Top Sports, Esports & Tournaments to Bet on with Crypto

Biggest Sports to Bet On

Crypto sportsbooks cover all major sports, along with a wide range of minor and niche options. Whether it’s North America–focused sports like football, basketball, and baseball, globally popular sports such as soccer, golf, and tennis, or even modern betting verticals like esports, the best crypto betting sites have them covered with a huge selection of pre-event and live betting markets.

In this section, we’ll quickly walk you through some of the biggest sports you can expect to find at crypto sportsbooks.

Soccer

Soccer remains the most bet-on sport globally due to its unparalleled popularity and widespread appeal. That popularity is only set to increase further in 2026, with the FIFA World Cup taking place in the United States, Mexico, and Canada, an event guaranteed to attract billions of viewers worldwide.

Outside of major tournaments, soccer is so popular to bet on because of the constant stream of fixtures from around the world. From domestic leagues and cup competitions to international fixtures, the sport is extremely accessible to new bettors thanks to simple, easy-to-understand markets, while still offering detailed and complex options for more experienced bettors.

With enormous depth across traditional match markets, live betting, futures, and special wagers, soccer betting offers something for everyone.

Football

While not as popular globally, football is comfortably the biggest sport for viewing and betting in the United States. The NFL season runs from August to February, culminating in the Super Bowl, which is second only to the FIFA World Cup in terms of global viewership and betting interest.

Although football betting features all the traditional betting markets, such as moneylines, spreads, and totals, it stands out for its prop-heavy nature, with game and player props proving especially popular. The season-ending Super Bowl also features unique novelty prop bets that attract casual bettors, including markets related to the National Anthem, the halftime show, and even the colour of the Gatorade poured on the winning coach.

Football is also well-suited to live betting. The average NFL game lasts over three hours despite having just 60 minutes of game time, creating frequent breaks in play that allow bettors to place wagers in a more relaxed, in-play environment.

Basketball

While not quite as dominant as football in North America, basketball is arguably the more global sport thanks to the popularity of several international competitions, including major European leagues such as the EuroLeague, which complement the NBA, the undisputed pinnacle of the sport for basketball betting.

Unlike many North America–focused sports, basketball also has strong international competition, with Olympic basketball offering the chance to see the world’s top nations compete on the biggest stage.

Basketball is an extremely high-scoring sport, making it ideal for in-play betting and totals markets, as bettors can identify momentum shifts and scoring runs as the game unfolds.

Baseball

Baseball, particularly its biggest global competition, Major League Baseball (MLB), has enormous popularity in the United States and strong followings in parts of Asia, with Japan and South Korea in particular boasting highly competitive domestic leagues.

Like soccer, baseball features a long domestic season with a constant stream of games and significant daily betting volume. This makes it ideal for research-based bettors who favour analytics and data-driven strategies, helped by the vast availability of statistics relating to team and player form.

Additionally, the long duration of each game, combined with frequent breaks in play, creates excellent live baseball betting opportunities without the pressure of rapidly shifting odds.

Ice Hockey

Ice hockey has strong crossover appeal between the United States and Canada, serving as Canada’s national sport and featuring teams from both countries competing in the NHL. The sport is also extremely popular in parts of Europe, particularly Scandinavia and Eastern Europe, which creates additional international betting interest due to the number of European players competing in the league.

In hockey betting terms, ice hockey is one of the most comparable North American sports to soccer, characterized by fast-paced action and a wide range of pre-match and in-play betting markets. The NHL season culminates in the marquee Stanley Cup Playoffs, which generate substantial betting volume.

Tennis

Perhaps second only to soccer in terms of year-round betting opportunities, tennis betting offers strong options across both the men’s and women’s games. The ATP and WTA Tours travel globally throughout the season, with the four Grand Slam tournaments, including Wimbledon and the US Open, serving as the biggest betting events of the year.

Tennis betting also extends to lower-tier competitions such as the Challenger Tour and ITF events, meaning bettors are rarely short of markets to choose from.

Due to the often clear gap in quality between players, particularly in the early rounds of tournaments, handicap and totals markets are especially popular. Bets on total games or sets, along with game and set handicaps, are widely used to balance odds.

For those who enjoy in-play action, live tennis betting can even be placed on a point-by-point basis.

Combat Sports (UFC & Boxing)

Combat sports offer fewer regular betting opportunities than league-based sports, but events take place most weekends and tend to generate significant betting interest, particularly among crypto-native audiences.

Bettors can wager on a variety of markets at boxing betting sites, including fight winner, method of victory, and round betting. Due to the succession of bouts on a single fight card, combat sports also offer strong parlay potential, allowing multiple selections across several fights to be combined into one bet.

Esports

A relatively new category for betting, esports has become hugely popular among younger audiences, which closely matches the profile of many bettors. This has given esports increasing importance at crypto sportsbooks.

Unique among the sports listed here, esports can almost be viewed as a category in its own right, as it comprises multiple competitive titles, each effectively operating as its own distinct sport. Traditional sports fans can bet on games such as FIFA and Madden, while FPS fans can wager on titles like Call of Duty. Meanwhile, established esports titles such as League of Legends, Valorant, and Counter-Strike continue to be among the most heavily bet-on games.

