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Every year, the Super Bowl attracts millions of viewers — and billions in bets.
For online gaming operators, it’s the busiest and most lucrative day of the year. But with this surge in activity comes a darker side: 91% of first-party fraud offenders place Super Bowl-related wagers, making it the peak season for fraudulent activity in sports betting. Of those, 92% were actively committing fraud during the 2024 Super Bowl, while only 8% had stopped their fraudulent activities.
With 1 in 10 Americans admitting to disputing losing bets on sports sites and an average disputed bet of $109, the math reveals the scale of the problem. Assuming a U.S. population of approximately 250 million adults, that’s 25 million individuals. Multiply that by $109 per dispute, and the result is a staggering $2.8 billion in potential annual losses for the online gaming industry.
Based on a survey of 2,000 U.S. consumers conducted in December 2024, the report explores how high-profile events like the Super Bowl amplify fraud, the tactics fraudsters use, and how it impacts online gaming operators..
Bet Big, Cheat Bigger
First-party fraud is defined as “the use of one’s own identity to commit a dishonest act for personal or financial gain.” In the context of online gaming, this often looks like bettors exploiting their own accounts or identities to dispute losses, manipulate payouts, or bypass restrictions.
The Super Bowl is the peak season for online gaming first-party fraud, with risky transactions jumping more than 206% on Super Bowl Sunday last year, compared to average volume of NFL playoff games.
The Socure Risk Insights Report found that, during the Super Bowl, first-party fraudsters use a wide-range of tactics to commit first-party fraud, including:
Falsifying account hacking claims: 26% of fraudsters report their accounts were “hacked” to dispute losing bets.
Coordinated payout manipulations: 28% work with others to skew results or boost payouts unfairly.
Using software or secondary accounts: 26% bypass restrictions by using alternate accounts or specialized apps to keep betting.
Furthermore, remorse is not an issue: 1 in every 3 consumers say it’s easy to get away with fraudulent claims on sports betting apps (37%).
While these tactics might seem like isolated incidents, they add up quickly. The report found that over 56% of disputed bets are under $100, and 31% are less than $50, proving that small, frequent scams can lead to significant financial strain for online gaming operators. In fact, between 2022 and 2023, fraud losses for mobile casinos and betting platforms totaled $1.2 billion.
But first-party fraud doesn’t stop at financial losses.
First-party fraud in online gaming also undermines the trust that keeps legitimate users engaged, forcing operators to adopt stricter policies which can frustrate honest bettors. Needless to say, especially during headline events like the Super Bowl, unresolved disputes can harm an operator’s credibility just as much as its bottom line.
As the Head of Product Management, Ori Snir leads a global team of product managers that define, build, and deliver inclusive fraud and identity verification solutions at scale using machine learning, Generative AI, and a deep understanding of the financial services and consumer privacy regulatory landscape. Ori and his team are responsible for Socure's go-to-market, sales enablement, and data acquisition strategy for a broad set of products focused on fraud detection and identity verification across the consumer lifecycle, from onboarding to transaction monitoring.
