovations that protect consumers, strengthen responsible gaming programs and make self exclusion programs effective and universal.
Entain and BetMGM have become the first operators in the industry to commit to utilising the PlayPause tool, while the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board was named the first state regulator to deploy it.
“As the industry grows, it is important for it to remain firmly committed to protecting problem bettors and putting additional processes in place to ensure the growth can be managed effectively and responsibly,” added Palansky.
