The most betted on sports in the UK revealed
There are more than a million people who regularly gamble in the United Kingdom, and the country is full of people who are passionate about sports, with many stadiums seeing 20,000 to 80,000 people through the gates on a weekend. The UK is also the country of origin of a lot of sports, such as football and rugby.
We know that British people really enjoy sports, so it stands to reason that a portion of those people also enjoy gambling on sports. There are many different sports betting apps out there that allow people to have a flutter before the game or even during if they have an in-play offering.
Football
It will come as a surprise to nobody that football has the most bettors in the UK. According to some studies, football has more than 40% of the market share for sports gambling in the country. With so many millions tuning into some of the biggest matches, a lot of people like to make their own predictions about the outcomes.
Some studies suggest that as many as 40% of the UK’s population watch football in the UK, with a thriving scene from grass roots football all the way up to the Premier League, which is arguably the best standard of football in the world.
Whether someone wants to bet on the early rounds of the FA cup or the Champions League final, there are markets out there at some of the top betting apps. All through the football pyramid there are a lot of fans who attend the matches, even in non-league games.
There are many reasons why football is the national sport of the UK, as well as being the most-viewed sport in the world, so it makes sense that this is by far and away the most betted on sport in the country.
As well as having the most popularity, football also has the most markets. A lot of people focus on the longer-odds accumulator bets, picking multiple teams that they think are going to win on a Saturday’s fixtures, for instance.
People can also explore multiple markets regarding one specific game, such as individual markets on fouls, goalscorers, yellow cards, assists and more.
Horse racing
Horse racing comes in second on our list. When many people think of gambling, they may well think of horse racing before any other sport. Horse racing has always been entwined with gambling.
Even before the days of online gambling, horse racing events were huge, with people betting via the tote or bookmakers who would be at the events or even on the high street. A lot of huge gambling brands started out on the high street and have now evolved to have apps that cover the biggest horse racing events.
Big horse racing events include the Cheltenham Festival, the Grand National and the Guineas. During some of these horse racing festivals and events, there are millions of bets placed.
A lot of people who enjoy horse racing study the form and spend a lot of time crunching numbers before trying to make any predictions on what is going to happen.
As well as backing horses to win a race, there are other potential bets, such as whether a horse will finish in a place position. People can also build accumulators out of these bets, adding multiple horses from multiple races across a festival or event day.
Golf
When you look at the list of the most common sports that are bet on in the UK, you will see a huge gap between the top two sports and the other sports.
Coming in at third place, even with a fraction of the gambling fans of horse racing, is golf. While people may like to choose the golfer they think is going to win a tournament outright, there are also parallels with sports like football. Bettors can choose between a lot of different markets, such as whether a player is going to make the cut, or what score they are going to have on a round of golf.
In some big tournaments such as the Ryder Cup, there are even more eyeballs on the sport.
Many bookmakers offer numerous markets on golf tournaments when these events roll around.
As there are a lot of different golfers out there, and sometimes hundreds of players that enter tournaments, some people may be able to find longer odds on the player they think is going to win. There are also markets such as place bets that pay out if a player finishes in one of the top positions.
Boxing
Boxing is another sport with almost as much popularity in the UK as golf, at least when it comes to the gambling markets. Boxing is quite an unusual sport in that a lot of the bets are placed on very few events.
When there is a huge fight for the heavyweight championship, for instance, there are often millions of bets placed on that specific fight. There can be no big fight for months and then suddenly a huge event where the pay per view figures can reach hundreds of millions, showing just what a big deal it is when there is a fight for a championship.
Boxing markets are about more than just who is going to win the fight, and a lot of different betting companies offer markets on which round the fight will be won in and the method of victory.
There have been some crazy upsets throughout the history of boxing too, so this is a sport where some people like to back the underdog.
Tennis
Tennis is another sport that is pretty seasonal in terms of betting. Tennis events do happen almost all year round, but the biggest events such as grand slams and Olympic tennis tend to come around less frequently than that.
The sport offers markets such as winning the match or winning the tournament, but there are many more markets that have sprung up in the digital age and people can bet on things like who will get the most aces, for instance.
Darts
A growing sport in the UK, and a growing gambling market as a result, darts is associated with nightlife, and is popular among plenty of bettors too. Along with markets regarding who is going to win a match, there are options to bet on the overall tournament winner and even things like highest check out and most 180s.
Conclusion
This concludes our list of the most betted on sports in the UK according to studies. Narrowly missing out are other sports such as cricket, rugby union and motorsports.
Football and horse racing are definitely the two sports that account for the most gambling in the United Kingdom, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t room for a lot of other sports, some of which still have millions of viewers and plenty of gambling options, competitive odds and lots of markets.
Remember to gamble responsibly if you choose to get involved with gambling on any sporting event, and only bet what you can afford to lose.