Sports Gambling: A Young Person's Game?
Our survey shows millennials were the most likely generation to have placed a bet on a professional
football match. Over 31% of those born between 1981 and 1996 made a wager on football, more than
two times greater than the rate of Gen Xers. Baby boomers were the least likely to engage in betting on
football, with less than 9% of those surveyed willing to fork over some cash for the chance to win big
on touchdowns and first downs.
Sports Gambling Plans
Across all generations, more than 40% of respondents currently gambling on football planned to gamble
more now that sports betting is legal, and the industry will see the biggest uptick of new gamblers from
Gen Xers. Nearly 17% of Gen Xers who didn't currently gamble on football planned to now take the
chance. For those looking to make a profit on the volume of transactions being made among
football gamblers, the future looks very, very bright.
Does Illegal Gambling Deter Those Willing to Make a Wager?
Where there's a will (and a feeling you can correctly predict the outcome of a football game featuring a
myriad of elements influencing the end result), there's a person willing to gamble. Now the real
question is: Are they willing to gamble illegally?
Even with changes to legislation in some states, not everyone has access to a legal sports betting
solution yet. Out of all those who gambled, over 41% participated in legal football betting
– less than 2% more than those who participated in illegal sports betting. Nearly 20% said they
didn't discriminate – they gambled either way.
When it came to trying to win it big, millennials were more likely to place a larger average bet than Gen
Xers or baby boomers. Their $71 average was $10 and $33 more, respectively, than the other
generations.
Big Game Bets
One way around the legal issues surrounding sports betting has been the rise of fantasy sports websites.
These are daily competitions where individuals wager on the performance of individual players, rather
than betting on how the teams perform. When it came to where the money was spent, DraftKings and
Yahoo Sports Daily Fantasy were tied for first. In fact, more than 52% of the action on fantasy
football took place across these two sites.
Over 55% of people from each generation participated in either a fantasy or daily fantasy site. And this
is one area where millennials didn't have the highest adoption rate. Almost 63% of Gen Xers bet on
fantasy football for real cash, compared to less than 61% of millennials.
Always Bet on Boston
Who fancies a rematch for the Big Game this year? Sports bettors, that's who! While the Philadelphia
Eagles managed to stop another last-minute victory march by Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in
Minneapolis in February 2018, these were the two teams people placed their money on to make the trip to
Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium in 2019. Almost 30% of those surveyed would place a wager on the boys
from Beantown to claim their
sixth
championship total.
Over 11% fancied placing a bet on the Philadelphia Eagles to go back to back for their
second
championship. While the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers both managed to crest above
the 5% mark, these four teams combined for over 55% of the overall responses. And almost no one believes
the Bengals or Bucs will win it all. Sorry, Cincinnati and Tampa Bay.
Don't Take a Sack on Your Next Bet
The people have spoken – they want to gamble on professional sports. Now that the Supreme Court has
paved the way for their dreams to come true, expect more legal ways than ever before to wager on the
outcome of a football game.
Methodology
We collected responses from 777 people using Amazon's Mechanical Turk. 35.5% of participants were female,
and 60.5% were male. Participants ranged in age from 19 to 76, with a mean age of 34.9 and a standard
deviation of 10.2. Participants were excluded if they were clearly not paying attention (e.g., failed
attention check question or entered obviously inconsistent data). We weighted the data to the 2016 U.S.
census for age and gender. This project has not been tested for statistical significance and should be
for entertainment purposes only.
The data we are presenting rely on self-reporting. There are many issues with self-reported data. These
issues include but are not limited to: selective memory, telescoping, attribution, and exaggeration.
Sources
Fair Use Statement
Feeling lucky? Feel free to share our project with your own audience for noncommercial purposes. When you
do, we simply ask that you provide a link back to this page to attribute our team appropriately.
