Place your bets: The top 5 sports Americans wager money on
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Place your bets: The top 5 sports Americans wager money on
American football arena with yellow goal post.
When the U.S. Supreme Court repealed a law that banned sports betting in 2018, it opened a whole new world to fans across the country. No longer did they look enviously to Las Vegas and the United Kingdom, but they awaited the day when they too could place bets in their own backyards.
In the years since, 38 states and Washington D.C. have fallen like dominoes, joining the industry that brings with it billions of dollars on top of concerns about addiction. With 46% of adults at least somewhat interested in betting, according to Nielsen Sports, these locales offer in-person and mobile sports gambling options, and the types of proposition bets on the table are myriad.
From “draw no bet” in the world’s game, soccer, to point spreads in Americans’ favorite contest, football, anyone can find their avenue for entertainment. The Super Bowl, of course, draws the most betting action in the U.S., while daily wagers on player performances in basketball and baseball are among other popular offerings.
There are so many choices that broadcasts now routinely air promotional parlay bet suggestions. MLB, the NBA, and the NFL—and their teams—all have partnerships with sportsbooks such as BetMGM, Caesars, DraftKings, and FanDuel. It is also legal to bet on college athletes and teams, though there are restrictions in some places when it comes to that bastion of amateurism.
Overall, there is no slowing the onslaught of sports gambling revenue. With that in mind, Sqore compiled a ranking of the most popular sports for betting in the United States using data from Variety Intelligence Platform. The sports were ranked by the percentage of mobile gamblers who placed bets on them in October 2022.
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#5. Soccer
Man at a football match follows the odds and the current score.
– Percentage of mobile sports bettors: 28%
Soccer is creeping up on traditional American offerings in terms of popularity. Perhaps the 2026 men’s World Cup, to be hosted by the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, will usher in a new era for “the beautiful game.” The 2023 arrival of global superstar Lionel Messi in the States with MLS’ Inter Miami CF set the sport ablaze, and MLS fans are more likely than any others to gamble on sports if it becomes legal in their state, per a Nielsen Fan Insights survey.
Soccer bets mostly boil down to picking a side to win, though there is the aforementioned option that cancels any bet when a game ends in a draw. Otherwise, money-line wagers are a three-way problem among the two teams and “draw,” which essentially makes it harder to win. As with other sports, goal lines and player props—banking on a striker to net a goal, for example—are available.
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#4. College football
UCLA wide receiver tackled by a Washington cornerback.
– Percentage of mobile sports bettors: 34%
College football is in turmoil. Schools are switching conferences, coaches are griping about players earning a slice of the pie, and the playoff system has been overhauled. So much for one of the country’s amateur staples—the sport is barely a step away from the pros.
Still, it’s unlikely there will ever be a setting as energy-rich as a rivalry game on campus in late fall. Point spreads, money lines, and parlays dominate the college football betting landscape, which stands out for its sheer volume of potential plays. The number of teams (261 in the top two subdivisions alone) and games allow sharps and squares alike to pick their spots. You can also bet on whether a team will exceed or fall short of its win total for the season.
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#3. MLB
Monitor with odds and betting offers of baseball matchups.
– Percentage of mobile sports bettors: 44%
Baseball and sports gambling will forever evoke the 1919 Black Sox and Pete Rose, the perpetrators in two scandals that rocked the sport and contributed to demarcating the bright red line that is betting on America’s pastime. Gambling syndicates and players seeking under-the-table paydays may no longer pose a threat, but the game is built on stats, which will always spur raising stakes.
The day-in, day-out grind of MLB, in which each team plays 162 games per season and top players step to the plate more than 700 times, lends itself to futures, run lines, money lines, props, over/unders—you name it. You can lay your money on what will happen in the first five innings of a game as well.
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#2. NBA
Sports betting board at the New York-New York Casino and Hotel.
– Percentage of mobile sports bettors: 54%
The NBA is similar to MLB in that there are plenty of games—and therefore betting opportunities—every night. The league’s fans are younger and more diverse than those of the other Big Four professional sports in North America, and their patronage is increasingly closing the popularity gap with the NFL.
NBA bets start with season win totals and other futures; move to point spreads, money lines, and over/unders when the games tip off; and then get into series prices when the playoffs begin. Player props are popular too, though they caused the biggest uproar in this new gambling era in the U.S., as Jontay Porter was banned from the sport after he bet on games, shared information with bettors, and influenced the outcome of at least one bet.
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#1. NFL
Back view of a young man watching football on couch with online betting app.
– Percentage of mobile sports bettors: 81%
As America’s new national pastime, the NFL rakes in billions of dollars every year—and the figures are only increasing. Like the other major professional sports leagues, it quickly embraced gambling advertisers after the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 was repealed in search of even more revenue. While NFL fans make up by far the largest percentage of mobile sports bettors, it’s a volume play—they are the least likely fans to be interested in betting, per Nielsen Sports.
The markets for point spreads, money lines, and over/unders are known to be tight, and then there’s the dreaded teaser. Teasers are available in other sports too, but they are mainstream for NFL bettors, who can pair two teams’ point spreads to adjust each by six points. The catch is that both picks have to win for the bet to cash.
Data reporting by Karim Noorani. Story editing by Carren Jao. Additional editing by Kelly Glass. Copy editing by Tim Bruns. Photo selection by Clarese Moller.
This story originally appeared on Sqore and was produced and
distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio.
