Sports

The sports available for you to bet on in AZ change depending on your sportsbooks of choice, but most cover these basic professional sports in the state.

Football

Opportunities for football betting in Arizona include both the regular season and off-season lines. The NFL regular season runs from September to January. During this time, 32 teams play 17 games in 18 weeks with one “bye-week” break per team, leading up to possibilities for Arizona Super Bowl betting in January.

There are plenty of betting opportunities here, from moneylines to a future on the championship winner. You can also bet on some off-season events, but the variety changes from sportsbook to sportsbook. For example, the NFL off-season runs from the last game until training camps start back up in July.

Baseball

The regular baseball season includes 30 teams in the American League and National League playing 162 games each over the course of 6 months. That is a total of 2,430 games in the schedule, starting in Spring and ending in early Autumn.

Post-season MLB takes place the month after with a best-of-seven elimination tournament to determine the World Series winner. With the robust game schedule, you have plenty of weekly betting opportunities with baseball in AZ.

Basketball

Basketball’s regular season runs from October to April. During this time, each of the 30 teams play a total of 82 games, 41 home and 41 away. This means bettors have 1,230 games to find AZ basketball betting chances. The playoff season for the NBA runs off into June, adding on four rounds and a possibility of 7 final games to bet on.

Hockey

You can bet on preseason hockey in Arizona in the last two weeks of September, roughly 6 to 8 exhibition games. The NHL’s regular season has 82 regular-season games per its 32 teams, adding up to 1,312 games over the entire season (512 of which are inter-conference).

The Stanley Cup Playoffs marks the end of the regular season. Only 16 teams qualify, moving forward to an elimination tournament that involves three rounds in a best of seven series before determining who advances to the final round.

Golf

The most popular golfing league to bet on is PGA, which has three of four majors that take place between June and August. Another popular betting opportunity for golf at Arizona sportsbooks involves any tournaments that feed into the Grand Slam title. This has yet to be achieved by anyone golfer.

It involves winning four tournaments: The Masters, the U.S. Open Championship, the Open Championship, and the U.S. PGA Championship. Golf is especially great for future bets and live betting because of its pace.

Tennis

Your opportunities for tennis betting in AZ are split amongst the popular tours. For men, the most popular tours include the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) World Tour and the International Tennis Federation.

Women also have their section of ITF and the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Tour. Tennis players earn points for each tournament they place at in each tour, and these points assist in qualification for final tournaments.

Motorsports

Betting on motorsports in Arizona involves a wider variety of sports, including:

• Cross country events on rally cars or dirt bikes
• NASCAR
• Indy Car Racing
• GT
• Formula 1

Each one has its own set of rules and schedules, but motorsports overall are great for live betting and lines involving winners and finishing positions. They are also great for prop bets on factors like completed laps or how many drivers finish.

Soccer

Professional soccer in the United States operates under the Major Soccer League (MLS), and the regular season runs from late February or early March to October for both Eastern and Western conferences.

During this time, each of the 27 teams ran 34 games in an unbalanced schedule, resulting in a total of 459 games. The post-season involves 14 teams competing in the MLS Cup Playoffs in late October and early November.

If you want to shift your focus to international events, the soccer betting market gets even bigger with major leagues like:

• FIFA World Cup
• UEFA Champions League
• UEFA European Championship

Soccer is full of worldwide betting opportunities to take advantage of.

Rugby

Most professional rugby betting worldwide takes place during the summer when the weather is most advantageous for outdoor sports. Major League Rugby in the United States and Canada covers 18 weeks of rugby from March to August.

There are currently 12 teams in MLR, and they each play 16 matches in a single season. The top two teams from each of the western and eastern conferences face-off, and then the winners of those matches go on to the MLR Championship at the end of the season.

E-sports

E-sports is another sport covering a variety of video game events involving anything from fighter games to multiplayer online battle arenas (MOBAs). Some of the most popular games and championships to bet on include:

• League of Legends
• Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
• Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
• Call of Duty
• Dota 2
• Starcraft 2

These betting markets for e-sports in AZ change as new games and leagues are released or as games are updated.

Table tennis

Popular table tennis leagues to follow and bet on include:

• World Table Tennis
• European Championship
• International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Championship
• Asian Table Tennis Union (ATTU) Championship

Outside of these circuits, the table tennis event in the Summer Olympics holds one of the most popular table tennis betting AZ varieties for the state.

Cycling

Cycling “season” usually runs from January to October and has 37 world tour races scheduled in that period.

Some of the most popular tours to bet on at sports betting sites include:

• Tour de France
• Giro d’Italia
• La Vuelta en España
• Tour Down Under

Cycling betting Arizona resembles motorsports betting in its popularity for live bets and props bets. The tours take place over extended periods, so betting opportunities before the final results are in are plentiful.

Darts

When betting on darts in AZ, your major events include:

• Premier League Darts (PDL), the most popular league that takes place from February to May
• World Matchplay
• Grand Slam of Darts (the last tournament before the PDC World Championship)
• World Grand Prix
• Players Championship (the most televised darts event in the world)

Darts have a unique set of rules and scoring that are not comparable to most sports, but once you get the hang of them, the matches can be exciting for live bets.

