London, and the UK as a whole, are gambler’s paradises. Thanks to the rather relaxed gambling legislation we have in this country, the United Kingdom has launched countless major gambling brands, and betting has become almost a national pastime for us. You’ll be hard-pressed to find somebody who hasn’t bet on a sport at least once, even if it is just dropping a couple of quid to have a flutter on the Grand National.
We figured we’d go through the most betted on sports in the UK. While gambling sites rarely release information about which sports manage to attract the most bets, it isn’t that hard to ascertain. This information applies to London and the UK as a whole.
Horse racing
Horse racing exists because of gambling. Trust us, there wouldn’t be anywhere near as much cash in horse racing right now if there weren’t people lumping loads and loads of cash on the sport. We mean, is it really ‘fun’ to cheer on those horses unless you’ve got a few bob on the line?
Horse races are popping off all the time. Nearly every hour of the day, you’ll find some action happening somewhere in the world. People are heading to race tracks throughout the country, watching it online or heading to their local bookies. There’s always something to bet on.
Horse racing is also one of those events that gets non-gamblers excited, at least during big races like the Grand National. Who hasn’t taken part in a sweepstakes or something for that event?
Football
Next up, it’s got to be the nation’s favourite sport – football. Every week, countless people put cash on the outcomes of the numerous games happening across the nation and abroad. We wouldn’t be surprised if football was how the vast majority of online bookies make most of their money. You only have to check out sites like Bonus-Codes.com to see how many promotions there are related to football betting.
If you check football betting, both online and offline, you’ll find tons of open markets. You’re not just betting on the winner of a game here (that was quite popular in the past, though), you’ve got open markets for the first goalscorer, number of cards, scores at half-time etc. There’s always a way for somebody to get in on the action. It’s fun.
Some people will bet every week, while some will want to add a bit of a sweetener to the games they watch. Around nearly every football stadium in London, you’ll find one or two places to gamble. This includes the smaller stadiums too.
Greyhound racing
Greyhound racing is another event that exists purely for gambling. Although, oddly enough, it doesn’t attract that much in the way of online betting in the same way that horse racing does. It seems that the vast majority of greyhound betting happens when people have a night out at the races.
While greyhound racing isn’t anywhere near as popular as it was in the past, the few stadiums that do exist around London hold regular events, and you’ll always find a sizeable number of people turning up. The bulk of what you do there will be gambling. You won’t have to walk around a greyhound track for too long before you find a betting booth.
Rugby
Of the next three choices, it is pretty tough to determine which is the most popular among British gamblers. So, we’d say they are all pretty much at the same level. Rugby and cricket certainly are, in London. Both of these do attract fewer gamblers than football, but there’ll often be a good number of markets to gamble on.
Cricket
Cricket attracts loads of gamblers, even though it has fewer fans than football. When England is playing in London, you’ll often find the bookies packed with people wanting to get in on the game. Lots of online bookmakers will also have cricket-focused promotions.
Tennis
Tennis likely doesn’t get anywhere near as many bets as rugby and cricket do. While it is a popular sport, it isn’t as widespread. Most of the time, if somebody is going to have a bet on tennis, then they’ll be gambling during one of the bigger tournaments, such as Wimbledon. That’s when you’ll find the vast majority of gambling promotions being run.
Formula One
Formula One events always manage to attract the ‘big buck’ gamblers. Race happening at Silverstone? You can bet your bottom dollar that a load of cash is going to be dropped on it. We don’t have as many gambling options for Formula One since you only get one race a week for just a part of the year.
Other sports
Of course, while these are the most popular sports being bet on in London and the UK, you can have a flutter on just about anything nowadays. While gambling on American sports (baseball, NFL, basketball etc) isn’t as popular as the sports mentioned above, we are seeing the number of gamblers rise, likely because of the prevalence of online gambling in London and the UK.