The presence of bookmakers transcends the borders of stadiums and team shirts, now extending to the vast world of online searches, especially on Google.
Over the past ten years, interest in the term “sports betting” has witnessed a notable increase, as indicated by Google Trends data, which reveals a 14 times growth in its popularity.
This tool analyzes search for terms based on search volume over a specific period.
The Ahrefs platform recorded more than 1.6 billion hits on betting sites between September 2015 and 2023. Thus, covering the eight main brands.
The boom in demand for betting was driven, for the most part, by the legalization of the market in Brazil in 2018. This resulted in a significant increase in advertising related to the topic.
Since then, sporting events of global magnitude, such as the World Cup, have attracted a new wave of enthusiasts to the betting market.
Interest over time
Google Trends ranks the popularity of a search term on a scale of 0 to 100. So, based on its search over time. Between January 2015 and 2024, the peak of searches occurred in September of last year.
Thus, coinciding with the approval of the sports betting bill in the Chamber.
Another notable spike in the search for the term “sports betting” was recorded in November 2022, during the World Cup and Elections.
Marcelo Mattoso, partner at Barcellos Tucunduva Advogados and specialist in the gaming market and technology, stated that Brazilians’ interest in betting is rooted in culture.
“Brazil already has a culture of using this betting market, we’ve had the Jogo do Bicho game since the 1920s. I think that with the spread and digitalization of the markets it really helped the explosion it had.”
Mattoso attributes the recent explosion in interest in betting to the spread and digitalization of these markets. Furthermore, it emphasizes that bookmaker sponsorship of teams and increased advertising played a crucial role in the betting boom.
Large sporting events, such as the World Cup, have especially attracted new users to betting houses, further boosting demand.
Mattoso anticipates that market regulation will result in a significant increase in interest in the search term this year.
He predicts that the start of the Brazilian Championship, combined with companies’ marketing strategies, will contribute to this growth.
The main sports betting platforms
Among the main betting platforms, Bet365 leads the ranking with 806.4 million hits between September 2015 and 2023, according to data from Ahrefs. In second place is Betano, with 422.9 million hits.
Brazilian platforms, such as Pixbet and Esportes da Sorte, which sponsor major national teams, are also present on the list.
However, it is important to mention that Blaze, despite its significant number of hits, faced problems related to payments to bettors.
However, this scenario may change in Brazil from now on with market regulation.
