It should come as no surprise that popularity and success are linked to how many bets sportsbooks take on North American teams.
A breakdown of the most-wagered teams on bet365 emphasizes this point. The list includes the NFL champions Kansas City Chiefs, NBA champions Denver Nuggets, MLB's New York Yankees, WNBA champions Las Vegas Aces, and NHL's Boston Bruins.
Meanwhile, the Georgia Bulldogs led the way among college football programs. In soccer, Real Madrid and Barcelona FC, two of the most renowned clubs, were the top bets on bet365. The online sportsbook, with 90 million customers worldwide, is live in Colorado, Ohio, Kentucky, New Jersey, Virginia, Iowa, and Ontario, Canada.
Close to home
Regionality certainly played a role in bet365’s action for the year. The Ohio State Buckeyes saw plenty of wagers in their new legal sports betting state, ranking fourth in college football behind Georgia, Michigan, and Alabama. The Wolverines, according to bet365, were the most popular in Canada.
In the sports-betting province of Ontario, the Toronto Maple Leafs understandably garnered the most action, ranking behind only the Bruins and New York Rangers and ahead of champion Las Vegas Golden Knights in the combined North American market.
Player props
The most-bet player props on bet365 for 2023 show the thirst players have for scoring. Most points in the NBA, anytime touchdown scorer in the NFL and college football, shots on goal in the NHL, and MLB hits/milestones were the most wagered in their respective sports.
Specific players also generated a ton of action. In the NHL, Connor McDavid, Auston Matthews, Nathan MacKinnon, and David Pastrnak were the most-backed stars.
On the pitch, Erling Haaland, Mo Salah, and HM Son received the most soccer bets.
Messi Madness
In terms of individuals, no athlete in 2023 had a unique impact like Lionel Messi did when he left European soccer for North America’s MLS.
“I have been in this business over 21 years, and I haven’t seen another example of a player going to a newer league that isn’t considered amongst the top leagues in the world, have such a seismic impact on the betting action, if not the league itself. Action on Inter Miami was exponentially massive compared to prior action often by a thousandfold. Messi performance markets often took more than the whole game action for FT result and other match markets.”
- Aron Wattleworth, bet365 trading manager
Wattleworth compared the uptick in MLS action to when other big names like David Beckham, Steven Gerrard, Gareth Bale, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and David Villa joined the league. But none captured what Messi did, who was the most popular MLS player ever to receive anytime goal scored, 2 or more goals scored, and SOT over 1.5/2.5 bets.
“There aren’t enough hyperbolic metrics to measure his massive impact on the betting action, compared to prior arrival in any game he played in for the time that he was available and Inter were still in the hunt,” Wattleworth added. “Once injuries came and results didn’t keep up, the attention went away, but of the action taken, if Messi was playing or possibly playing, that was the most popular bet of the day.”
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