The NFL is the most popular sport in the United States by a comfortably wide margin. The sport can attract fans and viewership to every game, regardless of the quality of teams or how exciting the game is likely to be. One key reason for this is sports betting, a market that has increased exponentially in the past couple of years as it becomes legal and regulated in more states every month. The hope is that Minnesota sportsbooks become legal before the start of the 2023-2024 NFL season.
The wide range of bets that can be made on NFL games makes it convenient to bet no matter how one expects the game to go. Bets can be made on point totals, wins, losses, and even individual player statistics.
With the increased betting action on NFL games and the increased attention to betting by the league, MinnesotaBets decided to see which NFL fanbases bet the most.
NFL Fanbases Who Bet The Most
We utilized Statista’s 2022 “Attitudes Toward Sports Betting” survey of NFL fans with 1,020 respondents to find who currently are the NFL fanbases who claim to be a “sports betting user.”Note that this is just a sample size of NFL fans who claimed to be a fan of a specific NFL team. The percentage represents how many people are sports bettors out of the sample.
Giants Fans Top the List
The New York Giants top the list with 13% of fans that replied considering themselves a sports bettor. The Giants made the playoffs as big underdogs last year, so fans and bettors of the team were likely happy and profitable at the end of the season. The team wasn’t very successful the few years prior, so bettors will have been glad to win money with team success as opposed to failure.
The Minnesota Vikings fans tied for 11th on the list, with 3% of responding users reporting themselves as sports betting users. Minnesota ranking so high on the list comes as a bit of a surprise, as Minnesota sportsbook apps are not yet regulated in the state so local Vikings fans aren’t able to bet as conveniently as fans in other states. The survey did not solely include residents of the state, so Vikings fans from other areas are still able to bet on games as often as they like.
With the Vikings Super Bowl odds checking in at +3500 on DraftKings, many Vikings fans have likely already placed that bet in the hopes that the team gets off to a good start and that number drops as the season goes on. They are currently the 14th-ranked team at DraftKings. The top-ranked team on the odds board is the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs, whose fan base didn’t rank in the top 15 of sports bettors on this list.
While the Vikings aren’t Super Bowl favorites, they do have a strong offense that could lead to over-hitting in several games. With Kirk Cousins at QB and Justin Jefferson at WR the Vikings have a strong passing game that will excite fans all year long. At +10000, Jefferson is the second highest-ranked non-QB to win league MVP this year, trailing only San Francisco’s Christian McCaffrey at +8000. Jefferson is +1000 to be the offensive player of the year this season, the favorite for the award he won last year. Regardless of team success, there should be ways for Minnesota Vikings fans to bet and be profitable all season long.
