by
Super Bowl 59 came and went, with billions of dollars being exchanged across the United States — both via legal means and offshore online sportsbooks. The Eagles ended up trouncing the Chiefs 40-22 in New Orleans, a city that was lauded for how it hosted the Super Bowl festivities all week long.
New Orleans now passes the baton to California is that will not only host the 2026 Super Bowl, but also the 2027 one. Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara — where the San Francisco 49ers call home — will host Super Bowl 60 on February 8. The year after, Los Angeles and SoFi Stadium, get the game on February 14.
From a betting perspective, how will this affect things. After all, California sports betting is still illegal. It is one of only 11 states without a legal sports betting market. Surely, that’ll influence things, right? Keep reading and we’ll tell you how so!
Record Betting Everywhere But California
The fact is 39 states do take in betting — and for all we know, another one or two could join the fray from now until the next Super Bowl. Nothing is going to stop these states from betting and likely setting record numbers.
After all, we just saw record betting from the Kansas City-Philly matchup across the board — so much for “Chiefs fatigue.” It’s hard to pinpoint one number to tell the complete story, but there’s several that show increased betting this year.
Take GeoComply, for example. They provide geolocation tracking for most of the top sports betting apps so they know who’s checking into these platforms and from where. According to their internal data, the 2025 Super Bowl had 14 percent more accounts than 2024. So there’s a big pool of bettors to draw from for gambling on the big game.
Beyond them, actual operators reported record highs. Both BetMGM and Caesars said it was the largest sporting event by number of bets in their histories — not by profits, just betting handle. FanDuel put their number of bets at 1.6 million across all the states they serve.
We’d be shocked if we don’t hear these types of things a year from now. Sports betting is only being more and more ingrained into American culture. From state to state, we’re seeing double-digit growth because of this normalization. This trend is still pointing up, which should benefit next year’s Super Bowl.
California Won’t Receive Local Lift
Interesting news came out of Nevada post-Super Bowl. On one hand, the state hit record profits off Super Bowl betting. This is mainly due to a high hold, or in other words, bettors just picking wrong. The fact that Eagles won in upset fashion and by a blowout helped the books’ gain — and so did underperformances from Saquon Barkley Travis Kelce, who garnered big money on props.
However, the state also mentioned their own betting handle was down big time from 2024. Only $151.6 million was wagered on the Super Bowl this year compared to $185.6 million the year before.
Why such a nosedive? Not because bettors are fed up with the Chiefs but because Las Vegas hosted the game in 2024. It was the first time ever the city hosted a Super Bowl, which only added to the excitement.
Welp, there will be no “Super Bowl betting bump” in California. Not without them legalizing it at least. That raises this question: could California legalize in the next year? Let’s find out.
Legalized Betting Could Still Be Years Away In California
There was hope that California could try to legalize betting by 2026. However, those hopes were recently dashed when the head of the California Nations Indian Gaming Association (CNIGA), James Silva, said they wouldn’t pursue legalized wagering until 2028 or so.
For those not in the know, Native American tribes have an exclusive compact with the state of California that grants them the sole right to offer betting. They do so for casino-style betting, but not sports betting. They tried before, and failed miserably. That failure is exactly why they’re taking a slow and steady approach.
You see, back in 2022, Californians had not one, but two chances to vote on sports betting — and both proposals crashed and burned. Prop 26, which sought to legalize sports betting at tribal casinos, was rejected by 67 percent of voters. There was also Prop 27, aiming to bring in commercial sportsbooks like DraftKings and FanDuel to the Golden State. This proposal fared even worse, suffering a crushing 82% to 18% defeat — one of the most lopsided ballot results in state history.
That defeat is still fresh. Fresh in the minds of voters that will need some convincing to come around on the issue. But also fresh on the pockets of California tribes which splurged hundreds of millions on ads — not only to pass Prop 26, but to disparage Prop 27 and maintain their exclusivity.
All this is to say it’s a longshot for legalized betting in California to happen in the two years it hosts the Super Bowl. The state will lose out on easy tax gains, but the rest of the country will be there to pick up their losses.
Best Betting Sites 