American sports are quite different from others across the world. Historically, a lot of nations have stuck to sports such as soccer, which is huge in the United Kingdom.
However, plenty of countries are crazy about sports and have more than enough appetite to watch more than one sport. NFL is one of the American exports that is growing in the UK.
Gambling is also big in the UK, so you will find plenty of people looking for the best NFL bets today and watching their choices on television, even though a lot of the matches end up being in the early morning hours.
There are a lot of gambling markets in the sport and gambling is legal in the whole of the United Kingdom, so people can bet on their phones or in-person on the NFL.
How the NFL Has Grown
The growth of the league and its popularity is not coincidental. Many sports teams are focusing more on marketing, such as the league does itself.
Since the year 2007, London has hosted NFL games. This has led to fans from all over the country coming to this central hub for NFL ticket exchange, regardless of whether they feel an allegiance to any of the NFL teams out there.
It’s a fun event where all are welcome and there are four different NFL games held in the UK every year, including many at the very impressive Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. There has even been a rumor that a UK franchise in the football league might not be far away.
Sports fans in the country love to feel involved and to be a part of the sports, and millions of people every year go to soccer games.
The option to watch US sports has been available to UK fans for a long time, but being able to actually go and soak up the atmosphere in person has made a huge difference to fans in London.
As well as the games, there are fan zones and specific NFL tailgates, which is a way to let people in the UK experience the sport.
Tottenham Hotspur signed a 10-year deal committing to host two games each and every season throughout this period. Their newly-developed stadium has an American football pitch that can be unveiled when it is needed.
The Tottenham website explains: “An artificial field underneath our revolutionary retractable grass pitch means the NFL also has its own playing surface.”
It is the only purpose-built NFL stadium outside of the US and it will play host to another 120,000 plus fans this October when we see more games in the country.
How Many in the UK Watch the NFL?
In 2021, an incredible four million UK viewers watched or listened to Super Bowl LV, which broke previous records. The Super Bowl is broadcast late in the evening in the UK but this doesn’t prevent it from getting some impressive viewing figures.
On top of this, Sky Sports carries the NFL, and their impressive coverage helps millions of different people to watch the sport.
A lot of people have memberships to Sky to watch traditional sports in the country, such as soccer, but will try out watching NFL as it is carried on the same network.
The BBC, a British institution of broadcasting, also has its own NFL show, where the latest news and events in the sport are discussed. This is often shown after Match of the Day, the soccer highlights program.
Impressively, the BBC has claimed that this show has a reach of one million viewers every single week, showing just how many people in the country are starting to pay close attention to the sport.
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The NFL has become so much bigger than it was 10 or 20 years ago in the UK. It is said that there are around 13 million viewers of the sport in the UK, thanks to better availability and broadcasting.
This means about 20 percent of the population has some interest in watching American football.
While it isn’t quite up there with other sports institutions (the Premier League was watched by over 25 million people every single season) the NFL’s figures are showing steady growth.
Don’t be surprised to see even more UK fans and even some events in the country to go with the four games that are already played in the UK.
If there is to be an NFL team in the country, who knows how mainstream the sport may become in the coming years?
