How Sports Betting Influences the Popularity and Viewership of Sports
Betting isn’t just for the rich anymore, and bets aren’t just placed on horses these days. Virtually every popular sport now has an active betting market. Today we’ll explore how this monetary engagement affects the popularity of a sport.
How Many Sports Fans Bet on Sports?
With numerous anonymous sports betting options and unreliable self-reports, the statistics of how many sports fans really bet aren’t going to be completely accurate, but they can still give us a pretty good idea of how common it is to bet on a sport you like.
A study published in January 2024 asked a British audience of sports fans how often and what amount they spend on betting in an average month. The results showed that for football, the most popular sport in the UK, 23% of fans had bet online in the past 12 months.
Horse racing had the highest percentage of betters at 49%, and out of cricket fans, the number was 21%. In the referenced UK sports betting study, fans of a sport are defined as those who report that they regularly follow the respective sport.
The Influence of Betting on the Popularity of a Sport
There is a close relationship between sports viewing and sports betting. A viewer who has placed a bet has a personal stake in the upcoming games, which makes it all the more likely that they won’t want to miss the action.
When people bet on a sport, they engage on a new level – they’re no longer just emotionally invested, but monetarily invested as well. If the team they’re betting on wins, they’ll be celebrating a real win affecting their lives outside their love for the winning team or competitor. Let’s look closer at the ways that betting on a sport influences viewers.
Betting Adds an Interactive and Social Element
Betting can be social. Whether someone loses or wins money, the emotional experience is sure to bring family and friends together. While sports fans can speculate on the outcome of a game without placing a bet, those who actively put their money where their mouth is are going to be more invested in such a discussion. And as people get involved in betting together – whether against each other or not – they keep investing their time and energy.
Studies Show Betters Are More Likely to Watch Games
The escalation of commitment indicates that as humans invest energy into something, they’re more likely to want to continue investing. Adding a real monetary cost hence leads to people becoming more loyal to the sport they're watching and betting on.
This isn’t just theory. Betters are much more likely to regularly watch sporting events, and many even find new rooting interests in sports after starting off betting.
In-Play Betting Makes up 54% of Bets
It isn’t just that people watch sports when they bet; the reverse is true, too. People start to bet when they watch a game. A study by the International Betting Integrity Association in 2024 showed that in-play betting made up 54% of bets in 2024 in Europe. That number was slightly lower globally at 47%, with North and Latin America having a high percentage but Asia and Africa only 20% and 10% respectively.
Live betting is especially good at engaging viewers as they watch games. Even slower games become much more interesting if you’re betting on what’s going to be happening next in real-time.
The most convenient way of live betting is typically on your phone, as you watch the sports event on a bigger screen like a laptop or TV. This type of fast-paced betting may be especially appealing to a younger audience.
Conclusion
While it’s impossible to find a direct correlation between betting and the popularity of a sport – there are simply too many factors to be able to isolate the relationship – both analysis and several studies point to betting increasing the popularity of a sport, making viewers more engaged in the outcomes.
In other words, betting is an important part of the culture of sports viewing and contributes to forming viewers' habits and feelings regarding their favourite sports.