Random Image Display on Page Reload

Taylor Swift Triggered a Tsunami of Sports Bets. Then She Stopped Turning Up

Jan 25, 2025 6:00 AM

Taylor Swift Triggered a Tsunami of Sports Bets. Then She Stopped Turning Up

The singer generated millions in prop bets for the Kansas City Chiefs just by showing up to watch her boyfriend play. Now that she’s busy, gamblers are losing interest.

KANSAS CITY MISSOURI JANUARY 18 Singersongwriter Taylor Swift looks on during the first half in the AFC Divisional...
Photograph: Jamie Squire/Getty Images

When Taylor Swift started dating Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs in September 2023, sports betting fans were less than enthused.

Robert Cooper, BetOnline.ag sportsbook director, remembers the reaction from pitching early Swift-themed prop bets, novelty wagers that don’t affect a game’s outcome or take place outside the game entirely, to football media. “Don't send me this S-H-I-T,” he recalls them saying. “Send me football top 10 [betting odds] and that's it.”

But Swift’s appearances at Chiefs games over the next several months generated an estimated $331.5 million in brand value for the team and the NFL. She was credited with ratcheting up viewership ratings, particularly among women, in the 2023-24 NFL season, and spurring a flood of press coverage and merchandise sales in the process. By the time the Chiefs faced the San Francisco 49ers in the 2024 Super Bowl, there was another love story at play. Swift had been mainstreamed in the multibillion-dollar sports betting industry, was mentioned on betting podcasts, integrated into sportsbook social media promotions, and inspired prop bets on which millions of dollars have since been wagered worldwide.

The way the sports betting industry has leveraged Swift’s fame is indicative of a larger reframing of the public’s relationship with online gambling. By extending it beyond the world of sports and tying prop bets and social media promotions into larger news cycles, companies like FanDuel and DraftKings can attract new audiences from not just Swifties but a wide range of fandoms.

BetMGM memorably announced that the “Taylor Swift effect” led to a 51 percent increase in women betting. (The company didn’t share the betting figures that this increase is based on, or respond to questions from WIRED.)

That spike could be attributed at least in part to Swifties being able to wager on the Super Bowl using prepackaged sets named after their favorite Taylor Swift song titles. Other Swiftie prop bets were even more populist. BetOnline.ag offered bettors 89 Taylor Swift–themed prop bets for last year’s Super Bowl, including the primary color of her top at the Super Bowl and whether her screen time would exceed 28.5 seconds. (While offering prop bets directly on Swift’s actions is widely prohibited in the US, BetOnline.ag is licensed in Panama.)

But with the 2024-25 NFL season winding down, and the Chiefs facing off against the Buffalo Bills in the American Football Conference championship game this weekend, the Taylor Swift effect appears to be blunted.

Public relations representative for BetOnline.ag, Josh Barton notes that last year Swift “would be shown double-digit times on TV,” but this year her onscreen presence was diminished. Despite attending at least one game in person every month this season while finishing her Eras world tour, she’s attended fewer than in 2023-24.

That appears to have made an impact on betting volume. Ahead of the Chiefs’ September 24, 2023, game, when bets on the Chiefs at FanDuel increased by 247 percent, compared to the team's game the previous week. “They were rooting for him to score a touchdown, in large part because they wanted to see her celebrate in the box,” says Chris Jones, vice president of communications at FanDuel. The handle, or money wagered on these bets, increased by 533 percent over the prior week. A more typical increase might be 20 or 30 percent, he adds.

It’s hard to quantify the Swiftie demographic’s impact on these bets, but preseason, WIRED reached out to several sportsbooks including BetRivers, DraftKings, FanDuel and Rivalry, which said the Taylor Swift effect was real, and expected it would continue to affect their industry this season.

Tim Whitehead, sportsbook head at BetRivers, put it succinctly. “So long as the world’s biggest pop star is still dating one of the NFL’s most popular players, we’ll tap into that narrative to attract new audiences,” he told WIRED in a statement. But even early in the year, despite Kelce still attracting strong wagers, the outsized Swift effect seemed to have worn off. FanDuel noted that in two early games, neither attended by Swift, teammates of Kelce’s garnered similar betting levels to him. This month, a FanDuel spokesperson told WIRED that interest in betting on Kelce “has leveled out to be in line with the other playmakers on the Chiefs.”

Michael Naraine, an associate professor of sport management at Brock University in Canada, attributes this to the US election dominating news and prop betting cycles, along with less attention-grabbing headlines in the couple’s relationship as they settled into their partnership. “The T. Swift effect does still exist, it just has been muted over the last year,” he says. “It's not as topical, it's not as high a momentum, but it's still valuable to the books.”

