Sports Betting vs. Investing: What Really Grows Your Cash?

About $1.7 billion in legal sports betting wagers is projected to be placed in February 2026, continuing nearly a decade of record-breaking betting volume that month, according to a projection from Legal Sports Report. For sportsbooks, that’s a great business. For the average bettor, history suggests the opposite: Most people walk away with less than they started with.

Big games create the feeling of outsize opportunity, but the math behind gambling hardly changes. Over time, most bettors lose.

How much money do people actually lose betting on sports?

During recent football seasons, average bettors lost roughly 8% to 9% of their wagers. That translates to roughly $130 to $200 per person, according to data from SportsHandle.com and our own calculations.

February football betting isn’t expected to be much better. Legal Sports Report estimates sportsbooks will generate $100 million in revenue from those wagers alone, assuming a 6% hold. That means bettors are expected to lose an average of $6 for every $100 bet.

Some people will win big, but most won’t, which is how sportsbooks stay profitable.

Why sportsbooks always come out ahead

Sports bettors lose not just because of bad luck but because sportsbooks are designed to win.

Several factors work against bettors:

• Sportsbooks take a cut on every wager.
• Odds are set to favor sportsbooks over time.
• High betting volume smooths out short-term wins by individuals.

Even bets that feel “safe” or well researched still face a built-in disadvantage.

Sports betting vs. investing

Instead of sports betting, that same money could go into a high-yield savings account (HYSA), a certificate of deposit (CD), a diversified index fund like the S&P 500, or a diversified portfolio of individual stocks with a long-term mindset of holding those investments for at least five years.

If the average bettor moved the $130 to $200 typically wagered during a football season into a low-cost index fund, and markets performed in line with their historical long-term average, that money could compound substantially over time. For comparison, the S&P 500, including dividends reinvested, has grown at an average of about 10% per year over the past century.

The takeaway is straightforward: Sports betting functions as entertainment, not as a reliable way to build wealth. For long-term financial growth, historical data shows that consistent saving and investing outperform sports betting, with the gap widening the longer money stays invested.

Methodology

Average bettor returns for each football season were calculated using monthly sportsbook data on betting handle and gross gaming revenue (GGR) from SportsHandle.com. For each season, a weighted average GGR win rate from September through February was calculated and then inverted to estimate the average bettor’s ROI as a percentage of wagers.

Estimated dollar losses per bettor were calculated by distributing total sportsbook revenue across the estimated population of sports bettors, using a 15% rate based on data from S&P Global.

High-yield savings account (HYSA) returns were estimated using the peak annual percentage yield for the relevant year, compounded over six months. S&P 500 returns were calculated as the percentage change in the index from the September market open to the last trading day in February and reflect price-only returns.

About the Author

Jack Caporal is the Research Director for The Motley Fool and Motley Fool Money. Jack leads efforts to identify and analyze trends shaping investing and personal financial decisions across the United States. His research has appeared in thousands of media outlets including Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, Bloomberg, and CNBC, and has been cited in congressional testimony. He previously covered business and economic trends as a reporter and policy analyst in Washington, D.C. He serves as Chair of the Trade Policy Committee at the World Trade Center in Denver, Colorado. He holds a B.A. degree in International Relations with a concentration in International Economics from Michigan State University.

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