Charting the Growth in Sports Betting

This was first published in Our Best Intel, Morning Consult's weekly briefing on key trends emerging in our Always On survey tracking. Sign-up to get these insights first. 

31% of U.S. adults say they bet on sports, up from 22% in January 2022.

The climb has been steady: roughly 20% through 2022, 23% by the end of 2023, 26% by the end of 2024, and holding near 30% for the past year.

The growth has come primarily from habitual bettors. The share of adults betting daily has nearly doubled since early 2022, from 4% to 7%, and weekly betting rose from about 8% to 12%. The casual tier (betting about once a month or less) has barely moved.

Gen Z is catching up to Millennials. Millennials remain the most active betting generation at 43%, up from 31% in January 2022. But Gen Z posted the steepest climb, from 19% to 35%; it pulled even with Gen X in mid-2023 and now leads by 5+ points. 

Our read: The all-adults line has mostly plateaued around 30% since early 2025, which raises the possibility the market may be approaching its natural ceiling. However, the doubling of daily and weekly betting means the category's growth is increasingly concentrated in a heavier-usage core. In past years, usage spikes have tended to happen around the start of the NFL season and Super Bowl, meaning the coming months should provide a test of whether the plateau will hold or if the industry is still gaining new users. 

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