NFL Betting Handle Flatlines in US as European Markets Keep Climbing
US sportsbooks brace for their flattest NFL season yet, while UK, Irish and German operators report fresh growth around the league's overseas games.
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited by the ON360 newsroom.
American sportsbooks are entering the 2026 NFL season with their weakest wagering growth outlook since legal betting began spreading across the United States, according to Gambling Insider. At the same time, operators in the U.K., Ireland and Germany are reporting some of their strongest NFL betting numbers yet, particularly around games staged on their own soil.
The American Gaming Association projects U.S. sportsbooks will take in $29.5 billion in NFL wagers this season, barely above last year’s estimated $29.4 billion. H2 Gambling Capital is gloomier still, forecasting $31.4 billion in regulated football handle, down 0.8 percent, even though it estimates underlying betting demand is actually rising by roughly 4 percent. Citizens Equity Research is more upbeat, projecting about 5 percent growth, though its figure covers broader football wagering and isn’t directly comparable to the NFL-only estimates.
UK and Irish bettors keep piling in
Flutter said in September 2025 that active NFL customers at Paddy Power had grown 30 percent year over year and were four times higher than in 2021. The league has also climbed the charts among Paddy Power’s U.K. and Irish customer base, moving from 10th most popular sport in 2019 to third by 2024, trailing only soccer and horse racing.
Entain reported similar momentum through Ladbrokes and Coral during the opening stretch of the 2024 season, with NFL bettors up 65 percent, bets placed up 60 percent, and total stakes up 46 percent. Around Super Bowl LX in February, Entain said unique U.K. bet slips placed after midnight rose 13 percent since 2023, the third straight year of growth in late-night wagering.
London-hosted games have driven similar spikes. Paddy Power saw active customers betting on its 2024 London series rise 25 percent year over year, with stakes up 30 percent.
Germany shows a steadier, more mature pattern
Data supplied to Gambling Insider by Tipico paints a different picture in Germany, where the NFL has ranked fifth by betting turnover in the operator’s regular September-to-February season for five straight years running. Average regular-season turnover has stayed broadly flat, and actually dipped slightly last season, even as television audiences kept growing. RTL’s broadcast of Super Bowl LX averaged 1.30 million viewers and peaked at 1.87 million, and the network says its regular-season prime-time NFL slot posted record free-TV audience shares for a third consecutive season.
The Super Bowl itself operates on a different scale entirely. Tipico said turnover on Super Bowl Sunday runs roughly 10 times that of a playoff game and about 30 times an average regular-season matchup, putting it in the same range as a marquee Bundesliga fixture. “The Super Bowl… surges to a level comparable to that generated by a leading Bundesliga fixture… showing this event has gone truly mainstream in Germany,” Tipico told Gambling Insider.
Germany-hosted regular-season games have become individually significant betting events even without lifting the wider season. The NFL’s first German game in 2022 generated about 2.5 times an average matchup’s turnover; that multiplier rose to 3.3 in 2024 and 3.7 in 2025. “The German games are therefore increasingly powerful individual betting events, but have not yet produced a measurable long-term increase in betting activity across the entire NFL season,” Tipico said. Prematch wagering also remains roughly twice as popular as live betting there, which Tipico attributes partly to time-zone-driven late kickoffs limiting live and retail action.
Why it matters for Canadian bettors
Ontario’s regulated operators already carry heavy NFL betting menus, and the league’s growing international footprint, including games in the U.K. and Germany, gives a preview of how far single-sport betting demand can stretch once local supply matures. Players wagering through iGaming Ontario-registered operators can still use deposit limits, time-outs and self-exclusion tools regardless of which market’s numbers are climbing fastest.
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