Popular Esports betting markets vary depending on the game, but match winner betting is typically the most common option across all esports.

Cricket

Cricket is a unique sport in that it is widely regarded as the second most popular sport in the world, behind soccer, in terms of global audience, despite its popularity being concentrated in a relatively small number of countries. The majority of its fan base comes from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, whose combined populations account for a significant share of the global total. The sport is also extremely popular in the UK, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Australia, and New Zealand.

Cricket is played across several formats, each offering different betting dynamics. Traditional Test matches last multiple days and are typically more suited to pre-match betting, particularly on match winner markets. Shorter formats, such as One Day Internationals and T20 cricket, are far more action-packed and run-heavy, making them ideal for live cricket betting.

Golf

Golf is unique among major betting sports due to the large field sizes, which make selecting the outright winner challenging but also create the potential for very high odds.

The sport is dominated by the PGA Tour and the four major championships, while the DP World Tour and LIV Golf ensure there are usually multiple tournaments available to bet on each week across different regions. With starting fields often exceeding 100 players, even favourites tend to be priced at longer odds than in most other sports, creating strong value opportunities.

The outright winner market is comfortably the most popular betting option in golf betting. However, a wide range of prop markets are also available, including three-ball matchups, make-the-cut betting, and hole-in-one specials.

Most Popular Sports Betting Markets

Each sport has its own unique betting markets, particularly when it comes to prop bets. However, there are also several common market types found across multiple sports, even if different names are sometimes used to refer to them.
In this section, we’ll give you an overview of the key betting markets you can expect to find at sportsbooks and how they work.

Moneyline / Match Winner

The most common betting market is also the easiest to understand. The match winner market, also known as the moneyline, simply requires you to predict the winner of a sporting event.
In sports where a draw is not possible, this is a two-way market. In sports such as soccer, where draws are common, the match winner is typically offered as a three-way market including the draw as an option.

Point Spread / Handicap

When moneyline odds are heavily mismatched, betting opportunities can often be found in the point spread or handicap market. This market gives the underdog a virtual head start, helping to level the playing field.
This is particularly common in US sports, such as football, where a spread of around 10 points is often applied before the contest begins. Bettors must then decide whether the favourite can overcome this disadvantage or whether the underdog will remain within the adjusted margin.

Over/Under (Totals)

Extremely popular for live betting, over/under betting, also known as totals, removes the need to predict a winner and instead focuses solely on the total number of points, goals, or runs scored in a game.
Totals are typically set using a half-point line. For example, bettors may be asked whether an NFL game will finish with more or fewer than 30.5 points, with 30 or fewer points counting as under and 31 or more points counting as over.

Player Props

Player prop markets ask bettors to wager on the performance of a specific player in a predefined statistical category, shifting the focus away from the game result and onto individual performance.
These markets are especially popular in US sports such as football, basketball, and hockey, and may include wagers on the number of passing yards thrown by a quarterback or the points scored by an NBA player.

Futures / Outrights

Futures are long-term bets that typically involve predicting the eventual outcome of a competition, such as the winner of the World Cup, and often carry higher odds as a result.

They are closely related to outright markets, which involve selecting the winner from an entire field of teams or players. However, futures are not limited to outright winners and can also be player-specific, such as season-long awards or statistical achievements.

These markets are suitable for bettors seeking long-term interest and higher potential returns.

Live (In-Play) Betting

Live betting, also known as in-play betting, includes many of the markets listed above, with the key difference being that wagers are placed while an event is already in progress.

Typically found in a dedicated live betting section at crypto sportsbooks, bettors can place wagers on moneylines, spreads, totals, and a wide range of prop markets as the action unfolds. It’s worth noting that live odds may change frequently, and markets can be temporarily suspended during key moments of play.

Parlays

Parlays allow bettors to combine multiple selections into a single wager, often referred to as an accumulator, with the odds multiplying together to create the potential for significantly higher returns.
Selections can span multiple games, leagues, or even different sports, allowing bettors to place low-stakes, high-reward wagers. While not available at every crypto sportsbook, same-game parlays are a modern variation that allow multiple outcomes from a single event to be combined at adjusted odds.

FAQs

1. 01.

   Which sports can you bet on at crypto sportsbooks?

   

   You can bet on almost any sport worldwide at crypto sportsbooks, with some platforms offering markets across hundreds of different sports throughout the year. The most popular options include football, soccer, and basketball.

2. 02.

   Are betting markets different at crypto sportsbooks?

   

   In most cases, crypto sportsbooks offer the same betting markets as traditional fiat sportsbooks. The core betting experience remains largely the same, with the primary differences stemming from the benefits of using cryptocurrency for deposits and withdrawals.

3. 03.

   Can you bet live with cryptocurrency?

   

   Yes, most modern crypto sportsbooks feature extensive live betting sections, enabling in-play wagering on hundreds of sporting events daily.

4. 04.

   What are the most popular betting markets?

   

   Traditional markets such as moneyline, point spread, and over/under remain the most popular, although same-game parlays have surged in popularity in recent years.

5. 05.

   Do crypto sportsbooks cover US sports?

   

   Crypto sportsbooks offer comprehensive coverage of US sports, including football, basketball, baseball, and hockey, as well as a diverse range of international sporting events.