Flutter lift lid on the rise of American football betting in the UK
By Charlie Dear
American football is not just America’s game anymore. Flutter Entertainment, owners of UK leading bookmakers Paddy Power, Betfair and Sky Bet have measured the huge rise in betting volume on American sports, from the United Kingdom, over the last four years.
When tracking the most popular sports for active Paddy Power customers since 2020, American football has risen from the eighth most bet on sport, all the way to number three; only behind the UK’s most popular betting sports, football and horse racing.
A big contributory factor could be the stronger TV viewership and improved international coverage of the NFL by the likes of Sky Sports. The standalone games start at an earlier time of 2:30PM GMT, meaning ‘NFL Sundays’ now kick off at 6PM UK time. A much more friendly time for UK fans to watch their favourite teams in action.
David Curran, commercial manager of Paddy Power listed four of the key drivers behind this shift: “Organic growth in NFL interest, an enhanced product offering, the halo impact from growth in soccer activity and our enhanced strategic focus on the NFL.”
Nonetheless, it may be the increased awareness and the rise in profile that the NFL’s London-based games are getting, that it’s seeped into a staple part of customers' betting trends too.
Digital marketing agency, Receptional produced a report on 1 November, showing a big spike in NFL-related searches in the UK, in September 2023. The 57% rise reached an impressive 215,960 searches. Whilst it dipped slightly to 206,000 in 2024, it shows a steady increase in demand from UK fans.
As a result of this, the number of active customers with Paddy Power betting on the London games, as well as the individual amount they have staked, has steadily risen.
Breaking this down, the number of active customers went up 25% and the amount stakes also up by 30%, respectively, on last year’s London games figures. This is larger than the overall growth on NFL during those weeks, which saw actives up 21% and staking up 25% on 2023.
Curran explained: “This stronger interest in the NFL UK games suggests that customers are getting used to the early kick off times versus the usual 'redzone' kick offs on Sunday evening.”
This is backed up by Entain’s report in late October, which tracked activity across both their Ladbrokes and Coral brands that showed a 65% year-on-year increase in the total number of Brits and Irish punters betting on the NFL so far during the current 2024/25 season.