2018 Could Be The Year Betting On Pro Football Busts Free Of Nevada's Borders

LAS VEGAS, Jan. 30, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- With the pro football championship game scheduled for February 4, sports bettors will soon begin their pilgrimage to the Nevada desert to wager on the biggest single game on the sports calendar.

Covers.com, the industry's foremost expert on sports betting data, has been providing information to sports bettors for more than 20 years and has watched the industry inch out of the shadows and toward legalization. While Covers has a strong audience in Nevada – where sports betting is currently legal – its network of users across the US, demonstrates the demand for nation-wide legalized and regulated sports gaming.

And with a decision pending from the U.S. Supreme Court on New Jersey's case for sports betting, this could be the last time football fans need to travel to the Silver State to bet on the game.

"The pro football finale is a perfect example of the demand for legal sports betting," says Covers senior managing editor Jason Logan. "Sports fans know the teams, know the spread, and many have some form of wager riding on the game."

Added Logan, "That interest and enthusiasm around the odds come through in our site traffic, with 7.6 million football bettors visiting Covers during the season and close to a 1 million coming for insight in the two weeks leading into the championship last year. Seventy percent of those being new users."

Covers.com's free contests see an explosion of new participants during football season and Covers Consensus, which calculates the popular picks for games like the football championship, gets a boost in the ramp up to the title game from nearly 700,000 new sports enthusiasts voicing their opinions and picks. It's exciting to think that this engaged and passionate audience may finally get what they've been asking their home states to provide – legal sports betting – by next February.

The ruling from the Supreme Court isn't expected until June, but with industry analysts projecting a long-fought win for the Garden State, many major stakeholders are strategically getting ahead of the ruling. There are 21 states showing interest in offering sports betting (nearly half already introducing bills with some even working sports betting into their budgets), and William Hill and MGM Resorts have green lit the construction of sportsbooks in New Jersey racetracks and casinos. Even professional sports leagues, like the NBA and MLB, are working with sports gaming lobbyists to insure they will be involved – and compensated – when sports betting is made legal beyond Nevada.

The benefits of legalized nation-wide sports wagering are in the numbers, with Nevada sportsbooks taking in $4.5 billion in gambling handle (total amount of money bet) in 2016, and earning more than $219 million in revenue. Last year's pro football championship brought in a record-breaking $138.5 million in wagers at Silver State sportsbooks, with casino operators winning $10.93 million from New England's remarkable comeback against Atlanta. Projections from industry researchers believe that sports betting, if legalized beyond Nevada, could generate over $6 billion in annual revenue by 2023.

As oddsmakers respond to this growing demand and wagering options increase dramatically, Covers expands its analysis, stats and services to provide information for every bet on the board. Last year, Las Vegas sportsbooks posted nearly 600 different ways to bet the football finale, from the coin flip to which player will score the first touchdown to who will win game MVP. That list could crack 1,000 for February 4.

Covers analysts offer the broadest insights in the industry, from team stats to prop bets. Want to know which team is getting surprise action to win it all this year, or who the Las Vegas sharps have their bankrolls riding on? Covers personalities are some of the most connected insiders in the gaming industry, with their fingers on the global pulse of sports betting.

MEET OUR EXPERT TEAM:

Jason Logan – Senior Managing Editor

Jason Logan is one of the most connected writers in the sports betting industry, with contacts and sources at the biggest books in Nevada, overseas and online. Covers' Senior Managing Editor has been breaking down the betting action since 2005, providing unrivaled insight into the oddsmakers' process as well as first-hand reports from the bookmakers. Jason's informative and always entertaining commentary spans everything from the NFL, college hoops, and the wacky and wonderful world of exotic prop betting.

Twitter: @CoversJLo

Archive: http://www.covers.com/Editorial/Writer/249/Jason%20Logan/Archive

Patrick Everson – Senior Writer Las Vegas

Patrick Everson is Covers' man on the scene, which means he's usually in the middle of the action at the biggest and best sportsbooks in Las Vegas. Patrick not only talks with some of the sharpest bettors and most renowned oddsmakers in town but also profiles you - the average bettor - with his popular "Scenes from Sin City". Who knows? The next time you're visiting a Vegas book, you might just bump into Mr. Everson.

Twitter: @Covers_Vegas

Archive: http://www.covers.com/Editorial/Writer/700/Patrick%20Everson/Archive

Give your game and playoff coverage an edge. Contact Covers.com for odds, insights and expert interviews.

About Covers Media Group:

Covers Media Group is an online publisher, providing sports gaming enthusiasts with valuable news, editorial and analysis as well as accurate and up-to-date scores, odds, matchups and statistics information. The Covers.com property was originally launched in 1995 and continues to be recognized as an industry leader, reaching several million passionate and engaged worldwide users every month. Find Covers on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and YouTube.

Covers is an unrivaled source for sports betting information and will be inside Las Vegas sportsbooks throughout the two-week ramp up to the pro football championship, interviewing the most renowned oddsmakers and sportsbook managers in the industry while providing exclusive insight into the football odds, record betting action, and electric atmosphere around Sin City from kickoff to the final whistle.

Covers is also well known across sports media for its innovative game matchups, live odds for all major and college sports, in-depth betting trends, oddsmaking insight, Las Vegas insiders and action reports straight from the sportsbooks.

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