36% of Sports Bettors Cite Twitter as Their No. 1 Information Source

The kickoff of the National Football League season—the Buffalo Bills visit the Super Bowl 56 champion Los Angeles Rams Thursday night—is a signature moment for the sports betting community, and much of their conversation about all things NFL and other leagues will take place on Twitter. The social network shared data from studies it conducted in 2021 and this year, defining sports bettors as people 18 or older in the U.S. who have bet on sports in the past 12 months, live in a state where sports betting is legal and use at least one other social platform besides Twitter. Twitter director of media and entertainment Mike Dupree said in a statement, "Twitter has long been called the world’s largest sports bar—the place where people all over the world come to talk about sports. Now it’s also becoming the world’s largest sportsbook—not in terms of taking wagers, but where people come to talk about the action and follow their bets. Through research we've done, we're seeing that the timeline attracts a premium sports betting audience that is growing and has a direct influence on their betting decisions. In fact, we've already seen more people tweet about sports betting in 2022 than we did all last year, and the NFL season has yet to kick off.” Twitter said seven out of 10 sports bettors turn to its platform for betting needs, drama, memes and predictions, adding, “The volume of bettor-focused content and the quality of tweets have drastically increased over the past few years as many states legalized the betting and it was no longer seen as taboo.” The company’s research found that Twitter was the No. 1 source among sports bettors (36%) for keeping up to date with information such as injury reports/updates, Las Vegas odds lineups, opinions/predictions from sports influencers, team statistics/records and other sports-related news. In addition, 72% of sports bettors check Twitter to follow the status of their live bets once they have been placed. The research showed that sports bettors on Twitter spend 15% more on bets per year compared with those on other platforms, and 62% of them place wagers weekly, more frequent than those on other platforms. The social network added that 33% of sports bettors on Twitter indicated that they would not place as many bets if not for the platform. FOMO lives on Twitter, as 65% of bettors on the platform said they are more motivated to place bets on big events that are being discussed on the platform. And 51% of sports bettors on Twitter are relatively new to the game—or games, as it may be—having begun betting on sports within the past two years. All of those sports bettors are placing their wagers somewhere, and Twitter said sportsbooks are beginning to function like media outlets and incorporating Twitter into their growth strategy, posting content including breaking sports news, memes and parlay promotions. For example, talent from BetMGM host Twitter Spaces and post content related to futures on the @BetMGM account every Friday. And in addition to its main Twitter handle, DraftKings shares futures and point spreads via @WhatsTheLine, and it marked its debut in Kansas with an out-of-home campaign in which tweets were featured on billboards in the state. https://twitter.com/DKSportsbook/status/1565089590838378498 DraftKings chief marketing officer Stephanie Sherman said in a statement, “Countless sports fans and bettors are avidly researching and interacting in real-time on Twitter, which underscores the platform’s effectiveness for customer growth and retention strategies at DraftKings. In addition to maintaining a strong brand voice on Twitter and engaging with fans organically, we’ve also seen impressive performance across all of our core metrics. This success has fueled DraftKings to explore and develop more custom programs like #PeoplesParlay and @WhatsTheLine to deepen our connection with sports bettors. The customer response has been positive and encouraging as we look to build further momentum heading into the NFL season kickoff.”

Sports Marketing News

36% of Sports Bettors Cite Twitter as Their No. 1 Information Source

The social network shared its analysis of U.S. adults who have placed wagers on sports in the past 12 months and live in states where it is legal

David Cohen

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David Cohen