ATLANTA – A new study shows the state of Georgia ranks high in the odds of a child becoming a future sports star.
Release:
- New research into the birthplaces of US athletes across the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL from Casinos.com has revealed the odds of your newborn baby becoming a future sports star.
- The research revealed that Louisiana babies are the most likely to become the sports stars of the future, with the Pelican State having the highest athletes per birth rate in the US.
- Alabama and Georgia rank second and third in the leaderboard respectively, with Vermont ranking rock bottom of the ranking due to their being no Vermont born athletes in any of the four major leagues.
For many kids, growing up to be a professional athlete and playing in one of the four major sporting leagues in the US is a dream that lives with them forever, even into their adulthood when they have kids of their own and they begin to hope that their child will become an athlete one day. However, this dream is a very unlikely one as the odds of making it and becoming a sports star are extremely low – but in which state is your newborn baby most likely to become a sporting superstar?
To discover this, Casinos.com decided to take a look into the birthplace of every athlete across the four major sports league in the US (NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL) and compare it to the current birth rate in every US state to see in which state the odds of your child becoming a sports star are the highest (and lowest).
The following table ranks top 10 US states where your child is most likely to become a sports star in order of athletes per 1,000 male births:
| State | Male Births | Number of NFL Players | Number of NBA Players | Number of MLB Players | Number of NHL Players | Total | Athletes per 1,000 male births |
| Louisiana | 28,719 | 90 | 13 | 11 | 0 | 114 | 3.97 |
| Alabama | 29,027 | 82 | 9 | 20 | 1 | 112 | 3.86 |
| Georgia | 62,037 | 162 | 24 | 51 | 0 | 237 | 3.82 |
| Mississippi | 17,578 | 49 | 6 | 10 | 1 | 66 | 3.75 |
| Florida | 108,130 | 218 | 22 | 114 | 8 | 362 | 3.35 |
| Minnesota | 32,213 | 29 | 11 | 11 | 52 | 103 | 3.20 |
| Delaware | 5,241 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 14 | 2.67 |
| South Carolina | 28,593 | 46 | 9 | 15 | 2 | 72 | 2.52 |
| California | 210,304 | 222 | 59 | 236 | 11 | 528 | 2.51 |
| Michigan | 52,490 | 62 | 18 | 17 | 34 | 131 | 2.50 |
Even without a single NHL player from the state, Louisiana top the ranking with close to 4 athletes per 1,000 male births, mainly thanks to their disproportionate representation in the NFL with 90 players in the league hailing from the Pelican State.
Alabama and Georgia children complete the podium of most likely to become a sports star with them both having a rate of athletes per 1,000 male births of 3.86 and 3.82, respectively. California, who have the highest total amount of athletes across all four leagues at 528, rank 9th place overall due to their relatively high birth rate.
The following table ranks the 10 US states in which your child is least likely to become a sports star:
| State | Male Births | Number of NFL Players | Number of NBA Players | Number of MLB Players | Number of NHL Players | Total | Athletes per 1,000 male births |
| Vermont | 2,692 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| West Virginia | 8,599 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0.47 |
| Idaho | 11,214 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 0.62 |
| Alaska | 4,684 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 0.64 |
| Montana | 5,616 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0.71 |
| New Mexico | 10,696 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 8 | 0.75 |
| Maine | 6,003 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 0.83 |
| New Hampshire | 6,313 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 0.95 |
| Rhode Island | 5,232 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 0.96 |
| North Dakota | 5,056 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 1.19 |
When it comes to the states where your child is the least likely to become a sports star, Vermont stands alone as the only state in the US to not have a single athlete across any of the four major sports leagues. West Virginia comes in second place with just 4 sports stars currently playing in the NFL and MLB, and Idaho places third with just 0.62 athletes per 1,000 male births.
If you’d like to find out more about the research or about Casinos.com, please visit https://www.casinos.com/news/what-are-the-odds-of-your-child-becoming-an-american-sports-star
