It’s Super Bowl season again, and almost half of Ontarians who plan to watch Sunday’s big game will be betting on the action.

A survey conducted by Leger for the Responsible Gambling Council (RGC) released on Tuesday suggested that 63% of Ontarians plan to watch the Kansas City Chiefs square off against the Philadelphia Eagles.

Just less than half of the viewers (48%) intend to place at least one bet on it. That is up from 41% last year but is down from a high of 54% in 2023, which marked the first Super Bowl since Ontario opened up its saturated commercial online gambling market.

The propensity to bet on the Super Bowl skews towards older generations. The report found that Ontario sports bettors aged 45+ are more likely to bet on the game (52%) than those aged 18-44 (45%). White viewers are significantly more likely to bet on Super Bowl LIX (54%) than Ontarians who are Black, Indigenous or people of colour (42%).

Betting increases excitement for many

The online survey of 1,147 Ontario adults, conducted between Nov. 22 and Dec. 6, 2024, found that half (50%) of those who plan to bet will use a legal sportsbook website or app to do so, which is up from 44% in 2024 and 41% in 2023. As many as 15% will bet using several sportsbooks.

Less than half of bettors plan to wager more than $100 or place more than one bet the game. The large majority (86%) of those who will bet on the game noted that they will be drinking alcohol when they do so.

As for why people will be betting, nearly half (47%) of those who will wager on the Super Bowl say betting adds to the game’s excitement. Around one-fifth (22%) bet because they believe they are knowledgeable about the teams and players, because they feel confident about their chances of winning (20%) or because their favourite team or player is playing (18%).

Two-thirds (67%) of all respondents believe their sports knowledge gives them an edge in predicting outcomes, a proportion which is higher for men between 18 and 44 (70%) but which is down from the overall rate of 74% last year.

Ads prompt Ontarians to wager

The survey also assessed some wider trends when it comes to how Ontarians gamble.

Leger found that more than one-third of all respondents (35%) placed a bet in the last 12 months after seeing a gambling ad online or on TV. That proportion is greater among populations that the RGC identifies as at risk for problem gambling, including people under 44 years of age (42%) and BIPOC Ontarians (44%).

In addition, 36% report having bet more than they can afford to lose in the last 12 months. That is the same proportion of respondents who say they sometimes feel anger or frustration at losing a bet, who feel stress or anxiety around betting or who problem with gambling. It’s also significantly higher than the proportion of people who use spending limit tools (23%) or use personalized spending reports or take a cooling off period (20%).

The report found that one-third of those who will bet on the Super Bowl don’t plan on using any features to help them manage their betting (33 per cent).