Almost a quarter of Florida residents are betting on sports, a new survey has discovered, with 80% of punters wagering on the outcome of NFL games over the course of the past 12 months.
Those were the findings of a University of North Florida and Sport Impact Jax survey of over 800 Florida residents polled between January and February.
Football is far and away Floridian punters’ favorite sport when it comes to betting. Fifty-five percent of online bettors also said they had placed at least one college football bet in the past year.
And most Floridians, the data indicates, are not big fans of complex bets. The majority of punters (60%) said their wagers were moneyline bets.
Also known as outrights, moneyline wagers are the simplest type of sports bet around. They typically involve placing money on one of the teams in a head-to-head match before the action begins.
Florida Sports Betting Habits: Moneyline Wagers Still King
Most Floridians aren’t betting big on sports. Almost three-quarters of Sunshine State punters stake $20 or less on sports games, with just one in 10 typically betting over $50 on a single game.
NFL betting is on the rise across the US, with bettors placing $30 billion in wagers on the league last season. But NFL executives appear to think the big bucks are not in moneyline bets, but in-game wagers.
In March, CNN reported that the NFL is investing heavily in the sportsbook provider Genius Sports.
Genius specializes in in-game betting solutions, and says it is on a mission to “convert traditional fans into high-engagement, in-play bettors.”
The NFL owns a stake of at least 6% in the firm, which says in-play betting now accounts for about 30% of all bets placed on NFL games.
In Florida, almost half of punters said they had placed an in-game bet in the past 12 months.
Sports Betting on the Rise in Florida
Sports betting was officially legalized in Florida in 2021 through a gaming compact with the Seminole Tribe. However, a range of legal obstacles delayed sports betting until late 2023.
The Seminole Tribe’s Hard Rock Bet remains the Sunshine State’s sole retail mobile partner. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, over two-thirds of Floridians say this is the platform they use to place their sports bets.
The tribe notably opened the first US high-stakes bingo hall in 1979. Some have argued that the tribe’s monopoly on gambling in Florida has led to a rise in criminal activity.
Law enforcement agencies continue to crack down on clandestine betting dens throughout the state. Raids have seen police arrest a county sheriff and seize dozens of illegally installed slot machines.
