The global sports betting industry has been growing over the last few years. While in-person betting may have suffered a bit when the pandemic started, there were still a lot of people who showed interest in online sports betting. This is why when many of the major sports events were either canceled or postponed, online bookies still tried their best to offer odds on sports with less following like sumo wrestling. Many also found themselves betting on e-sports tournaments.
This year will surely be a better one for the sports betting industry as sports events are back. The whole of the United States is already enjoying the current season of the NFL. Meanwhile, cricket fans are most likely going through reviews of the best cricket betting apps in India. Many people are surely happy that the Indian Premier League is back even if it’s in the UAE.
Punters just have so many events to look forward to before the year ends. Whether it’s basketball, cricket, football, tennis, or anything else, bookies just have a lot to offer this year. Curious to know what people are wagering on? Here are the most popular sports that people would bet on.
European Football/Soccer
European football is easily on the list because this is the most-watched sport worldwide. FIFA reported that the 2018 World Cup final alone where France and Croatia went against each other had an average live audience of 517 million. Overall, the said final has a total of 1.1 billion people viewers throughout the whole 90 minutes.
With its popularity, it’s common to see bookies have different types of odds to offer on a single football match. When betting on this sport, some of the types of bets you may encounter are money line bets, parlay bets, middle bets, and futures bets.
Football is mainly popular in countries like Europe, Central and South America, and Africa. It also has fans in Northern America and parts of Asia. In the United Kingdom alone, it is estimated that more than £1 billion is bet on this sport.
American Football
This type of football has to be the major sport in the United States. Even if it only has a huge following in the US, it’s still one of the most wagered on sports. American football has been somehow part of the country’s culture that even people who are not really into sports would watch major football events like the Super Bowl.
When it comes to American football, the NFL is what would come to the minds of many. The average TV viewership of a regular season of the NFL last year was at 14.9 million. The 2020 Super Bowl was estimated to have an average viewership of 99.9 million in the US and around 30 to 50 million worldwide.
The NFL is also known to have the highest average per game attendance with over 66,000 average spectators per game. In 2019, it is estimated that a total of 16 million people attended the matches throughout the season.
Before this year’s NFL season began, the American Gaming Association estimated that around 45.2 million Americans are planning to wager on the said event. According to them, at least $12 billion USD will be bet on this season.
Cricket
Cricket is also one of the most-watched sports worldwide. It is next to European football when it comes to popularity and many people may be surprised about it. Cricket isn’t exactly popular in countries like the United States but it is popular in the most populated countries like India.
The Indian Premier League has to be the most popular cricket event out there and last year’s season had an average of 116 million unique viewers. This year, it is estimated to have an average of 105 million viewers. The thing about cricket is that it has one of the busiest calendars in the sports industry. The second phase of the IPL is set to end on October 17 and the same day is also the start of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021.
Based on a 2015 report by a betting expert named Patrick Jay, cricket accounts for around 12 percent of the sports betting industry which makes cricket betting worth around $300 billion. It is estimated that on every ODI match, around $200 million USD is wagered by fans. While the estimates are big, cricket betting is more popular in countries with strict betting laws. With that, the underground market seems to be betting the most from the overall cricket betting scene.
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