November 14, 2024

Not just America’s game: how American Football became one of the most popular sports for UK punters

New audiences

It is often said that American football is America’s sport; a view backed up by research which shows more than half the US population believe Gridiron fits this definition. It is perhaps unsurprising then, having cemented its place as the premier sport in the US, that the NFL has doubled-down on its efforts to globalise American football in recent years, introducing it to new audiences around the world through its growing series of international games.

This season there will be five in total; Rio De Janeiro last September and Munich last weekend, which bookended the three London games that took place in October at the state of the art Tottenham Hotspur stadium. It has been speculated that this will eventually expand to 16 games in foreign cities, with eight planned for next season and rumours of a bespoke $1bn media rights package in the works.

So are these international games helping to drive new support for the NFL in target markets such as the UK? Taking sports betting as a strong proxy for consumer interest, new data from Paddy Power shows that the NFL has succeeded in its aim, with American football now the third most popular sport to bet on for the brand’s UK and Irish active customers so far this year, behind soccer and horse racing. This is up from tenth spot in 2019 – just five years ago – and ahead of well-established and popular global sports like golf, boxing and tennis.

"We’ve seen a real jump in NFL activity this season for various reasons"

David Curran, Commercial Manager for Paddy Power, one of Flutter’s leading brands in the UK, with a strong heritage in sports betting, lists four key drivers – “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” – behind this shift.

Growing Interest in new markets

The first factor is likely underpinned by stronger TV viewership and improved coverage for international NFL games on Sky Sports and other channels, given these standalone games start at an earlier time (2.30pm GMT) on NFL Sundays when the majority kick-off at 6pm and others follow even later. Having been on UK TV screens for several years now, there is much better awareness of the London-based games amongst Paddy Power’s UK and Irish customer base.

As a result, the number of active customers betting on the London games and the amount they have staked, up 25% and 30% respectively on last year, are higher than overall growth on NFL during those weeks, which has seen actives up 21% & staking up 25% on 2023.

“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,” according to David.

Best-In-Class NFL Product

Paddy Power’s customers are also benefiting from the sustained investment and innovation in FanDuel’s NFL product in the US, which has the best range of team and player markets. Demonstrating the power of the Flutter Edge, such advancements can be enjoyed by customers at other Flutter brands, such as Paddy Power, almost instantaneously given the company’s unique ability to export innovation at pace through its Global Betting Platform. Consequentially, the proportion staked on BetBuilders (combined bets across one game) within overall staking has grown from 29% in 2023 to 34% during the opening weeks of this season.

What’s more, Flutter’s innate expertise in pricing, trading and risk management further strengthens its NFL customer offering globally. There are near 100 specialists that support FanDuel from Flutter’s Dublin office, focusing on risk operations, compliance, fraud, customer service and analytics. Combined, they are tasked with providing a consistent service to NFL customers regardless of the brand they are betting with or the timezone they are living in.

“From the outset, we wanted to ensure that we were maintaining the same service that was being given to customers from a risk and trading perspective, 24 hours of the day,”

said FanDuel’s Head of Trading Paddy Aherne who leads the Dublin team after establishing the operation in 2021. “Even if it was early in the US, we wanted to be able to manage the full cycle of an NFL weekend schedule, allowing us to surface markets quicker and to leverage our pricing opinion more effectively.”

Having evolved over time, Paddy’s team is now expertly placed to support Flutter’s global businesses – be it FanDuel or Paddy Power – navigate the earlier NFL games in London. “They're great for us because it allows us to showcase our skills as we take control of the reins for those games,” remarks Paddy, whose team works more collaboratively with colleagues linked to Flutter’s New Jersey and Melbourne trading hubs as the Sunday progresses, similar to a foreign exchange desk.

The Halo Effect

Lastly, Paddy Power’s sports bettors are naturally amongst the most avid soccer fans in the UK and given their focus on Sunday afternoons, there has been a notable crossover between the customers engaging with American football and its English-invented alternative. As such, these customers have enjoyed increased promotional activity around the NFL over the last number of seasons, showcasing Paddy Power’s industry-leading NFL BetBuilder as described above.

In October, the Jacksonville Jaguars’ 32-16 victory over New England Patriot’s saw the NFL’s adventure in London conclude for this season. However, with a deal in place to play a minimum of two regular season games each year in London up until the 2029 season, it looks like American football’s popularity amongst UK bettors – and those further afield – is only set to continue.