The US sports betting market is moving towards "full openness", with many online sports betting platforms emerging. In addition to the most popular in recent years, DraftKings and FanDuel, what other platforms are well-known or have high download numbers? Let's find out through the rankings of related betting apps.
Sports Betting App Popularity Poll in the US, These Two Platforms Continue to Take the Top Two Spots
In recent years, rising to prominence, the two major sports betting apps, DraftKings and FanDuel, have consistently ranked first or second in popularity over several quarters. Although both started with fantasy sports, their transformation into betting companies coincided with the legalization of gambling in the US. Their precise strategies, including partnerships with major sports events and sponsorships, as well as alliances with sports broadcasters, have allowed these two companies to quickly dominate the US sports betting market share.
Civic Science conducted a survey on the popularity of sports betting apps, analyzing nearly 7,000 US citizens nationwide. The top two in popularity were DraftKings and FanDuel, recognized by 41% and 38% of adults over 21, respectively. FOX BET, which crossed from media to sports betting, reached 25%, ranking fourth. The sixth place is the online betting platform Point Bet. Notably, the third and fifth places are supported by Barstool Sportbook and Bet Rivers, both of which are gambling enterprises that have crossed from operating physical casinos to the online sports betting market.
US Sports Betting Platform App Rankings: This Brand is Hot, Backed by Strong Ownership
Barstool Sportbook, with a 27% popularity, ranked third. The Barstool Sportbook betting app was launched in September last year and quickly gained high recognition, proving that a new brand can still immediately find its position and win popularity. However, some question this data, as it might be confused with the group's sports betting blog platform, Barstool Sports, rather than Barstool Sportbook. Nevertheless, the US top 200 mobile app rankings for the last quarter of last year confirmed Barstool Sportbook's high visibility.
The US mobile app rankings for the last quarter of last year included eight sports betting apps in the top 200, with DraftKings and FanDuel strongly occupying the top spots, ranking ninth and tenth, respectively, making them the strongest in sports betting app rankings. Although BetMGM, developed in collaboration with MGM and Entain, did not rank in popularity, its high download number at 35th place proves that BetMGM is indeed popular. The fourth place is the aforementioned Barstool Sportbook, thus confirming the reliability of the sports betting app popularity survey.
Barstool Strongly Dominates Sports Betting App Rankings, Backed by Penn National Gaming
Founded in 2003, Barstool started as a print publication in Boston, offering gambling ads and fantasy sports columns, and launched on the internet in 2007, becoming a blog and online media. In April 2014, Barstool Sports partnered with AOL to produce exclusive content. In January 2016, it was acquired by The Chernin Group, after which Barstool was restructured. Subsequently, through financing and other operations, it continued to expand and cultivate its scale in sports betting blogs, podcasts, and broadcasting media.
Barstool Sports officially became a real betting company in 2020. On January 29 last year, Penn National Gaming announced the acquisition of a 36% stake in Barstool Sports for $163 million, including $135 million in cash and $28 million in stock. Penn National Gaming also obtained preferential subscription warrants, allowing it to increase its shareholding to 50% within three years of the agreement.
Penn National Gaming, a veteran operator and supplier of physical casinos in the US, manages and owns 41 properties in 19 states, with a total revenue of $5.3 billion in 2019. Through this transaction, Penn National Gaming also officially became an online gambling operator. After acquiring Barstool Sports, it quickly launched online applications and mobile betting apps, namely the highly popular and rapidly rising "Barstool Sportbook".
Physical Casinos Well-Known, Bet Rivers' Move to Online Market Promising
The rapidly rising popularity of the sports betting app platform is the result of a collaboration between two gambling companies. Founded in 2008 in the American Midwest, Rivers Casino has two major shareholders: Churchill Downs, a large US horse racing and sports betting operator, holding 62% of the shares, and the private gambling company Rush Street Gaming holding 38% of the shares.
After Rivers Casino moved from physical betting to online betting, it launched the mobile sports betting app named Bet Rivers. Due to the casino's own fame and many sports sponsorships, Bet Rivers' popularity has opened up, but judging from the app download volume, it has not yet broken into the top 200, showing that Bet Rivers' current popularity has soared to fifth place, but has not yet converted into actual customers. However, with the successful example of Barstool Sportbook, which also transitioned from physical to online sports betting, the prospects for Bet Rivers are still viewed positively by the outside world.
