Snooze Fest: Golf Voted Most Boring Sport In The World According To British Survey

Before you put too much stock in a recent report naming golf as “the most boring sport,” it’s important to consider a few things.

One: The survey (surely lacking in academic rigor) was conducted by an online casino. Not to cast aspersions on our gambling friends, but if you’re a fan of the flashy animations, endless annoying sounds, and instant gratification of online casino games—not to mention the thrill of flushing your money down the toilet—you’re probably not going to be a big fan of golf.

Two: The survey doesn’t specify whether the 2,000 survey respondents were considering playing golf or watching golf. However, as they cited the slow pace of play and confusion over the rules, it seems likely they were responding as players and not viewers. That said, the vast majority of people have no idea what it’s like to play most of the sports on this list, so we’ll assume the survey intended to poll watchers of sport.

Third: Not that this means anything, but those polled were all/largely British. The United States, Japan, and South Korea are larger markets. Thus, it would be foolish to draw any global conclusions from the survey—“golf is the most boring sport in the world, survey says” type of stuff.

All of this said, let’s get to what you’re here for: The 30 most boring sports in the world, according to a survey by Casumo.com.

1. Golf
2. Cricket
3. Bridge
4. Chess
5. Snooker
6. Dressage
7. Fishing
8. Darts
9. Bowls
10. Football
11. Draughts
12. Formula One
13. Show jumping
14. Ultimate Frisbee
15. Horse racing
16. American football
17. Rugby
18. Curling
19. Tennis
20. Boxing
21. Fencing
22. Baseball
23. Netball
24. Ten-pin bowling
25. Water polo
26. Archery
27. Superbike racing
28. Gymnastics
29. Hurling
30. Diving

This list is absolutely bonkers. Forgetting about the idea that golf is more boring than a card game (bridge) and a board game (chess). And soccer is more boring than show jumping? Archery is more exciting than superbike racing? Ultimate frisbee is more exciting than American football? Fishing is more exciting than 23 on the list? What the heck. Beyond golf, nothing on this list makes a shred of sense. Dressage? Who even knows what that is?

Does this make any actual sense? Does anyone think watching or engaging in archery is more exciting than baseball? Even the Olympic gold medalist in archery wouldn’t think so.

So before you file this dataset away along with other decline of golf/state of the game data, consider the context and the collective absurdity of the relative rankings. The only meaningful conclusion you can draw from the Casumo.com survey is that it’s spectacular press for Casumo.com.

How much different would the list look if it were just a random arrangement of 30 sports? Can you pick out any coherent logic binding the list together? More players versus fewer players? Complex rules versus simple rules? Short games versus long games? There’s not a shred of sense in any of it…except that baseball is more exciting than fencing (although apparently only marginally so).

We’ll look forward to Casumo’s next survey, which will doubtless name Tom Brady as the worst quarterback in NFL history. .