There are certain periods of the sports calendar that stand out more than others. Sometimes they correspond to the main holiday calendar (for example, Thanksgiving in the NFL, Christmas in the NBA, or the Fourth of July in MLB), while in other cases, championship holidays become quasi-holidays in their own right (for example, the Super Bowl and March Madness).
But fall brings a very special sporting event that celebrates the ubiquity of American sports and gives fans a reason to stay glued to their couches with their eyes glued to the TV screen.
It is, of course, the sports equinox, the day when all four major professional sports leagues in the United States… Major League Baseball, NBA, NFL And NHL — are in action. Since its very first appearance on October 17, 1971, there have been 31 such cases, of which the 32nd occurred on October 27, 2025. Although the sporting equinox does not occur every year, since 2015 there has been at least one per year, and sometimes up to three.
Sports equinoxes typically fall in October due to the nature of league calendars: MLB is currently in full swing. postseason The NFL is in its second month, and the NBA and NHL begin their seasons within a month. Sometimes sporting equinoxes stretch into November (most recently this happened on November 3, 2022), and in 2020 there were actually three equinoxes in September due to schedule disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Players are paying attention
In addition to being a generally joyful occasion for sports fans, the “holiday,” as BetMGM Chief Revenue Officer Matt Prevost describes it, is giving sports betting a boost as bettors look to join in the excitement and sportsbooks expand their special offers to get in on the fun. “It's an incredible period of time,” Prevost told ESPN.
The 2024 sports equinox saw 15% more bets placed on BetMGM than on an average day the rest of the year, according to the sportsbook. This phenomenon is growing in the minds of bettors as well, as there were over 50% more bets made on the 2024 equinox and over 33% more bets than on the 2023 equinox.
The 2025 edition will feature Game 3 World Series with Toronto Blue Jays And Los Angeles Dodgers draw 1-1″Monday night football“match between Washington commanders And Kansas City ChiefsA big slate of 11 NBA games and two NHL competitions. While the sporting equinox doesn't always fall on a Monday—it's also possible on Thursday and Sunday—the last three (including 2025) have been.
NBA gives impetus
Even before the NBA season began, Mondays in October 2025 became a real holiday for sports fans. Oct. 13 featured both MLB Championship Series, two NFL games, and a full NHL slate, and Oct. 20 featured Game 7 of the ALCS, which took the Blue Jays to their first World Series in 32 years, two more NFL games, and another full NHL slate.
Prevost sees the addition of the NBA not only as the final piece of the puzzle to complete the equinox, but also as an opportunity to restart betting this year and re-engage basketball bettors in general, which is especially important given that basketball is the second-largest sport on the market after soccer.
“At the start of every season we have a group of clients who really only bet on [on] “So I think the sports equinox gives us the opportunity to reactivate those customers who are primarily focused on basketball. This is probably the promotional activity we will be most interested in.”
Big impact on MLB too.
According to BetMGM's 2024 data, the NBA sees higher ticket share gains on the day of the sports equinox compared to the week of the event. But the biggest comparative jump of any league came from MLB, which saw significant increases in betting and interest rates on the sports equinox itself. The higher stakes of MLB postseason and World Series games seem to attract gamblers more at this time of year than during the summer days.
“Baseball [postseason] starts and there are fewer games, but bigger games,” DraftKings Sportsbook Director Johnny Avello told ESPN. “So even if you get a little less content, the games are more meaningful. I think it just increases the interest in betting.”
Of course, it also helps the books when a series goes as long as possible, and the 2025 MLB postseason was a mixed bag: Three of the four wild card series had the three-game maximum, but then only half of the division and championship series had the maximum number of games in subsequent rounds.
In that regard, the World Series is off to a good start, plus the presence of the Blue Jays, who play in Ontario, the only Canadian province with private sportsbooks, and the Dodgers' bigs are likely helping matters, too.
“While we don't pick favorites, the level of fan interest will obviously be much higher and the betting interest will be much higher if the most popular teams are involved as well as the states in which we regulate games,” Prevost said at the start of the postseason.
All eyes on October
October is an important month for sports and sports betting in general, as BetMGM reports that October 2024 saw 32.4% more tickets and 27.3% more transactions than the average for the other 11 months of the year. Fiserv, a financial technology company that provides payment platforms for several of the country's largest online sportsbooks, describes this time of year as a “defining stress test” for sportsbook infrastructure.
“With the surge in sports betting coming in October, the biggest risk for sportsbooks and gaming operators is downtime in their payment systems and their ability to maintain the volume of inbound and outbound transactions,” Paul Jardon, head of gaming, hotels, travel and leisure at Fiserv, told ESPN in an email. “We saw a need for our sports betting and gaming merchants to support their customers’ growing desire to have access to funds in real time.”
Bookmakers are planning to get in on the action with special markets and profit boosts to mark the sporting equinox on Monday, giving bettors of all levels more incentive to celebrate the holiday. But money on the line or not, the sports equinox represents a great opportunity for sports fans to reconnect with major sports leagues and enjoy the entertainment they provide.
