Americans Torn About Sports Betting

Source: Statista

Highly addictive or simply fun? Americans are torn about the pros and cons of sports betting, as seen in results from the Statista Global Consumer Survey. In a country where betting is highly regulated, the highest share of respondents – 31 percent – said they didn’t agree with neither the positive nor the negative aspects of the issue.

The majority of respondents, however, did have an opinion: 25 percent said they thought sports betting was highly addictive, closely followed by 23 percent who said that the activity was “fun”. Similarly, 20 percent said they considered sports betting to be “thrilling”, while 17 percent said discussion about the risks of betting were lacking. 14 percent came out in favor of a ban on sports betting.

Out of the 1,000+ people surveyed, 30 percent had participated in sports betting in the past 12 months. Football was the most popular sport to place a bet on. 36 percent of those who had betted placed money on a football match. 27 percent had betted on basketball at least once in the past year, followed by soccer (23 percent), baseball (16 percent), tennis (16 percent) and e-sports (15 percent).

Americans Torn About Sports Betting

Deprived of Sports, Gamblers Wager Outside Their Home Turf

Source: Statista

One side effect of the sports world being put on hold is that the betting industry is forced to find creative solutions as to retain at least a fraction of its usual revenue. And while sports bettors can always cast their keen eyes on countries such as Belarus, Nicaragua and Tajikistan, which are among the few countries carrying on with professional sports, many are willing to get creative when looking to place a wager.

According to a recent survey by Morning Consult, regular sports bettors are willing to bet on pretty much anything in the absence of professional sports. Amazingly, 41 percent would even put a wager on COVID-19 statistics, which many would consider to be in bad taste. As the following chart shows, gamblers would also be interested in betting money on political elections, the weather or current events, with the aforementioned foreign (and some would say exotic) sports leagues less fancied by regular sports bettors.

Interestingly, e-sports, a category many sports betting companies are embracing these days, doesn’t tickle the fancy of sports bettors. Only 28 percent of those respondents regularly betting on sports are interested in wagering on the digital sports world.

Sports Infographic