For the first time in US’s Sports betting history, a US state has allowed making legal bets on the Academy Awards aka the Oscars. The Division of Gaming Enforcement has awarded clean chit to retail and online sportsbooks in New Jersey on placing bets, but that only in 2019.
And after the permission was given Sports betting giants such as FanDuel and DraftKings among other sportsbooks wasted no time and added Oscars bets ahead of Sunday’s 91st Academy Awards. Draftkings and Fanduel said that by this move they plan on attracting new bettors who might not be interested in sports. DraftKings Sportsbook Director Johnny Avello told Yahoo Finance YFi PM, “We’ve noticed quite a few new users.” He also added, the betting amount being placed on the Academy Awards is comparatively more that of sports betting.
Avello also added “With ‘Roma’ being favourite at 2 to 5, there are a lot of opportunities out there and our bettors are actually putting their money on those opportunities. Like ‘A Star Is Born’ is actually 40 to 1, Lady Gaga is 17 to 1, Bradley Cooper is 20 to 1, and that’s where we’re seeing the money. Actually ‘A Star Is Born’, the whole move is getting a lot of action in major categories, and why not? That’s the way you should bet it.”
Rummy Pandit, Gaming Expert also made a statement, “You have 25 to 30 million customers that are viewers of the event that takes place once a year. Now what happens is that’s not necessarily the same customer, so this is going to open up a whole new market.”
With New Jersey making Sports Betting legal and that too on Academy Awards, is something new and unheard of. This is uncharted water and we cannot predict what would happen. But if we see the hype and coverage following the Academy Awards, then this is no doubt a great business move. So, let’s see how things turn out.