BETTING BILLIONS ON SPORTS

Legal sports betting is spreading across the United States, and by 2025 it's estimated to account for more than $200 billion per year

- DANNY SHERIDAN

SPORTS BETTING

On the morning of September 9, Arizona took its first legal sports bet. Only three months later, it passed the $1 billion mark, faster than any other state had done. It's a record that didn't last long. Last November, New Jersey posted $1.3 billion in sports bets in that month alone. In New York, mobile sports betting became legal on January 9, and the Empire State took in $2.4 billion in its first five weeks, including a quarter of the entire nation's legal mobile Super Bowl bets.

It's a whole new world for legalized sports betting, which has been spreading across the United States like a wildfire since 2018, when the U.S. Supreme Court legalized the practice for any state that wants it. Morgan Stanley recently predicted that $216 billion could be legally wagered annually in the U.S. within three years. By comparison, North American movie box office sales in 2019 were $11 billion.

Thirty states, plus Washington D.C., offer sports wagering, and three others have legalized the practice but have yet to make it operational. California voters will take to the polls in November to consider opening up this potentially lucrative market. It's estimated that within three years, at least 45 states will offer sports betting to their citizens.

Interested in wagering on sports? Don't march in uninformed. The strategies I am sharing here have helped me win for the past 20 years.

THE PERILS OF PARLAYS

No matter the sport, never bet parlays, which are a group of bets that require you to win multiple games for one payout. They are sucker bets, and comprise one-third of a sportsbook's profits. (That's why you'll see offers to try to draw you into parlay bets.) They don't come close to paying true odds.

PRO FOOTBALL

CONSIDER THE DOGS