When the US Supreme Court ruled, way back in May 2018, that sports betting should be legalized and left to individual States’ discretion, they opened the floodgates.
The first places to embrace the change were predictable – for example it was New Jersey that pushed most strongly for the change, and it was them that first allowed the activity to take place. Many others soon followed but, surprisingly for the city that is said to never sleep, it wasn’t until early 2022 that New York finally got round to permitting the activity.
When it did, there was considerable anticipation that records were set to be broken in terms of take-up. After all, with 20 million residents, not to mention a very high concentration of sports teams across all of the major leagues, it’s a city of sports fans.
It’s also a very diverse metropolitan area offering specific groups for the four authorized online sportsbooks to target. One of the largest and most significant of these is the Hispanic community.
The Hispanic Community in New York.
In a city that is a genuine melting pot with over 200 different nationalities having settled there, the second largest ethnic grouping consists of Hispanic people who are estimated to comprise around 19% of the population of the city. Predominantly of Puerto Rican extraction, other nationalities heavily represented include Mexican and Dominican.
The Hispanic community is also the fastest growing in the city, something which is reflected across the whole country where it has accounted for 54% of the overall number of new arrivals in the US between 2000 and 2021. The key areas where the highest concentrations of Hispanic residents are found include Corona, East Harlem, South Bronx, and Washington Heights
In New York almost 20% of its Hispanic settlers are educated to college degree level with a good number also achieving a bachelor’s degree too. It’s also a very young community whose median age is just 32 compared with a city-wide average of 38.
Attracted by the opportunities for accommodation and employment offered by the city, this is certainly a vibrant community that is well woven into the social fabric. This also means that there are many sectors that cater for the community’s specific needs, for example businesses importing speciality foods used in Hispanic cuisine and music stores that specialise in Latin music.
With all these features of the population, and the reasonably recent arrival of sports betting in the city, it’s no wonder that the two are increasingly coming together. It’s also unsurprising that today sports betting trends in New York see an increase in betting among the Mexican American community.
Sports betting favourites.
It’s generally agreed that it’s younger generations who have been the first to adopt sports betting, and particularly online sports betting. So, the age profile of the Mexican and wider Hispanic community makes for a natural fit.
When it comes down to the sports that they follow the most ardently, it’s soccer that wins out overall.
Throughout Hispanic countries it’s the sport that is embraced with the greatest passion by far. So sportsbooks have seen huge activity in betting on teams particularly in the leading Mexican league, Liga MX as well as on the city’s own soccer teams including New York City FC and the New York Bulls.
Naturally, last year’s World Cup in Qatar also saw a huge amount of activity in betting with many Latin American and Hispanic teams represented, including the eventual winners Argentina.
There are also a number of Hispanic sports people currently playing in the major leagues which also lead to a great following. Some teams are even well-known for a heritage of including Hispanic players in their line-ups with the Chicago White Sox MLB team being a case in point.
More could be done.
While these are all very positive factors in embracing Hispanic culture as part of sports betting, there’s a feeling in some camps that the sportsbooks could be going further still.
iven that in one survey over 61% of Hispanic respondents expressed an interest in sports betting but hadn’t necessarily participated suggests there is a huge untapped market out there.
By tailoring their sites, or specific sections of them, by using Hispanic languages and their variations stronger connections are certain to be made. And by generally showing a greater understanding of the cultures and heritage of would-be participants more would be certain to take part.
With so much competition between sportsbooks for this very lucrative market it would surely make great sense to go to these extra lengths to reach out. Doing so could easily enable the most visionary of them to enjoy a great commercial advantage. And, for the Hispanic fans of sport, it could provide them with the perfect vehicle through which to bet on their favourite players and teams.
