Thirty-eight million Americans are planning to place bets on NFL football games this season.
That’s 15% of the USA’s adult population – and that’s not a wild guess. It is the result of a scientific survey conducted by Morning Consult on behalf of the American Gaming Association (AGA).
The results were published by the AGA on Wednesday ahead of the start of the NFL’s celebrated 100th season on Thursday. Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers, the NFL’s oldest clubs, kicked it off at Chicago’s venerable Soldiers Field.
The growth of legal US bookmakers since sports-betting was unbanned 14 months ago has not ended illegal offshore wagering.
Legal online sportsbooks are not yet available in two-thirds of the US’s 5O States. It will thus continue – and in large numbers, especially in bigger states like California, Texas and Florida.
However, the increasing option of betting safely, legally and online at home has, however, slowed it down. This has been notably so in New Jersey, the nation’s current sports-betting front-runner. In its first year, its dozen or so sportsbooks took more than $3 billion in betting handle.
Seven million Americans to bet legally at Casinos
“This year, seven million Americans say they will bet legally at a casino- sportsbook. That’s 1.2 million more than last year, and tens of millions of others will place bets with friends, participate in pools or squares contests or place their bets online,” the AGA stated.
Among its other findings:
- Nearly one-in-four (or 24%) of American adults said they would wager on NFL games if it was legal in their state.
- 39% of avid NFL fans said they planned to place football bets this season.
- 75% of NFL punters said they would ‘more than likely’ watch games they had wagered on.
- 28% of them were ‘more than likely’ to attend a game they had placed bets on.
- And 51% of them would be more inclined to watch pregame shows and commentary.
More Americans than ever before can now wager on football “in safe, well-regulated environments”, said AGA president Bill Miller.
More and more punters using legal alternatives
More and more punters will begin betting legally as more alternatives to “the dangerous illegal market” open up, he believed
He added: “Sports betting clearly impacts fans’ enthusiasm for engaging with the NFL. As the legal market grows, it is imperative to focus on implementing and promoting legal sports betting responsibly. It should protect consumers and ensure the viability of legal markets to the continued detriment of illegal operators.”
The survey also found that 23% of the fans surveyed had defending champions, the New England Patriots, as their Super Bowl L1X favorites.
They were followed by the Kansas City Chiefs (8%), Dallas Cowboys (7%) and New Orleans Saints (6%).
FOOTNOTE: Morning Consult conducted this poll online between August 7 and 12. They did it using a national sample of 11,001 American adults.
The data was weighted to approximate a target sample of adults based on age, educational attainment, gender, race, and region.
Results from the full survey had a margin of error of+/- 1 percent.