A study from the University of Queensland in Australia published in December found nearly 90 percent of the country’s regular sports bettors are male, and suggested that this was due, at least partially, to physical betting spaces being “male-dominated” over history, though smartphones make gambling more accessible to female audiences. This pattern holds in other countries, like the US, where only 28 percent of current sports bettors of 2,000 surveyed were women according to a two-week poll by YouGov last year. “It is unsurprising that betting companies are attempting to capitalise on this shift, targeting women with novelty bets like how many awards Taylor Swift will win at this year’s Grammy’s,” author Rohann Irving said in a release about the study.

Despite the outsize attention Swift’s received from online sportsbooks since dating Kelce, she is only one character in a chorus in the new wave of narrative betting that has risen alongside the industry. In the past, betting narratives which struck chords with bettors focused on underdog or champion players and teams. Today the tales spun have expanded to include a wide array of competitions, from the Oscars, to the US presidential election, to reality TV shows.

Jones, from FanDuel, says ardent sports gamblers give little shrift to this trend. “They’re looking at defensive matchups, offensive matchups, weather, historical data; they’re not caring who the guy’s dating,” he says. But many recreational bettors—whom Jones says make up “an overwhelming majority” of FanDuel’s customer base—seek out narratives like the Swift-Kelce romance when wagering.

Joshua Grubbs, an associate professor in the University of New Mexico’s department of psychology who has researched sports betting behaviors, says over email that sportsbooks “are absolutely trying to convert a group of people who are not betting into bettors.” But whether a Swift-based strategy differs from the industry’s usual marketing is less clear. “I don't know that having Taylor Swift prop bets is any more pernicious than any other set of prop bets, free bet promos, or other gimmicks they offer,” he says.

For Grubbs, it’s instead a broader question of the appropriateness of gambling advertising, an unsettled debate which includes whether sportsbooks should be promoted on television or allowed to sponsor sports teams.

“At the end of the day, we’re content creators,” says Cooper of BetOnline.ag, noting that the more “click-baity” the content, the better. “When we see a storyline or something that’s trending, we’re going to lean into that and try to distribute to a broader audience.”

The industry representatives I spoke with were hopeful about a turnaround should Swift get engaged or have a child with Kelce. “If Taylor Swift ever did a Super Bowl halftime show and the Chiefs were in it, that would break the entire world, internet, everything,” Cooper says.

Rob Csernyik is an award-winning freelance business journalist and a contributing columnist for The Globe and Mail, currently based in Australia.
Freelance journalist

    Read More

    The Best Wireless Earbuds for Everyone

    Ready to cut the cord? These are our favorite buds that will never, ever get tangled.
    Parker Hall

    The 13 Best TVs We’ve Tested (and Helpful Buying Tips)

    From LEDs to fancy OLED models, these are our favorite televisions at every price.
    Ryan Waniata

    The Best 7 Space Heaters of 2025

    These portable heaters will heat a room quickly, quietly, and safely.
    Matthew Korfhage

    The Best Mobile Controllers for Gaming on the Go

    Touchscreens don’t always get the job done. Try one of these WIRED-tested controllers for your iPhone or Android instead.
    Simon Hill

    The Best Electric Kettles to Get the Water Going

    We made tons of coffee, tea, and ramen to test these electric kettles—and boiled it down to these top picks.
    Brenda Stolyar

    The Best iPad to Buy (and a Few to Avoid)

    We break down the current iPad lineup to help you figure out which one of Apple’s tablets is best for you.
    Brenda Stolyar

    The Best Kindles to Take Your Library Anywhere

    Here’s how Amazon’s ebook readers stack up—and which one might be right for you.
    Brenda Stolyar

    The Best Wireless Chargers to Refuel Your Phone (or Watch)

    Stop fumbling for cables in the dark. These WIRED-tested stands and pads will take the hassle out of refueling your phone, wireless earbuds, and watch.
    Julian Chokkattu

    DeepSeek’s New AI Model Sparks Shock, Awe, and Questions From US Competitors

    Some worry the Chinese startup’s impressive tech indicates the US is losing its lead in AI, but it may really be a sign that a new approach to building models is gaining traction.
    Will Knight

    Protect and Charge Your Apple Watch With Our Favorite Accessories

    You finally caved and bought an Apple Watch. These are our favorite straps, screen protectors, chargers, and cases to go with it.
    Adrienne So

    Trump Frees Silk Road Creator Ross Ulbricht After 11 Years in Prison

    Donald Trump pardoned the creator of the world’s first dark-web drug market, who is now a libertarian cause célèbre in some parts of the crypto community.
    Andy Greenberg

    The 41 Best Shows on Netflix Right Now

    Squid Game, Castlevania: Nocturne, and Sakamoto Days are just a few of the shows you need to watch on Netflix this month.
    Matt Kamen

    *****
    Credit belongs to : www.wired.com

    Check Also

    Canadian residents are racing to save the data in Trump’s crosshairs

    As U.S. President Donald Trump's administration removes access to government websites and databases with critical …