PlayUSA Projection: $20 Million Will Be Bet On The Super Bowl In Michigan

The biggest game of the American sports betting calendar will draw $20 million in wagers this weekend in Michigan, according to PlayUSA.

Our sister website made Super Bowl LV projections last week, noting more than $500 million will be wagered on Tampa Bay against Kansas City on Sunday night.

But it wasn’t an easy projection to make, said analyst Eric Ramsey, who helped run the numbers for the PlayUSA network, of which Playinmichigan is a part.

“Of the 20 states on the list, Michigan was arguably the most difficult to project,” Ramsey said. “We tried to be fairly conservative with our projection since we don’t have a very good measuring stick for Michigan yet.”

Reasons why Michigan is tough to project

Michigan online sports betting is new, launching on Jan. 22.

In fact, this is the first Super Bowl that Michiganders can legally wager on, as retail sports betting launched on March 11 of last year.

Even the retail markets don’t provide a base of comparisons, Ramsey said.

“Not only is this its first year with legal Super Bowl betting, but it arrives at a time when the market is entirely in flux,” he said. “Remember, the most recent set of official data from December only includes limited operations at brick-and-mortar sportsbooks.”

Indeed, Michigan sports bettors wagered more than $9 million sports bets in Detroit in a one-week span at the end of December after the three downtown casinos reopened.

To say that only about double that will be bet on Sunday is conservative for the first time you can bet on the Super Bowl in Michigan.

“The launch of online sports betting creates an entirely new trajectory on its own, let alone when it coincides with the biggest betting event of the year,” Ramsey said.

Legal Super Bowl LV bets will break national records

Michigan is not the only new market with sports betting, as 20 states, plus the District of Columbia, are now in play legally for Sunday’s game.

That’s up from 14 states last year, eight in 2019 and just Nevada prior to 2018.

“With the expansion of legal sports betting over the last year, both in terms of new markets and growth within existing markets, a historic weekend is inevitable,” said Playinmichigan’s lead analyst Dustin Gouker. “Half a billion dollars or more bet on one game seems almost unfathomable, but considering the direction of the US market, that handle is easily within reach.”

Nevada is expected to lead Super Bowl betting this year, as PlayUSA projects $125 million in wagers. New Jersey comes in second with $75 million, Illinois third with $60 million, Pennsylvania fourth with $55 million, and Indiana fifth with $45 million.

Eleven sports betting operators in Michigan

With Friday’s launch of Fox Bet, Michigan residents now have 11 operators to choose from, in addition to a handful of retail casinos. The online operators are:

• Barstool
• BetMGM
• BetRivers
• DraftKings
• FanDuel
• Fox Bet
• Golden Nugget
• PointsBet
• TwinSpires
• William Hill
• WynnBet

In Michigan, Playinmichigan projects $8 billion wagered annually in a mature sports betting market. We believe Michigan will be a top-five market soon after last month’s launch in wagers and revenue.

Several promotions, odds boosts and other extras will be built around the Super Bowl.

We’ll have you covered about those throughout the week, so keep an eye out for those.