In his legendary work Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell wrote that films, football, beer, and, above all, gambling filled the horizons of peoples’ minds. While legal betting was rarely allowed globally in 1949, when Orwell’s famed dystopian novel got published, currently, it is. So, some say that his prediction for the future is unfolding, as the worldwide Internet gambling market alone now pulls in annual revenues of $95 billion, growing at a staggering pace.

While wagering activities mostly get associated with older generations, a claim supported by 2019 data from the American Gaming Association that showed that the average US casino gambler is fifty, and a 2020 UKGC poll that posted results stating that half of British gamblers are between the ages forty-five and fifty-four. Today, younger people are getting more into wagering hobbies than ever. Moreover, they are redefining them in multiple ways, something that also applies to sports betting, as Gen Z members and Millennials are displaying an expanding preference to watch athletic contests from home.

Individuals under the age of forty also prefer to check out social media when consuming sports-related content, and they seem to gravitate toward gaming products that present some illusion of control or simulate skill-based wagering.

Per the Pew Research Center, around 50% of people over twenty-one proclaim they have a desire to bet. Therefore, in the two subheadings that follow, we seek to present the inclinations that Millennial and Gen Z gamblers primarily show.

What Do Millennials Want?

The marketing research and consultancy firm KS&R, based out of Syracuse, New York, recently released a report on the Rise of Digital Gamblers in the US. It polled three thousand and seven hundred American gamblers, with 75% of these being male bettors and 42% categorized as Millennials. It stated that Millennials are more likely than any other group to wager on combat sports, boxing, and MMA, and most of them partake in this hobby casually.

ProQuest, the Michigan technology and informational-content publishing company, ran its detailed survey on this topic, and it returned data that showed that Millennials are the core demographic for mobile gambling. And they chiefly prefer table games in Internet casino lobbies. Most also believe that wagering on political events and entertainment awards appeals very much to this crowd. At least, that is what the top betting sites UK platforms serve up to users from this demographic with great success in Britain. That is likely so because they follow political goings-on more than their younger counterparts and are much more emotionally vested in them.

What Do Gen Z Members Fancy?

Going by what we know from various pools, Gen Z fans crave social interaction. As noted above, this is why they surf the Web while watching sporting events. They want to engage with others and see what others are thinking. Unlike Millennials, they seem to be less engrossed in their sports fandom and are more likely to participate in fantasy leagues and eSports wagering. Gen Z individuals are also more likely to explore crypto betting.

From the sporting arena, they usually get drawn to football and basketball wagering, showing a far greater propensity to bet on NBA games than Millennials for some reason. Furthermore, Whistle Wise data states that they wager like no generation before them and sometimes laid down money on games they would not even watch if they did not have something riding on them. That clearly outlines that they see this activity more as a money-making opportunity than something that will complement their sports viewing experience, boosting the level of thrills it can deliver.