Horse racing is one of the oldest sports on which human still enjoy taking bets, but does it bring in the biggest turnover in online or mobile sports betting? Most people assume this is the case, because horse racing is ubiquitous around the world.
Others presume that soccer, or association football to give it its official title, is the only pursuit that might pip horse racing to the post as most popular betting sport in the world. It is enjoyed by at least 3 billion people on all six inhabited continents, so this isn’t an outrageous assumption.
However, it is wrong: neither racing nor soccer is the most popular betting sport on earth. At least both manage to make it into the top five, though.
American Football Rules
Tens of billions of dollars are wagered on the Super Bowl alone each year; that’s before considering how much betting goes on in the regular football season, played over two conferences. Gridiron football is the sport that without a doubt generates the most sports betting annually.
This is somewhat ironic, when you consider that the US Supreme Court only declared gambling to be a states’ issue in 2018, freeing up 19 more states to join Nevada in allowing legal, licensed sports betting. Until then, the billions in football wagers being laid annually were going to unlicensed or offshore bookies, denying Uncle Sam major tax revenue.
Soccer Rules Rest Of World
It’s plain to see just how heavily US sports betting dominates the world market if you take US betting out of the equation. Suddenly, gridiron disappears as a significant betting force, and soccer takes its rightful place as the most popular sport in the world, among punters as well as spectators. Some analysts estimate that 70% of the sports betting market outside the US is devoted to soccer.
It’s a huge market in Europe and the UK in particular, but Africa and South and Central America generate equally fanatical followings. As showcase tournaments like the FIFA World Cup are hosted by different countries around the world, penetration in Asia and Australasia is improving, too.
The Also-Rans
Surprisingly, after American football and soccer, horse racing still isn’t showing: the betting world’s third-most popular sport is tennis. This is again a factor of the sheer number of games played every week; there is lots of tennis to bet on, for those inclined to betting at https://ausvegas.xyz/.
Horse racing finally gallops home as the fourth-most popular sport in online wagering, generally speaking. It does have international appeal, however; punters in Asia or Africa will much more readily bet on a famous horse race in the UK or US than they would on an obscure gridiron match or the early rounds of Wimbledon.
Fifth place in this line-up is heavily disputed. Boxing is still a wildly popular betting choice in many gaming circles, buoyed by streaming and broadcast coverage of bouts all over the world. But it faces encroachment from MMA and other disciplines, however; not to mention the fact that boxing already competes for a top-five spot against golf and basketball.