Lacrosse

The Premier Lacrosse League debuted in June of 2019 and runs the lacrosse season from June to September in a 14-week tour-based schedule. The National Lacrosse League runs an opposite schedule from December to June. The difference between the two? PLL plays the sport outdoors, and NLL ranks third in attendance worldwide for indoor sports.

Lacrosse betting in Arizona can find lines on things like:

• Championship winners
• Most Valuable Player
• Player position awards

Lacrosse is slowly gaining popularity in the United States as a professional sport.

Billiards/pool

Betting on pool in AZ allows you to bet on events like:

• American pool
• Russian pool
• Snooker
• Carom

Snooker is preferred by betmakers because it has the most interesting action, but many bettors prefer the familiarity of a league like the U.S. Pro Billiard Series that holds open and pro events in the United States.

Outside of this, the biggest billiards events include the World Cup in April, Shanghai Masters in September, the Grand Prix Tournament in October, and the European Championship in December.

Volleyball

There are both men’s and women’s volleyball to bet on in Arizona, as well as indoor games, beach games, and even coed options.

Volleyball is a popular sport for the Summer Olympics, but you can also find betting options for the FIVB World Championship that takes place every 2 years after the Summer Olympics and has 24 teams of both men and women competing.

The World Grand Champions Cup also takes place every four years, one year after each Summer Olympics, and only involves 6 teams of each gender.

Horse racing

Horse racing in the United States is focused mostly on the Triple Crown races, including the Kentucky Derby on the first Saturday in May, the Preakness Stakes on the third Saturday in May, and the Belmont Stakes on the second Saturday in June.

Other races that attract a lot of attention include:

• The Pegasus Cup in January
• The Saudi Cup in February
• The Cheltenham Gold Cup in March (involving jumps)
• The Dubai World Cup in March

Horse race betting in AZ is not limited to sprints, and it branches out to involve steeplechases and cross country events. TwinSpires in Arizona is one of the most popular choices when it comes to this kind of betting.

Wrestling

While wrestling is known to be a scripted sport, there are still some wrestling betting opportunities out there that involve predicting the script or aspects of the matches. Betting on wrestling also includes sumo wrestling. The sport has six tournaments each year:

• Three in Tokyo in January, May, and September
• Osaka in March
• Nagoya in July
• Fukuoka in November

Each tournament takes place over 15 days.

MMA

Because the UFC schedule takes place year-round, betting on MMA in AZ is great for filling in any dead space between other sports, even if you are not a big MMA fan.

The sport has grown into a worldwide market, and you can place popular bets like match bets and methods of victory. While the matches are already high in adrenaline for viewers, live betting is a popular edge to add to your experience.

Boxing

Boxing covers multiple weight classes, ranging from minimumweight to heavyweight. These work as divisions in different leagues like:

• The World Boxing Association (WBA)
• The World Boxing Council (WBC)
• The International Boxing Federation (IBF)
• The World Boxing Organization (WBO)

This is another sport that does well with Olympics bets. Boxing is also full of major events that catch the public eye and turn into fantastic boxing betting opportunities in AZ.

The Grand Canyon state has plenty of professional sports teams in the state that you might already be familiar with. You can bet on your favorites, including the:

• Arizona Diamondbacks
• Phoenix Suns
• Arizona Cardinals
• Arizona Coyotes
• Phoenix Mercury

While you are not limited to betting on state teams, it is always fun to have the local talent to cheer for and wager on.

Arizona Diamondbacks (MLB)

The Arizona Diamondbacks are the professional sports team associated with the BetMGM presence in the state. The baseball team is based in Phoenix and plays home games at Chase Field.

The Diamondbacks were founded in 1998 when the National Leagues West Division of the MLB expanded. They soon became the fastest expansion team to win a World Series title only four seasons in, beating the three-time defending champ for the title in 2001.

Phoenix Suns (NBA)

The Phoenix Suns have paired up with FanDuel to bring the sportsbook to Arizona. They are also the only professional men’s team in Arizona to be branded as a city team (Phoenix) instead of using the state name.

The Phoenix Suns play in the NBA Pacific Division, and they are the only non-California team to do so. They play home games in Talking Stick Resort Arena, and since they were founded in 1968 the team has competed in two NBA finals.

Arizona Cardinals (NFL)

The Arizona Cardinals paired up with BetMGM to help welcome sports betting to Arizona. The Cardinals were founded in 1989 in Chicago but moved to Phoenix in 1988. They now play in the National Football Conference’s West Division.

While the Arizona Cardinals have never won a Super Bowl, their home stadium (State Farm Stadium) has hosted the game a few times, including Super Bowl XLIX.

Arizona Coyotes (NHL)

The Arizona Coyotes are the state’s professional hockey team based in Glendale, and they play their home games at the Gila River Arena after moving to Arizona in 1996. The Coyotes play in the NHL West Division, but they have yet to play in a Stanley Cup Final.

Phoenix Mercury (WNBA)

The professional women’s basketball team in the state is the Phoenix Mercury. The team plays at Talking Stick Resort Arena, and it was founded in 1997 as one of the league’s first inaugural teams. They play in the Pacific Division of the WNBA, and the Pheonix Mercury has won 3 WNBA titles since its formation.