The US sports betting market is heading into the 2026 NFL season with little expected growth, while bookmakers in Europe are seeing stronger engagement around American football, particularly when games are staged locally.
The American Gaming Association estimates that regulated US sportsbooks will take $29.5 billion in NFL wagers during the 2026 season, almost unchanged from the $29.4 billion recorded a year earlier. The figure marks a significant slowdown after years of expansion following the spread of legal sports betting across the country.
Other forecasts also point to a mature US market. H2 Gambling Capital expects regulated football betting handle of approximately $31.4 billion during the NFL season, representing a 0.8% decline, although underlying demand is still projected to rise by about 4%. Citizens Equity Research has issued a more positive estimate of roughly 5% growth, but its calculation covers a broader definition of football wagering and is not directly comparable with NFL-specific forecasts.
UK and Ireland Deliver Stronger NFL Engagement
Europe remains far smaller than the US in overall NFL betting volume, and there is no single figure covering the entire continent. However, operator data shows significant growth in several established markets.
Flutter reported in 2025 that the number of active NFL customers at Paddy Power had risen 30% year on year and was four times higher than in 2021. American football had also climbed from the 10th-most popular sport among Paddy Power bettors in the UK and Ireland in 2019 to third place by 2024, behind only football and horse racing.
Entain recorded similar momentum through Ladbrokes and Coral. During the opening part of the 2024 NFL season, the number of customers betting on the league increased 65% year on year, while the total number of bets climbed 60% and stakes rose 46%.
Interest has also been visible around the Super Bowl. Entain said unique UK betting slips placed after midnight during Super Bowl LX increased for a third consecutive year, with overall late-night activity up 13% compared with 2023.
Germany Shows Different Betting Pattern
Germany presents a more mature picture.
Tipico data cited by Gambling Insider shows that the NFL has consistently ranked fifth among sports by betting turnover during its September-to-February season over the past five years.
The Super Bowl remains an exception. Turnover for the event is around 10 times higher than for a typical NFL playoff game and approximately 30 times the level generated by an average regular-season fixture.
Regular-season betting volumes, however, have remained broadly stable despite rising television audiences. That suggests the key challenge in Germany is converting growing NFL viewership into more consistent betting activity rather than simply attracting more fans.
German customers also continue to favour pre-match betting, with Tipico reporting an approximate two-to-one turnover split between pre-game and live wagers. Late-night kick-off times are considered one factor limiting in-play and retail activity.
European Games Produce Major Betting Spikes
The strongest betting increases have come from NFL games played on European soil.
Tipico said Germany’s first regular-season NFL game in 2022 generated roughly 2.5 times the turnover of an average NFL fixture. That ratio increased to 3.3 times in 2024 and 3.7 times in 2025. Despite those individual spikes, the operator has not yet seen a lasting increase in average betting turnover across the full season.
A similar pattern has emerged in the UK and Ireland. Paddy Power reported that active customers betting on the 2024 London series rose 25%, while stakes increased 30%.
The NFL’s first regular-season game in Ireland in 2025 proved even stronger. Pittsburgh Steelers’ 24-21 victory over the Minnesota Vikings at Croke Park became Paddy Power’s largest regular-season NFL event ever for both active customers and betting volume across the UK and Ireland. Flutter said it had recorded just under 500,000 active NFL customers during the previous season and was targeting more than 600,000.
The growth has encouraged closer commercial links between operators and the league. Paddy Power became the NFL’s official sportsbook partner in the UK and Ireland in 2025, while Flutter has increasingly adapted FanDuel’s US betting products for its European brands.
Expanded International Schedule Creates New Test
The NFL is now accelerating its global expansion. The 2026 season features a record nine international regular-season games across four continents and seven countries, including three games in London as well as fixtures in Munich, Madrid and Paris.
League owners have also approved an increase to as many as 10 international games from 2027.
That expansion gives European sportsbooks more opportunities to build local engagement, but it also raises questions over whether the international schedule can maintain the scarcity that has helped individual games generate such strong betting activity.
For now, the US and European NFL betting markets appear to be moving in different directions. US wagering is approaching a plateau after years of rapid legal-market growth, while bookmakers in Europe are still expanding the NFL’s position among local bettors.
The biggest opportunity in Europe appears to come from games played locally. The longer-term challenge will be converting those high-profile betting spikes into sustained engagement throughout the full NFL season.