If you like watching sport live, London is the perfect place to do it. England’s capital city houses Wembley, which is the home of English football and a venue for other major sporting events, such as heavyweight boxing clashes; Twickenham, the home ground of the English national rugby squad; and the Olympic Stadium, which hosted the London 2012 Olympics opening and closing ceremonies and the athletic and paralympic events. Of course, London has lots of different sports clubs, too, and even the NBA and the NFL schedule some games in the city. If you’re looking to experience a new sport, you’ve a good chance of achieving it in London.
This post is all about favourite sports in London and the wider UK, what makes them so popular, whether there’s any appetite for American sports in the UK and what the future looks like for sports fans in London.
The most popular sports in London
The most popular sport in London is football, which is hardly surprising because, besides Wembley, the city is home to some of the Premiership’s biggest clubs, including Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea and West Ham United.
Rugby is also popular. Londoners enjoy both variations (rugby union and rugby league). The city has several big teams, including London Broncos, London Irish, Harlequins and Saracens. Surprisingly, however, it’s not the second most popular sport in London, an honour which goes to cricket. London has two major cricket grounds: Lords, home to Middlesex County Cricket Club, and the Oval, home to Surrey County Cricket Club.
Britain’s most beloved sports
The wider UK also loves football more than any other sport. According to research on the website of consumer and market data company Statista, 80% of the participants in a survey followed football, more than any other sport in the responses. That’s hardly surprising. Games take place regularly, are unpredictable and are beautiful to watch.
The next UK fan favourite was boxing, but this was considerably behind at 29%. Even though the sport involves two athletes in peak physical shape hurting each other, that’s not where the appeal lies. Fans go to see the fighters battle through the pain and adversity to win.
The third most popular sport, at 25% of the participants, was cricket. Just like football, cricket is unpredictable, which is one of the reasons many people follow it. There are lots of different tournaments and cricketers often break records in them. It’s also a sport that has developed legends such as Brian Lara, Sir Ian Botham and Sir Viv Richards.
Any love for American sports?
In the 2022 research from Statista, 13% of the participants stated they followed American football. Fast forward to February 2024 and, according to stats on the website CN Traveller, 3.4 million people tuned in to follow a single NFL game.
And before this, a near-capacity crowd of 61,273 had turned out to catch the Jacksonville Jaguars go up against the Buffalo Bills at Tottenham Hotspur’s new football ground. The ground itself is the first to have been built outside of North America to accommodate American football and is the ‘home of the NFL in the UK’.
Initiatives like the NFL’s Europa League and deals with Sky Sports have helped Brits to find a greater appreciate for American football after inconsistent spells of affinity for the sport. Sports betting is sure to be helping UK fans to engage more with the sport, too, and as their interest deepens, they could even be checking out the college football betting lines, not just the NFL ones.
British basketball is growing more popular. Young people are playing it more, but the NBA isn’t finding the same level of affection from basketball fans as the NFL. Only two British players play in the NBA, which may explain some of the lack of fondness.
The future of sports consumption in London
More fans could become drawn to the NFL because of its international series, where regular NFL games are played outside of North America. The league has two games scheduled in October, which will take place at Tottenham Hotspurs’s football ground, and could be planning to launch a European league, which could increase the NFL’s fan base in London. This fan base could develop even more if London forms its own NFL team.
The NBA, like the NFL, is also in talks to launch a European league. Next year, the NBA comes to London. The city’s O2 Arena will host a game between the Memphis Grizzlies and the Orlando Magic in January 2026. It’s a chance to promote the league and boost its fanbase, which a European league would also help it to achieve.
Londoners, like many Brits, are massive sports fans, especially of football. However, sports such as American football are beginning to find a foothold in the London market and in the wider UK. As time goes by, London and the UK could well embrace American sports more and either attend live games or tune into them more on TV.
