Sports

Updated on March 20, 2025 10:45 AM ET

Latest Polling on Sports Fandom

The latest poll from Ipsos continues to unpack what sports Americans play and watch, how they tune into their favorite games, and attitudes towards the biggest controversies in the world of sports.

Four in five Americans with professional sports teams in their city/nearest metro area say that these teams have a positive impact on their local economy. Americans overall also agree that sports stadiums are good investments for cities, although there is broad support for limiting the amount taxpayer funds used to fund these stadiums.

For more data, go here.

2024 Polling on Sports Fandom

The latest poll from Ipsos continues to unpack what sports Americans play and watch, how they tune into their favorite games, and attitudes towards the biggest controversies in the world of sports.

Four in five Americans, including 88% of the public that considers themselves to be sports fans, believe that sporting events are too expensive for the average person to attend. In the same vein, a majority also agrees that there are too many separate platforms needed to watch sports.

For more data, go here.

2023 Polling on Sports Fandom

The latest poll from Ipsos unpacks what sports Americans play and watch, how they tune into their favorite games, and attitudes towards the biggest controversies in the world of sports.

A slim majority of Americans, particularly Black Americans, support allowing college athletes to profit off their name, image, and likeness (NIL).

For more data, go here.

More data here.

Latest Polling on Sports Betting

Ipsos explores American attitudes and behavior toward sports betting, showing few Americans bet on sports as the country remains split on legalizing sports betting.
Polling shows that Americans are divided about legalizing in-person or online or app-based sports betting. Though, when forced to choose, most Americans agree that people should be allowed to bet and spend their money how they choose over feeling betting is wrong because it can lead to addictive behavior.

To see more, download the data here.

Still, 8% of Americans report betting on sports online or on an app in the past year, while 4% of have done so in-person. The NFL is the most popular league to bet on.

To see more, download the data here.

Ipsos Point of View: Sports in America

New Ipsos research explores what sports and sports fandom looks like in America today and how controversies in sports can reflect a broader political and social divide in American society, finding that not all Americans have access to activities.

To learn more, download the report here.

Policymakers invested in getting more Americans active and executives interested in advertising, communicating, or building business in any sector touching the world of sports need to understand that while these are fun and games, many critical differences exist in the public that may be the difference between success and failure.

Download the data here.

Ipsos Point of View: Sports betting is everywhere. How do Americans feel about it?

While only one in three Americans feel that sports betting is a way to get people more engaged with sports, 69% of sports bettors feel the same. Compared to the general public, they are more likely to self-describe as sports fans, play fantasy sports, go to live sporting events, and watch more niche types of sports, like esports.

 To learn more about the data behind sports betting, download the full report here.

People who don’t bet on sports don’t do so because of four broad reasons: money concerns, lack of knowledge, moral opposition, or it’s just illegal where they live.

 To learn more about the data behind sports betting, download the full report here.

More data and analysis from Ipsos

• What the Future: How the future of play will change the game for athletes, fans and brands, Ipsos analysis and polling, January 2023
• What the Future: Revisit our on demand webinar exploring our growing reliance on screens for our daily leisure hours and people’s outlook about the future of play from player equity to cost to fairness, January 2023
• More than half of adults across 34 countries plan to watch the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Ipsos polling, November 2022
• What the Future Sports, Ipsos, November 2021
• Global views on sports: 58% globally would like to practice more, Ipsos polling, August 2021