- 49% Are Football Fans; 18% of all NY’ers and 31% of Football Fans, Bet on Football with Online Sportsbook; 39% Are Baseball Fans; 14% of all NY’ers and 30% of Baseball Fans, Bet on Baseball
- By 54-25% NY’ers Say Sports Commentators Should Not Be Allowed to Offer Remarks on Sports Gambling and Betting During Live Broadcasts
Loudonville, NY – New Yorkers are divided on online sports betting. Thirty-nine percent agree with supporters of legalized online sports betting that say it regulates and taxes a formerly illegal activity and adds more entertainment to sports fans while 37% agree with opponents that say it increases the risk of problem gambling and financial hardship and threatens the integrity of the games, according to the latest poll by the Siena Research Institute (SRI). A majority of New Yorkers, 54-25%, think that sports commentators should not be allowed to offer remarks on sports gambling and potential bets during live game broadcasts.
Nearly half of New Yorkers, 49%, describe themselves as football fans while fewer, 39%, say that they are baseball fans. Forty-one percent of all state residents, 79% of football fans, regularly watch football games. Nearly 20% of all residents and 31% of football fans place bets on football through an online sportsbook.
While 37% of all New Yorkers watch regular season baseball games, nearly half, 48%, watch the baseball playoffs including the World Series. Fourteen percent of all state residents and 30% of baseball fans, place bets on baseball games through an online sportbook.
“October finds football season in full swing and baseball now draws more fan interest as we near the World Series,” according to Don Levy, SRI’s Director. “While more New Yorkers say that they are football fans than baseball fans, nearly half of all New Yorkers and 93% of baseball fans plan to watch the baseball playoffs. Just over 40% regularly watch football games including 79% of football fans.”
“While between 14 and 18% of all New Yorkers place bets on baseball or football games with online sportsbooks, nearly a third of fans use online sportbooks to bet on their favorite sports. Fans are more inclined to see the benefits rather than risks of online sports betting but both fans and non-fans agree that sports commentators should not be allowed to talk about sports gambling and potential bets during the games,” Levy said.
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This Siena Poll was conducted September 15-22, 2025, among 814 New York State Residents. Of the 814 respondents, 392 were contacted through a dual frame (landline and cell phone) mode (117 completed via text to web) and 422 respondents were drawn from a proprietary online panel (Cint). Telephone calls were conducted in English and respondent sampling was initiated by asking for the youngest person in the household. Telephone sampling was conducted via a stratified dual frame probability sample of landline and cell phone telephone numbers weighted to reflect known population patterns. The landline telephone sample was obtained from ASDE and the cell phone sample was obtained from Marketing Systems Group (MSG). Interviews conducted online are excluded from the sample and final analysis if they fail any data quality attention check question. Duplicate responses are identified by their response ID and removed from the sample. Three questions were asked of online respondents, including a honey-pot question to catch bots and two questions that ask respondents to follow explicit directions. The proprietary panel also incorporates measures that safeguard against automated bot attacks, deduplication issues, fraudulent VPN usage, and suspicious IP addresses Data from collection modes was weighted to balance sample demographics to match estimates for New York State’s population using data from the Census Bureau’s 2023 U.S. American Community Survey (ACS), on age, region, race/ethnicity, and gender to ensure representativeness. The sample was also weighted to match current patterns of party registration using data from the New York State Board of Elections. It has an overall margin of error of +/- 3.7 percentage points including the design effects resulting from weighting. Sampling error is only one of many potential sources of error and there may be other unmeasured error in this or any other public opinion poll. The Siena Research Institute, directed by Donald Levy, Ph.D., conducts political, economic, social, and cultural research primarily in NYS. SRI, an independent, non-partisan research institute, subscribes to the American Association of Public Opinion Research Code of Professional Ethics and Practices.For survey cross-tabs: www.Siena.edu/SRI/.
