There will be 19.0 million online sports bettors in the US this year. That's 7.9% of adult US internet users and a 31.0% increase over 2021.

The Explosion of Online Sports Gambling. Online sports betting's recent surge in popularity could steal speculative investors’ attention from trading platforms. It was legalized in 10 additional states (bringing the total to 30) in 2021 and has proved popular so far in 2022.

The legalization of sports gambling in more than 20 US states has opened new business opportunities, and potential pitfalls, for broadcasters and streaming services that seek to tie in betting content, such as fantasy leagues, with live broadcasts—or at least market separately to the sports viewing and gambling audiences.

The return of live sports produced a flurry of licensing activity from broadcast networks and streaming services—including digital video, social, and ecommerce platforms. It also reignited concerns about the sustainability of pricing models for sports video and TV.

Amazon is also moving more aggressively than its digital counterparts in sports licensing. While Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube all partner with major US sports leagues, they have mostly pivoted to sports-related nongame content, while Amazon has doubled down on full-game streams.

For example, if you like gambling, you can buy a tokenized stock based on how many points a soccer team is going to score. That's not a practical example of what can be done, but it's an imaginative one. If you can tie a number based on a sports score to an asset, then you can really do all sorts of incredible things. I'll give you another example, which I love: automated leverage.