• by Wayne Friedman , February 18, 2022

Legalized sports wagering and advertising rose to new heights around the NFL playoffs and the Super Bowl this season.

National TV advertising rose more than fourfold from January 1-February 12 to $66.7 million, from $14.5 million over the same period a year ago, according to iSpot.tv.Local TV advertising added another 30% to 35% of spend.

Top four sports wagering advertisers in total TV advertising include Caesars Entertainment ($43.0 million), DraftKings ($21.9 million), BetMGM ($15.8 million) and FanDuel ($5.6 million). That totaled $88.7 million.

With just around 30 U.S. states now legalizing sport wagering -- and 18 allowing online sport betting -- TV media buys grew 78% to 3.96 billion impressions this year over last year. Of those impressions, 38% were from local TV advertising, and 58% from national live program plus same-day time shifted viewing advertising.

Akamai estimates that gambling traffic for the full five-week window -- which includes all NFL playoff games -- was up 14% over 2021. Gambling activity on the days of the playoff games took place grew 20%.

The American Gaming Association estimated $7.6 billion to be wagered on the Super Bowl -- with a record 31.4 million who planned to bet on the game.

On Super Bowl day, February 13, gambling traffic reached its highest point at 9 a.m. ET -- up to 549% more traffic than average.