As NFL and college football teams get ready to line up for the upcoming season, North Carolina sports fans are lining their money up behind them.
North Carolina will have legal online sports betting during the football season for the first time since the state legalized the activity in March, giving the state’s sports fanatics a chance to bet on their favorite teams such as NC State, UNC, Duke and the Carolina Panthers.
DraftKings, a legal sportsbook in North Carolina, provided the North State Journal insights of where its North Carolina customers have been placing their bets in different futures betting markets across the NFL and college football. The insights detail the top 10 wagers by the percentage of the total handle (amount of money wagered) and the percentage of total bets in various markets from the time they opened in March to early August.
In regard to DraftKings’ college football futures markets, the insights report local betting activity from March 11 to August 9.
Within the ACC winner market, North Carolinians placed market-highs of 48% of the handle and 27% of the bets on the Wolfpack. NC State is the only local team to make the top five, and it is at the top despite DraftKings listing their odds at +650. That’s worse odds to win the conference than Florida State (+290) and Clemson (+350), two teams tied for the second-most bets share of 16% in the time frame.
In other conferences, local bettors have placed the most bets on Georgia to win the SEC, Ohio State to win the Big Ten and Kansas State to win the Big Twelve.
A towering 42% of bets in the College Football Playoff national championship winner market went to Georgia, yet 30% of the market handle went to Ohio State. NC State performed as one of the top 10 wagers in the market as received 6% of the handle and 5% of the bets even though it has +13,000 odds to win it all.
The Heisman Trophy winner saw the closest market activity shared by DraftKings as three quarterbacks, Dillon Gabriel (Oregon), Carson Beck (Georgia) and Jalen Milroe (Alabama) received 11% of the handle. Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers joined Milroe and Gabriel as the highest recipients of bets (8% each).
For its NFL futures markets, the insights cover the state’s betting activity on DraftKings from March 11 to August 8.
When it comes to which team will win the NFC this season, North Carolina bettors put most of their money on the Detroit Lions. The Lions, listed with +550 odds to win the conference by DraftKings, received a market-high 21% of the NFC winner handle.
However, local bettors didn’t place as many bets on the Lions as other teams. The Philadelphia Eagles, which holds the second-highest share of the market handle, and the San Francisco 49ers, which is sixth in the handle share, both received 20% of the total bets while the Lions received just 13%.
Although it was the worst team in the NFL last season, North Carolina still showed faith in its home team Carolina Panthers, which had the third-highest market handle share of 15% and was tied for second with the Lions in bets percentage despite having +12,000 odds to win the NFC.
For the AFC winner, local bettors are looking to win big on the Houston Texans which held a market-high handle share of 17% despite having the fifth-best odds of +850 and just 12% of the bets. That handle share was higher than the Kansas City Chiefs and the Baltimore Ravens which respectively held the second and third-most handle percentage (14% and 12%) and the first and second best odds amongst the top 10 wagers (+300 and +550, respectively).
But, North Carolinians placed significantly more bets on the AFC favorites with 25% going to the Ravens and 24% going to the Chiefs.
For NFL MVP, Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud (+850 odds) handled the most money out of bettors (21% of the handle) while Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen and Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow (both with +900 odds) both received a marginally market-high of 10%, just one percentage point over Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (+475 odds).
Local bettors didn’t spend significantly more money on any one team to win the Super Bowl as the Eagles and Chiefs were tied at 11% of the market share, but the Chiefs received the highest percentage of bets with 15%. The next highest team on the bets share was the 49ers, last year’s Super Bowl runner up.
