Sports is one of the fastest growing industries and within only a couple of years became a multimillion-dollar event across the globe. Top sports men and women earns mega salaries, Cristiano Ronaldo, the soccer icon reported an income of $93 million in 2017 earned from endorsements and his salary, while Cleveland Cavaliers’, Lebron James earned around $86.2 million, of which half came from endorsements.

While top sport stars earn huge incomes, managers, team coaches and owners are also enjoying top salaries. Online sports betting together with the introduction of bitcoin sportsbooks recently, took the sports industry to a whole new level. Millions of sports fans can now become part of the action via anonymous betting opportunities, while gamblers in general are much more comfortable with the option of placing their bets from their home PC or mobile device.

Sports Events Most Focusses On

Currently online sports enthusiasts have a wide variety of sports to wager on, although only a few events are favoured by keen sports fans. Sportsbetting websites feature hundreds of different sports options, although some of the sports are more preferred than others, these include soccer and football. Although the sports betting trend also differs from one country to the next.

What also hugely affect the number of bets placed on a particular sports type or even is the odds. According to published statistics at the end of 2017, the leading sports when it comes to bets placed world-wide, soccer remains the number one for online bettors. Football is the second most favoured by sports bettors followed by basketball, tennis, golf, cricket, Formula 1 and then boxing.

USA Sports Betting Favourites

The list of most favoured sports events according to online bets placed online in the USA changes the popularity order slightly, football takes the top spot, followed by basketball, baseball, then martial arts, boxing and hockey. One of the most popular sportsbetting events in the USA is the NFL, which is also the most televised sport in America.

Europe, Sports Betting Favourites

In Europe the most popular sport is soccer and the 2018 FIFA World Cup attracted huge interest and enjoyed huge attention from online sports betting fans around the globe. The most wagered on sports in Europe for 2017 also showed that soccer is the favourite, followed by tennis, then basketball and interestingly enough, next on the list is darts, snooker, handball and volleyball.

Australia, Sports Betting Favourites

Sports betting is much smaller in Australia than in major countries such as Europe and the USA, although according to statistics the number one in sportsbetting is soccer, followed by cricket events, basketball, and fourth on the list is tennis followed by horse racing and then volleyball.

Even though horse-racing does not feature as a top sport betting event on the lists of major countries, it is the number one sports in online betting in Japan, South Korea, China and Malaysia. With the addition of bitcoin sportsbetting, it is expected that betting in the USA will show a major increase in the 2018/2019 betting year, which could change the list of most wagered on sports.