Ask a room of media planners where America's sports-betting audience lives and they will name the big legal-market metros. The data says otherwise. We scored every U.S. census block group for the Fantasy Sports and Sports Betting interest cohorts and rolled the results up by media market. The map inverts the population map: the highest-intensity betting and fantasy geography in the country is rural — the Plains, the Upper Midwest, the Mountain West — while the coastal metros where the ad dollars concentrate sit barely above the national average.
Methodology in one screen
Every U.S. census block group is scored for the Fantasy Sports and Sports Betting interest cohorts against a national baseline of 100. The table below summarizes block groups indexing 120 or higher in each DMA: the average over-index score, the count of addressable DOOH screens, and monthly addressable DOOH impressions in those qualifying areas. Pulled live from the AMAP MCP server on August 20, 2026. No cookies, device IDs, or personal data are involved at any step.
The 20 most obsessed markets in America
| DMA | Over-index score (US=100) | Addressable screens | Monthly addressable impressions |
|---|---|---|---|
| North Platte, NE | 413 | 44 | 2.3M |
| Glendive, MT | 355 | 13 | 0.8M |
| Alpena, MI | 301 | 37 | 1.4M |
| Casper-Riverton, WY | 300 | 40 | 3.0M |
| Ottumwa-Kirksville, IA-MO | 294 | 111 | 7.3M |
| Minot-Bismarck-Dickinson, ND | 289 | 1,148 | 102.3M |
| Sioux City, IA | 280 | 1,192 | 65.3M |
| Quincy-Hannibal-Keokuk, IL-MO-IA | 274 | 453 | 30.0M |
| Mankato, MN | 274 | 128 | 10.2M |
| Greenwood-Greenville, MS | 271 | 89 | 1.3M |
| Rapid City, SD | 270 | 202 | 114.8M |
| Fargo, ND | 270 | 1,454 | 133.2M |
| Davenport-Rock Island-Moline, IA-IL | 267 | 987 | 67.2M |
| San Angelo, TX | 264 | 175 | 8.1M |
| Cheyenne-Scottsbluff, WY-NE | 262 | 164 | 8.1M |
| Great Falls, MT | 259 | 276 | 31.5M |
| Lafayette, IN | 259 | 66 | 4.2M |
| Missoula, MT | 255 | 214 | 8.7M |
| Bangor, ME | 253 | 280 | 20.6M |
| Columbia-Jefferson City, MO | 253 | 367 | 17.6M |
And the majors, for contrast
| DMA | Over-index score (US=100) | Addressable screens | Monthly addressable impressions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN | 207 | 6,710 | 1.44B |
| Portland, OR | 220 | 931 | 84.0M |
| Austin, TX | 192 | 1,898 | 265.5M |
| Houston, TX | 174 | 6,179 | 1.19B |
| Denver, CO | 171 | 4,748 | 1.34B |
| Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX | 165 | 13,723 | 1.91B |
| Philadelphia, PA | 161 | 17,610 | 6.27B |
| Los Angeles, CA | 160 | 11,517 | 1.96B |
| New York, NY | 158 | 21,698 | 10.82B |
| Chicago, IL | 155 | 18,678 | 5.92B |
| Atlanta, GA | 144 | 4,822 | 1.40B |
Four things the geography says
1. The obsession is Heartland, not coastal. Nine of the ten most intense markets are small Plains, Upper Midwest or Mountain West DMAs — the lone exception is the Mississippi Delta's Greenwood-Greenville.
2. Minneapolis–St. Paul is the big-market capital. At a 207 index it is the only top-15 metro above 200, with 1.4 billion monthly addressable impressions behind it. Portland, Oregon (220) is the standout among the top-25 markets.
3. The index does not follow the legal map. Texas markets post scores from 142 to 264 — San Angelo at 264, Amarillo at 198, Austin at 192 — in a state where sports betting is not live. Interest travels ahead of legislation, which is exactly what a market-entry planner needs to see.
4. Intensity and scale are the real tradeoff. New York offers 10.8 billion monthly addressable impressions at a 158 index; North Platte offers 2.3 million at 413. The index shows where each dollar over-delivers; the impression column shows how far it can go.
Activate this exact audience
This is not a report about an audience — it is the audience. The same cohort behind these tables activates as a segment in The Trade Desk and every major DSP, or composes into a DOOH plan screen by screen. The full table regenerates on demand over the AMAP MCP server, for any cohort in the catalog.
Data use
Cite freely as "AMAP Data, August 2026" with a link to this page. Journalists and researchers: the same pull is reproducible for any interest, demographic or purchase cohort — ask.