Does Absence of California Sports Betting Hurt Fans?

If you are a sports fan, living in Los Angeles is apparently Nirvana for you. Unless, of course, your fandom includes betting on sports. Because California sports betting is not yet legal.

WalletHub, a personal finance company, recently released their rankings of the best places for sports fans to live. If you need to re-read that sentence, we understand. You typically would not expect a personal finance company to provide sports market rankings.

But WalletHub used more than 50 metrics to determine where sports fans would be most happy to call home. Their sample size includes comparing and contrasting more than 400 cities and rating each based on how they fared in their metrics.

The end result is fascinating for many reasons. But especially because Los Angeles won. We get the appeal of the market itself. Hollywood, good weather and whatnot. Even so, sports betting in the United States has become so ubiquitous, we know access to wagering factored into this equation. And since sports betting in California is not yet legal, you would think it works against L.A. as well as other cities in The Golden State.

Apparently, it doesn’t. Or at least, it is not a huge factor.

Los Angeles Finished Top Five in Most Sport Categories

The final score for Los Angeles as part of these rankings comes out to a 52.16. That comfortably puts them in front of second place Boston, Massachusetts. They finished with a score of 50.84.

It also turns out that WalletHub ranked cities for the sports fan by particular sport. They included football, basketball, baseball, soccer and hockey. Here is where Los Angeles ranked in each category out of more than 400 cities:

Baseball Rank: 2
Basketball Rank: 1
Football: 4
Hockey Rank: 21
Soccer: 1

At first glance, the hockey rank stands out. But remember, Los Angeles does not have a hockey team. They are home to the Los Angeles Dodgers (MLB), Los Angeles Lakers (NBA), Los Angeles Clippers (NBA), Los Angeles Rams (NFL), Los Angeles Chargers (NFL) and Los Angeles Galaxy (MLS).

The sheer volume of teams in a central location probably always guaranteed L.A. the top spot. Not many other markets can rival that total.

It is a little surprising that they didn’t finish atop the baseball rankings. The Dodgers just won the World Series and are among MLB’s flagship franchises. Then again, the New York Yankees exist. So that makes sense.

Our final observation is Los Angeles’ football rank. Climbing inside the top five when you only got NFL franchises within the past decade is quite the achievement.

The Top-10 Places to Live for Sports Fans is Littered with Markets That Have Legal Wagering

If the absence of sports betting in California worked against Los Angeles in these rankings, it was not nearly enough to rip it out of first place. Snagging that pole position gets all the more impressive when looking at which other markets made the cut. Here is the complete list of the top 10 places in the United States for sports fan to live:

Los Angeles (California)
Boston (Massachusetts)
Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania
New York (New York)
Dallas (Texas)
Miami (Florida)
Philadelphia (Pennsylvania)
San Francisco (California)
Washington D.C.
Cincinnati (Ohio)

With the exception of Dallas, Los Angeles and San Francisco, the rest of the rankings are populated by cities in states that have legal sports betting. (By the way: It is somewhat wild that New York only checks in at fourth. We thought that they would have a case for No. 2 now that sports betting in New York is legal.) That doesn’t seem like a coincidence.

To be honest, it is impressive that two cities from The Golden State appear here when California sports betting remains illegal. If that is part of the appeal of sports fandom, you think a state without it would be hard-pressed to spit out two-top eight cities.

Future of Sports Betting in California will Likely be Revisited Soon

Given that The Golden State is home to so many markets with vast amounts of sports interest, everyone continues to wonder when they will join the legal-wagering fray.

Thirty-nine states, in addition to Washington D.C. have now approved some form of legal sports betting. This puts California sports betting laws in the shrinking minority. And the timeline on when that might change remains opaque.

The last attempt to legalize California sports betting failed in spectacular fashion. Two bills that would have legalized sports betting in California failed at the polls in 2022. The outlook was so bleak thereafter that there wasn’t even a proposal on the 2024 ballot.

Circumstances are ripe for the wait to continue. However, it seems that tribal leaders believe the California sports betting push will resume in 2025 or 2026.

Granted, this does not mean the next attempt will be successful. A lot of questions must still be answered. Last time around, online sportsbooks and California tribes found themselves at odds. It paved the way for one of the most expensive back-and-forth campaigns in the United States’ history. If the two sides have not found a collaboration ground, another year or two won’t matter. California sports betting will remain illegal.

Of course, if that is the case, we do know one thing: California sports betting laws are not going to impact the market's appeal to the average sports fan.

Take a look at this list of the top online sportsbooks so you can find one that works for all of your sports betting needs: