The race is on for sports betting SEO in USA

On May 18th 2018 the US Supreme Court upheld a legal challenge from the State of New Jersey and struck down a nationwide ban on sports betting that had been in place in the USA for 26 years. This, it can be assumed will be the start of a tidal wave of online bookmakers and gambling companies vying for this most lucrative of markets.

The US Gambling market and UK online bookmakers

Already in America the Sports betting market is estimated to be worth $150bn in illegally placed bets already an eye-watering amount. It's also predicted, with the legalising of the US sports betting market, 100,000 jobs could be created and huge tax revenues accrued.

The opportunities for a major online player to enter the market are therefore vast, and British companies are some of the most digitally established and best placed to take advantage of this new legislation. This was reflected in share price rises since the announcement:

UK Bookmaker Gambling Firm Share increased immediately after the announcement:

• 888 Shares increased 15% (already operates a poker network in 3 states)
• Paddy Power Betfair shares increased 12.2% (have a foothold online and in several states)
• William Hill shares increased 10.7% (online presence)
• GVC / Ladbrokes shares increased 7.6%
• Playtech shares increased 3% (software provider)

The market obviously sees these major UK firms being well placed for profit but....

Who is best placed in SEO for US sports betting?

Using sample data from Pi Datametrics SEO Platform we have been tracking selected sports groups in Google.com and Google US Mobile and we can see who is best placed in SEO to succeed in America.

Chart 1 - All Sports: Search Position Breakdown of Top10 SEO Performers for Google.com and Google US Mobile

USA Sports Betting SEO

In the above chart we see the two affiliate powerhouses of Oddschecker (UK) and Oddshark dominate the market with the most returning URLs in positions 1-3. However, Betfair has the most returning URLs for the terms selected, by appearing in the top100 72% of the time. Other UK based sports gambling sites appear too with PaddyPower, Skybet and WilliamHill joined by Sportsbet's Australian site.

Will Oddschecker dominate SEO in the US?

Oddschecker is a major UK based affiliate. It's prominence has ultimately come about over the last 10 years through fantastic performance in sports betting SEO. Search anything such as sports odds, or special odds and it seems to dominate the natural search landscape. It makes it's money from affiliate linking associated with most of the major UK players. It's brilliant at what it does, and has been superb for a long time.

Oddschecker USA SEO sports betting

Chart 2 - Oddschecker US Sports gambling SEO breakdown

Oddschecker SEO market share US

As we see with Oddschecker they are pretty dominant in sports that lend themselves to UK based betting such as Cricket and 'Soccer'

When we remove the European based sports, and stick with the major US sport there is a totally different picture....

Chart 4 - US Sports Search Position Breakdown of Top10 SEO Performers for Google.com and Google US Mobile

The chart above shows that when we just focus on the major US sports, NHL, NBA and NFL, then Oddshark totally dominates, performing in position 1-3 for over 50% of the search terms within the space. With the new focus on US sports, no major UK based providers are present in the top10. (Betfair actually comes in at position 18 in our database).

Who is Oddshark?

Similar to Oddschecker, Oddshark is an affiliate site, but with phenomenal content and a database full of US sports betting stats and analysis. They too dominate the space and are the benchmark for UK sports betting firms to emulate if they want to succeed in organic search in the US.

If you want to see more gambling data (beyond this sample group), get in touch, we have lots.
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