Sports betting is one of the most popular Irish past times. The Irish are some of the most prolific gamblers in the world, sometimes spending as much as €10,000 a minute gambling in various forms. Of all the ways to bet, though, the Irish spend most of their money on sports betting. If you’re thinking about getting into sports betting in Ireland through one of the sites at Irishbettingsites.ie, you may be wondering what the most popular sports to bet on are. There are a few to choose from with big, extensive markets, so you are not limited in sports betting!
Let’s take a look at the biggest and most popular ways to bet on sports in Ireland.
- Football
It probably won’t surprise you that football betting takes the lion’s share of sports betting in Ireland. Of all sports betting in Ireland, around 40% of it goes on football betting. The biggest games bring in anywhere from half a million to a million viewers on average. It’s also the biggest pursuit for Irish men in the country, with around 8.8% playing association football and another 3.45 enjoying Gaelic.
Betting on football is a great choice as it will always offer plenty of choice and markets. All the biggest operators will offer odds of some kind on football, from the biggest matches to the smaller leagues.
Football is always a safe bet for sports betting in Ireland. Make sure to seek out the best bonuses and promotions, as you can make a lot of lucrative free wins with some of the welcome offers and promotional football bets.
- Horse racing
Though horse racing might not be as popular as simply a spectator sport, as a betting sport, it’s up there with the most popular of them all. In fact, you might even say that horse racing popularised the betting industry.
Every year, Irish racecourses are visited by around 1.3 million spectators. The biggest races occur at the Punchestown festival, held in April, and the Galway Races in July. Both of these events attract huge crowds of around 100,000, and many of them come to bet as well!
Of course, there’s also plenty of betting that goes on off-track, too. Bookies offer markets on pretty much any race they can, and the events themselves are thrilling and fast paced. If a football match is too slow for you, then the horse racing might be the best bet.
Whether you bet from home with a site or at the track, horse racing is a great event to bet on.
- Rugby
Some might think of it as football’s less popular brother, but here in Ireland, rugby is a huge deal, too. It’s actually one of the fastest growing sports in the whole country, and some think it could even be on par with football in the next few years.
There are around 21,000 adult males who regularly play rugby in Ireland, from the amateur games to the professional leagues. In terms of attendance at games, rugby accounts for around 8% of total sports attendance—not that much smaller than association football, at 16%.
Again, this means that the market is ripe for betting. All major operators will offer markets on the big rugby games, and on plenty of the smaller ones, too. It can even make betting on rugby a bit easier that it isn’t as popular. The events won’t be as huge, so you may get more favourable odds from the operator.
If you’re already a fan of rugby, it’s definitely a good one to bet on.
- Boxing
Boxing is another huge and popular sport in Ireland enjoyed by a lot of the population. In terms of the Olympics, it’s the most successful of all Olympic sports in Ireland. Boxing has a great home in Ireland, and its biggest events are some of the most watched of all sporting events.
Betting on boxing is often a lot less daunting because the variables are reduced. You don’t have eleven men to a team all with differing abilities and aptitudes, making betting more uncertain. If you have even the slightest knowledge of boxing, you can make a good guess about the outcome of a bout.
Again, whether it’s the biggest, landmark events or the smaller ones in between, the biggest operators like these will offer markets on Irish boxing. Given the size of some events, too, the promotions can be really lucrative—so don’t miss out on betting on boxing.
Whatever kind of sport you like, whether it’s team sports, racing, or whatever else, you will be covered somewhere in the Irish betting market. Whether you want to bet on the biggest football games and horse races, or the most obscure events in rugby and boxing, all you have to do is go out and find the right betting site or shop for you!
