NFL Week 16 Betting Activity Slumps, Says Morgan Stanley

Week 16 NFL betting activity declined significantly relative to the prior quartet weeks, transmittable sportsbook operators and some marketplace observers past surprise.

GeoComply sports betting information aggregated by Sir Henry Morgan Sir Henry Morton Stanley indicates year-over-year ontogenesis in NFL palm was just now 58 percent. Growth is good, but the Week 16 fig compares with upticks of 100 percent, 107 percent, 96 percent, and 80 percent, respectively, in Weeks 12 through and through 15.

December tot games played in major US leagues has been scheduled to prove 119 percent year-over-year, and more games should continue to reenforcement warm hebdomadal intensity maturation through January, blackball omicron-driven cancellations,” says Lewis Henry Morgan Stanley analyst Thomas the doubting Apostle Allen inwards a promissory note to clients.

News of the Week 16 lethargy comes as shares of sportsbook operators are limping into year-end after beingness drubbed o'er the course of study of this NFL season.

Excuses Galore

There’s no shortage of excuses and theories regarding why NFL betting activity retreated cobbler's last week, including Xmas falling on a Saturday.

Some market observers and wagering experts are speculating that bettors took a stone's throw rearward from the NFL because the coronavirus is forcing a slew of players, including starters and, inward some cases, Pro Bowl-level players, to misfire games. Players missing games — in some cases on little acknowledge — is seen as a deterrent to sharp and recreational bettors alike. Professional bettors look to avoid the heightened variance that comes with to a greater extent second-string players participating in a game, while ordinary bicycle bettors mightiness follow inclined to avoid games missing principal power.

Potentially compounding those woes for some operators, particularly DraftKings and FanDuel, are rumors that marquise NFL players missing games because of contracting COVID-19, or because of the league’s health and refuge protocols, is leading to declining participation in day-to-day phantasy sports (DFS).

Situation Could Linger

In a criterion operating environment, the 4th canton should be a geological period of heightened activity for sportsbook operators, as the NFL playoff race tightens and the NBA and college basketball seasons inwards full swing.

However, nearly II years into the coronavirus pandemic, the current province of affairs for leagues and sportsbook operators is anything but normal. Some of the too soon flavor betting enthusiasm is clearly gone, thanks inward large piece to COVID-19.

On Monday, 96 NFL players tried and true prescribed for the virus, and 106 were added to the league’s reserve/COVID-19 name – both records.

Further thwarting sportsbooks and bettors, the NHL has suffered through postponed games. College basketball games are also often canceled or postponed, NBA stars are missing games because of that league’s protocols and, so far, IV college pipe bowl games were canceled because of the pandemic.

All of that is relevant to sportsbook operators, because football and hoops are the II most wagered-on sports in the US.