American football is the most popular sport in the entire United States, both among sports fans and sports bettors. Although there are some states in which the NFL isn’t the most popular sports competition, Arizona isn’t one of them. In the Grand Canyon state, football holds a very special place.
It’s been like that for ages, and now when online sports betting is finally legal in Arizona, bettors have a chance to show their love for football by playing some NFL bets.
If you belong to this category, you might be wondering which Arizona sportsbook should you choose? If that’s the case, you’re at the right place!
Check out the list of the best NFL betting sites in Arizona, all of which have a legitimate operating license, amazing odds on football bets, lucrative bonuses, and so on.
| Betting site | Bonus | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | $1000 Risk free bet T&Cs apply. 18+. BetMGM review. | Get bonus |
| 2 |  | $500 Risk free bet T&Cs apply. 18+. Unibet review. | Get bonus |
| 3 |  | Up to $250 T&Cs apply. 18+. Betrivers review. | Get bonus |
| 4 |  | Freebets up to $1500 T&Cs apply. 18+. Caesars review. | Get bonus |
The Most Popular NFL Bets
The NFL betting sites in Arizona try to give their players as much variety as possible when it comes to betting. At most of those sportsbooks, a player can choose from dozens of different wagers, often including some interesting prop bets, e.g., the color of Gatorade at the Super Bowl.
Still, the bettors seem to prefer some NFL bet types to others. In fact, there are three wager sorts that stand out from the crown, namely:
- Moneyline – You bet on which NFL team will win the game. The wager takes into account not just the regular time, but overtime as well.
- Point Spread – The favorite team is given a points’ handicap that they need to cover in order for the bet to win. The odds are usually somewhere in the ballpark of -100, suggesting there’s a 50% for each of the two possible outcomes to win.
- Points O/U – How this NFL bet works is that you need to guess whether the total number of points is going to be “over” or “under” the margin set up by the bookmakers.
In addition to the three aforementioned NFL bets, which you can find in literally any sportsbook in Arizona, there are a few other wagers you might want to check out. For example, another relatively popular NFL bet is the one focused on the total passing yards recorded by a quarterback in a game.
Some online sportsbooks will also let you bet on the number of touchdowns scored by a wide receiver, the number of sacks made by a defensive player, and so on.
Betting on the Arizona Cardinals
The Arizona Cardinals are the only NFL franchise based in the Grand Canyon State. This is why it’s no surprise people from this state are devoted to supporting the Cards, whether they’re playing good or bad.
Proof of this is that the Cardinals’ home stadium, State Farm Stadium is almost always full when the Cards are playing. Another piece of evidence of the love Arizonans have for the Cardinals is that they’ve been backing their team with sports wagers.
Their decision to back the Cards proved to be a good idea, especially in the first couple of weeks of the 2021 NFL season, when the Cardinals slew several giants of football, including the LA Rams.
This team has been really great in the last couple of years, coinciding with the emergence of their superstar quarterback Kyler Murray.
Still, the Cards are yet to win the Super Bowl in the post-1970 AFL-NFL merger era. Actually, the last time the Cardinals won the league championship was in 1947 when the team was based in Chicago.
The Cardinals came to Arizona in 1988, with their initial name being the Phoenix Cardinals. Six years later, the team changed the name to its current name, the Arizona Cardinals.
How NFL Moved the Super Bowl from Arizona Due to MLK Day
In the late 1980s, Ronald Reagan signed a bill establishing a holiday honoring the late Martin Luther King on a federal level. A few years later, the State of Arizona made MLK Day an official holiday.
However, it was up to the voters to give the green light. They didn’t do it, which meant that the MLK was not going to be a paid holiday.
The NFL reacted by stripping the state from the right to host the 1993 Super Bowl, moving the game to Los Angeles. As a result, Arizona ended up losing about $200 million that the event would bring to the state and its residents.
A couple of years later, the voters did make MLK Day a paid holiday, thus reconciling with the NFL. What followed next was that the league awarded Arizona with the hosting right for Super Bowl XXX.
The game took place at Sun Devil Stadium, in Tempe, which at the time was the home venue of both the Arizona Cardinals and the Arizona State Sun Devils (NCAA).
Since the Cardinals moved to State Farm Stadium, the venue hosted two Super Bowls (2008 and 2015). The next time Arizona’s largest sports stadium will host the NFL Championship game is February 2023.
Super Bowl LVII, the game that will decide the winner of the 2022 NFL season will take place at Arizona’s State Farm Stadium.