The National Hockey League could raise more than $216m (€187m) in annual revenue from legalised sports betting, says a new report from Nielsen.
Of that $216m, the report estimates the NHL could generate $35m in sponsorship revenue and $24m in advertising revenue from betting firms.
Commissioned by the American Gaming Association, the report surveyed more than 1,000 adult sports fans and self-identified sports bettors.
Its aim was to model how a national, legal sports betting market would affect sports consumption among non-bettors, casual bettors and regular bettors, and how this would affect the NHL’s bottom line.
The news comes after a similar report from Nielsen estimated that the National Football League could raise $2.3bn per year from sports betting, including an additional $92m in sponsorship revenue.
In this year’s offseason, the NFL relaxed its rules against gambling associations partnering with clubs.
The move came after a US Supreme Court judgement in May overturned a federal ban on sports betting, granting individual states new powers to legalise sportsbooks.
The AGA estimates that Americans bet $150bn on sports events every year, with the vast majority of those bets placed illegally.