This article is part of our Betting Promotions series.
Legalized sports betting in America is still fairly new on a mass scale. Nevada introduced legalized sports betting first to America back in 1931, but it wasn't until 2018 that Delaware, Mississippi, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia started a rush that now equates to 33 of the 50 states offering it.
Betting on the NFL on the top sports betting apps continues to reign supreme. While there are plenty of sports to bet on here in America, there is one that reigns supreme. Each and every Sunday from September to January, we gather with our friends and loved ones to watch some of the best and toughest athletes on the planet. We play fantasy football, we play our weekly pick em' pools, we do it all for the NFL.
NFL Is The Sport Americans Bet On Most
The NFL is the most popular sport in America, and the one that most Americans bet on more than any other sport. According to data collected by CRG Global for Variety Intelligence Platform back in October 2022, 81% of bettors that were 18 or older placed NFL wager. The next-closest sport, the NBA, came in at 54%.
A big factor in the popularity of the NFL derives from our childhoods, in which football seemed to always be present whether you played on a team or you played on the street in your local neighborhood. This is a sport that has been incredibly ever-present in our lives and visually, it's one of the least-complicated sports to follow as a fly-by fan.
Most sportsbooks, which offer generous sportsbook promo codes, in America estimate that around 70-75% of their annual handle comes from the NFL.
Why Is NFL The Sport Americans Bet On Most?
It feels like everyone has their toes in the water when it comes to betting on the NFL on the best sports betting sites. As mentioned earlier, there is fantasy football and the weekly pick em' pools, but there is so much more to it. The prop betting market for NFL has become an entity within itself, and the amount of coverage and research done is going to extraordinary levels.
Since the NFL season is much shorter than other sports, the amount of urgency placed on each game also adds to the intensity. This makes for an incredible viewing experience, which the CRG Global for Variety Intelligence study indicates, stating that there is a direct correlation between placing a bet and watching the game. The study found that two-thirds of mobile bettors watched more games when they placed a bet on it on the top PayPal betting sites.
What Other Sports Do Americans Bet On Most?
While America does have numerous sports to place a bet on, we have certainly come to the conclusion that the NFL is king. However, once the NFL blows the final whistle on its season, a whole new wave of sports enter the picture.
As previously stated above, the NBA came in second (at 54%) amongst the most bet-on sports in the CRG Global for Variety Intelligence Platform study. After the NBA, comes MLB (44%), college football (34%), soccer (28%), NHL (26%), MMA/UFC/Boxing (26%), and golf (15%).
While soccer comes in as the fifth-most popular sport to bet on in America, it is extremely popular around the world. In fact, Sportradar stated back in 2022 that soccer betting markets made up 70% of the global betting market. There are numerous countries around the world that feature soccer as their main sport, so the NFL definitely loses some of its luster in those parts.
