Even before the Supreme Court overturned the federal ban on sports gambling in 2018 with its Murphy v. NCAA ruling, the fall was known as the biggest season for sports betting.
Throughout season 2 of “The Sopranos” (2000), the crime family keeps referring to football season as the “busy season” for its lucrative, illicit gambling operations. For decades, the NFL and college football dominated the sports gambling scene when it was mostly underground.
Now that sports gambling is mainstream and there are commercials seemingly every other minute promoting it, that dominance has only grown.
Especially among Millennial and Gen Z bettors.
According to a research note from Bank of America analysts, online betting adoption is accelerating, thanks in part to a bump from the World Cup tournament this summer, with first-time users in June and July more than tripling from January levels. And the growth is almost exclusive to young people.
Gen Z and Millennials accounted for 88% of online betting activity in July.
But the house always wins, and the financial implications from this shift are already being felt, according to the BoA analysis.
Football season drives increased gambling
Bank of America recently probed online betting payments from its account holders to prediction markets and sports betting platforms (excluding online social gambling from typical casinos while focusing on those dedicated to sports).
About 5% of all Bank of America customers participated in online betting in July, but consumer adoption of online betting platforms increased 40% in the month, compared to the start of the year. This was driven mostly by first-timers, who jumped to 3x that of January users in June and July.
BofA defines football season as September through February, and first-time user growth grew 22% last football season. And once you start, it’s hard to stop.
“According to a recent CivicScience survey, over a third of those who partake in online sports betting did so weekly and almost a quarter placed bets daily (Exhibit 3). Women were less likely to report doing so frequently (i.e., daily or weekly) compared to men,” BofA reported in its research note, viewed by TheStreet.
About a third of online sports betters do so weekly. Nearly a quarter participate daily, while about the same amount participate monthly, according to a survey with 4,559 responses over a year’s time period.
Who is placing the bets?
While the data show some commonalities, a few points immediately stand out when it comes to sports betting.
According to BofA, online betting activity is relatively evenly split among income terciles, though lower-income accounts did account for 37% of wagers, while middle-income accounts accounted for 34% and high-income accounts were responsible for the remaining 29% of bets placed.
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But among generations, it’s clear that young people are driving the online betting revolution.
Gen Z represented the biggest share of online bettors in July, accounting for 48% of bets placed. Millennials came in second with a 40% share.
Meanwhile, only 9% of bets were from Gen Xers, and only 3% were from Baby Boomers.
“The concentration of betting activity among Gen Z may reflect broader shifts toward app-based financial and entertainment experiences,” BofA said. “Younger consumers have generally been quicker to adopt emerging digital platforms, including crypto, buy now pay later (BNPL) products, and online marketplaces.”
Another commonality is the financial health of the households placing bets.
As BofA deposit account data revealed, households that participated in online betting in 2026 had median deposit account balances that were only 59% of those who did not.
The house still wins
The next obvious question to ask is: Are the gamblers making money?
FanDuel, DraftKings, and every casino in the world would go out of business if they paid more out in winnings than they collected in bets, and BofA account data suggest that their business model is still sound.
Related: Kalshi, Polymarket bets are big problem for NFL
BofA used payments data to measure the inflow-to-outflow payment ratio of customers placing bets. This isn’t a perfect measurement, since the bank can only see money deposited to and money sent from those platforms monthly and may not capture winnings that remain on the platforms and have not been withdrawn.
But the analysis, based on its limited view, shows that inflows were less than three quarters of outflows. In layman’s terms, online gamblers recovered less than 75 cents for every dollar they wagered.
Gen Z is better at online gambling than older generations
While nearly half of online gamblers are Gen Z, according to BofA, it’s possible that they’re flocking toward the vice because they are good at it.
Or at least better at it than their parents, uncles, and grandparents.
The July inflow-to-outflow ratio for all gamblers was below 75% for the fourth straight month, but high-income Gen Z gamblers were winning back about 82 cents on every dollar they gambled, and middle-income Gen Z bettors were also getting back above 80 cents.
Even low income Gen Z betters performed better than average, clawing back about 77 cents for each dollar bet.
Meanwhile, the highest-performing Millennials were middle-income bettors, who had inflows of about 75%, followed closely by higher-income and lower-income bettors. For Gen X, 70% was the ceiling set by lower-income bettors, and for Baby Boomers, higher-income bettors led the way to about 68%, before big drop-offs from middle- and lower-income bettors at 61% and 58%, respectively.
1 in 5 bettors mistakes sports betting for investment
BofA included prediction markets such as Kalshi and Polymarket in its analysis. Prediction-market platforms’ claims that they are more akin to the stock market than sports books have allowed them to escape the typical scrutiny sports gaming companies face.
That blurred line may help explain why, despite consistently losing more money than they gamble, one in five gamblers considers sports betting a type of investment. “Despite the lack of profitability, investing and betting appear increasingly blurred for some consumers,” BofA analysts said.
“Prediction markets, crypto assets, retail trading, and sports betting all share common features such as community participation and real-time pricing.”
While 20% of respondents consider sports betting to be a form of investment, Gen Z, the generation that grew up with legal sports gambling, is twice as likely to look at gambling that way.
Across all generations, buying event contracts on prediction markets was more likely to be considered an investment rather than a sports bet.
Related: The Hidden Danger of Sports Betting: What “Loss Chasing” Does to Your Finances
