Stack Overflow questions per yearU.S. legal sports betting revenue
Stack Overflow questions per year and U.S. legal sports betting revenue have, between 2018 and 2023, moved in opposite directions at a correlation of -0.976. Programmers asked the forum fewer questions while Americans placed dramatically more bets. The statistical image is that of a developer closing one tab to open another.
Stack Overflow question volume declined gradually through the 2018-2022 window and then fell sharply in 2023 as ChatGPT and Copilot siphoned the exact kind of quick Q&A that had made the site essential for fifteen years. U.S. legal sports betting revenue grew from roughly $400 million in 2018 to over $10.9 billion by 2023, as post-PASPA state legalisation made FanDuel and DraftKings national consumer brands. Both trends belong to the same phone and the same desk: the forum lost its purpose, and the sportsbook found a new one, while the rest of the device stayed exactly the same.
Six years of two lines diverging can describe one site quietly retiring while another business loudly arrived. The forum emptied. The parlay filled up.
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