Yahoo Finance Oscars betting just got added to U.S. sportsbooks for first time in history
For the first time in America’s short-lived legal betting history, people interested in placing bets on Oscar winners will be able to thanks to sportsbooks adding the option at their betting operations in New Jersey.
Sports betting giants FanDuel and DraftKings were among the dozen of books adding Oscars bets ahead of Sunday’s 91st Academy Awards. Both companies cited attracting new bettors who might not be interested in sports as a main reason for the move.
“We’ve noticed quite a few new users,” DraftKings Sportsbook Director Johnny Avello told Yahoo Finance YFi PM, adding that the dollar amounts being placed also exceeded expectations. “It’s surprisingly more than I thought.”
Similar motives were in mind at FanDuel, according to spokesperson Emily Bass.
“Oscar betting gives us access to a new market and allows us to reach a demographic that we haven’t before while continuing to entertain sports fans,” she said.
One key demographic that may be at play is women. Among the new signups around the Oscars, Avello noted women were signing up at DraftKings in higher than usual numbers. “Maybe women are not so interested in betting on sports, but they are for this particular event,” he said.
More entertainment wagers
Many of the companies offering bets on the Academy Awards, however, are capping the dollar wagers that can be placed. That generally happens with bets that might be susceptible to insider knowledge, including Super Bowl prop bets, or bets that carry higher odds that might result in larger payout liability. Bass, however, gave another reason for FanDuel’s wager limits.
“The limits and bet sizes are smaller than your average sporting event to make this extremely approachable for the everyday consumer,” she said.
Nonetheless, the new offerings represent a step in offering more betting opportunities outside of just sports. And based on the early Oscars betting success, Avello hinted more entertainment wagers could be coming to DraftKings’ New Jersey sportsbook in the future.
“When you want to do something, you have to submit it to the Gaming Enforcement of New Jersey and hopefully you get approval and that’s exactly what we did with this,” he said, adding that a similar process could be followed for other award shows later this year.
“And then, of course, there’s always those shows like ‘American Idol’ or ‘Dancing with the Stars’ that could be possibilities, but we’ll see.”
Earlier this week, YFi PM interviewed a Harvard grad whose mathematic model predicted 20 out of 21 Oscar winners correctly last year. Here are his Oscar picks for this year’s Oscars.
Zack Guzman is the host of YFi PM as well as a senior writer and on-air reporter covering entrepreneurship, startups, and breaking news at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter @zGuz.
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