Analysts at Macquarie said the outcome of the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight was a positive for sportsbooks.
The boxing match, which was one of most anticipated US betting events in recent months, helped keep online sports betting momentum alive during the quarter, the analysts argued.
This, they said, came on top of several primetime NFL games that saw above average hold of 10% for the week of 11 to 17 November.
The analysts said: “Following three above-average hold weeks in a row (not including this week), we now estimate 4Q market hold will be near the normalised average of 9% (+50bps YoY).”
The Netflix-streamed match reportedly saw 108 million viewers worldwide, including 38 million concurrent streams in the US, but was plagued with technical difficulties.
YouTuber Paul, aged 27, eventually was declared the winner of the eight-round fight against his 58-year-old opponent by unanimous decision.
Macquarie’s assessment was echoed by analysts at JMP Securities who argued the Tyson-Paul fight ended up being considerably more impactful compared to its initial expectations.
They added this resulted in a “nice tailwind” for handle across the industry, with sportsbooks seeing betting volume on par to a Monday night or Playoff football game.
The day of the event on Friday (15 November) also saw the highest downloads rate since the February Super Bowl, said the analysts.
JMP argued this highlighted the customer acquisition throughout the industry and will allow for future cross-sell opportunities with new players in the database.
Paul, who has himself co-founded a betting app called Betr with SimpleBet’s Joey Levy, was reportedly paid $40m for the fight.
While reportedly boasting a strong social media following, the microbetting-focused sportsbook has struggled to make a dent in the competitive US betting market.