Sports Betting Boom Drives In-Game Wagering Across U.S.

13 October 2026

Sports-betting traffic is surging as bookmakers expand live coverage to capture more in-game wagers. Operators are enhancing mobile apps with live video, real-time betting options, and personalized promotions to keep users engaged. The fastest-growing segment, in-game betting now makes up a majority of total handle, showing how bookmakers are shifting strategy.

"Why wait? Make a bet while you're watching the big game," a DraftKings app asks. Sportsbooks are adding more in-stream data, such as a 3D tracking service overlaid on a live stream, and real-time bets. Some mobile apps now offer prompts to make in-play bets the moment action starts - Louisiana based bookmaker StarPlay, for instance, has bet builders that pull up automatically within seconds of big plays.

"This has become a key strategy for sportsbooks to get in front of users and influence betting," says Rachel Parker, an analyst who covers gambling at Bernstein Research. "They're shifting the user experience to support an end-to-end live betting flow."

Yet the increasing velocity and accessibility are worrying public-health researchers. They see a correlation between faster online gambling and surging gambling- addiction cases. Emergencies due to gambling disorder more than doubled in Canada after the country legalized and expanded digital sports betting access in 2021.

"You don't have to wait to make a single game-day bet, and anything exposure increases risk of addiction," says Mark Jenkins, executive director of the Problem Gambling Institute. "Pre-tracking was an important brake. Now we're watching to see if a boom in live betting boosts problem gambling."

Industry revenue hit a record high

The rapid growth suggests industry revenue may also hit new heights. US sportsbook operators hit a record revenue of $15.2 billion in 2024, a 14% increase from the previous year's $13.3 billion. Lawmakers and regulators are taking note, potentially speeding up legalization.

However, only some big-name operators like DraftKings and FanDuel are profitable at this scale, so for now, sports betting growth relies on more states legalizing it. Some regulators are delaying new licenses, even in states that legalized several years ago.

More on this is available via casino gaming platforms.

Rules drifting to a US national market

2018 US Supreme Court ruling legalized all forms of sports betting at the state level, to the benefit of sportsbooks. Yet not all states have legalized it, and not all legalized it in the same way: regulators can limit app licenses and post limits on amounts wagered. But the number of states still refusing legal sports gambling is shrinking.

A recent industry report shows fifteen states remain unlicensed and ten more have partial bans and incomplete implementation, mostly in the South and Midwest. One nation-wide ROI for widespread legalization is state tax income.

Sports betting firms contributed $1.7 billion to US states in 2022, nearly 35% from online betting. Sales tax from sportsbooks more than tripled between Q3 2022 to quarter two of 2024, with that year's total reaching $850 million. Projections say legalization could generate as much as $18 billion in state and local taxes each year.

Prediction markets expand as bookmakers compete for online access

Prediction markets are increasingly offering bets on major US sports events, filling gaps created by the patchwork of US sports gambling laws. While access to sportsbook apps is limited in much of the nation, prediction-market agencies are opening their doors to a broader set of consumers.

Platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket have seen growth in volume: for example, the volume of prediction-market bets reached $6.8 billion in 2024. Some markets are more competitive in allowing rival services to join the market. There are more US markets offering prediction contracts for things like election outcomes and even weather events.

For now, sports betting may really be driven by big-name events. Reporting is still limited, and major casinos still dominate the market. "There's still debate about whether they use data from prediction markets effectively," says David Garcia, a public-policy professor at Ohio State University.