Comparing Online Betting Markets: USA vs. Europe

According to Zion Research, the global Internet sports betting market gets estimated to hit a size of $54 billion in 2024, and it gets projected to keep growing at a compound annual rate of 10.5% in the next eight years. Per these same experts, most of the worldwide revenues in this sphere will get generated in the US, which is a market that should be responsible for around $24 billion of the total online gambling revenues, with most of these coming from remote sports wagering.

Europe, going by CMI Team, allegedly pulled in $19.5 billion from Internet betting alone in 2023, and it is a region that should keep growing at an annual pace of around 12.3% until 2032 when it should produce a market valuation of $55 billion. So, it goes without saying that these two territories are the world’s prime ones regarding people testing their sports knowledge for monetary prizes. Naturally, Europe is a more diverse and vast market, but the US does not fall dramatically short when it comes to diversity, and here we shall try to explain the difference between these two regions regarding online sports wagering.

Historical Background of Both Markets

Here is something that we are sure that many betting fanatics are not entirely aware of. Online sports wagering in the US was not legal until 2018. Retail sports betting was only allowed in Nevada before this year. In May 2018, the US Supreme Court decided to strike down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, lifting the federal ban on this pastime and allowing states to pass laws that regulate it. New Jersey did this first, and the Garden State was also the initial US region to permit Internet casino gaming in 2013. At the time of writing, thirty-eight US states have allowed this entertainment form to their residents. Plus, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico. By 2025, this number gets expected to surpass forty.

Regarding Europe. Despite having a rich gambling history, the Old Continent has only recently opened up more widely to regulating games of chance and betting over the World Wide Web. While most think that the United Kingdom was the first European nation to legalize online sports betting with its Gambling Act of 2005, which gave way to the birth of the UKGC in 2007, Malta actually regulated Internet gambling since 2001 via its Lotteries and Other Games Act. In 2004, it expanded, attracting various sportsbook operators to operate from this island nation and offer their services over the Web.

Italy was also one of the first to permit online sports betting in Europe, doing this in 2006. Spain did it in 2011, while most other developed nations on this continent did not regulate this type of betting until recently. For example, Germany only expanded its Internet gambling regulation in 2021, the same year the Netherlands did this. So, it is not like Europe has always been super liberal towards people wagering on sports remotely.

Regulatory Framework

On both continents, European countries and US states have their regulators. For example, in New Jersey, all forms of online gambling get licensed and overseen by the NJ Division of Gaming Enforcement. In the UK, as mentioned above, the United Kingdom’s Gambling Commission plays this role, and each region’s regulator has different rules. For instance, in Europe, Sweden’s SGA (Swedish Gambling Authority) does not allow Swedes to bet on rules violations in matches at SGA-regulated sites. That means there are no prop bets from this category on these platforms. Also, the SGA forbids wagering on contests involving participants under eighteen.

For the most part, in Europe, the UKGC sets the regulating trends, and other bodies in other countries copy them. That can get especially seen when it comes to responsible gambling practices. What is interesting about this topic and Europe is that some nations, like Germany, give operators monthly user deposit limits. Hence, in Germany, online gamblers can only put €1,000 in their accounts every month. They cannot place more in their balance above this figure.

In the US, specific regulators restrict various prop wagers on college sports, Colorado being a prime example, and most of the other differences between regulators concern licensing criteria, annual fees, tax rates, consumer protection, and so on. They do not affect the betting markets available or depositing/betting limits.

On the topic of responsible gambling, the UK Gambling Commission is the organization that seems most concerned with keeping bettors out of the red, as they keep adding new measures year after year that aim to keep British online gamblers safe from falling prey to their impulses in the smartphone era. Nonetheless, they focus their measures more on casino players than sportsbook users.

We should note that as far as betting options go, neither US-based nor European ones can compete with internationally licensed hubs like most of the crypto ones we feature on GOSUBETTING, as these can allow a variety of prop wagers and even betting on things like WWE matches due to their regulator’s laxer rules. US-based gambling websites do not allow cryptos. They also mandate social security number (at least the last four digits) disclosure. Few European regulators permit crypto betting, so please remember if you live in Europe and wish to explore coin-based wagering at a site regulated by your national gaming/betting body.

Key Sector Players & Marketing Restrictions

As far as the United States goes, the country’s top fantasy sports operators, FanDuel and DraftKings, have seamlessly moved into the online gambling arena, teaming up with land-based operators in almost all states that permit betting to create retail sportsbook lounges while also using many of these operators’ licenses to function in the Web sphere. However, in the past four years, European juggernauts like Bte365, William Hill, and Flutter Entertainment have looked to make their move in the American market, teaming up with US companies to operate in the US, where BetMGM and Caesars Entertaining are also formidable entities. We should add that companies like William Hill continue to act independently in Europe, and the UK powerhouse dominates the European market, with slight exceptions like the Kindred Group, a Swedish company that operates brands like 32Red and Unibet.

In Europe, sponsorship agreements between sports teams and gambling operators have been a thing since the mid-2000s, even before online gambling was legal in the UK, where Fulham FC first struck such an agreement. Today, they are widespread, and various restrictions on this front have gotten penned for implementation in the next few years in many top football European leagues. US-wise, this is only now becoming a massively explored field, as post-2020, franchises have begun exploiting gambling partnerships.

Right now, Europe seems to have more stringent regulations governing gambling advertising, and these will keep getting tighter in the years to come. Naturally, each nation has its cultural sensitives and corresponding regulations in this department. In the US, high-profile celebrities like Jamie Fox and Ben Affleck are jumping on the chance to participate in sports betting campaigns and rake in that tough.

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