MLS and Liga MX: thinner markets, travel and altitude

By Full Spectrum Sports Intelligence · 2026-10-09

Liga MX has 18 clubs. The season is split into two tournaments, Apertura (July to December) and Clausura (January to May), and each is decided by a knockout phase called the Liguilla. Promotion and…

Two leagues, two formats

Major League Soccer is the top US league and has 30 teams, 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada (Wikipedia: Major League Soccer). It is a single entity: teams and player contracts are centrally owned by the league, and a salary cap and other restrictions are used to control costs (same source). The Designated Player Rule lets teams sign star players such as Lionel Messi.

Liga MX has 18 clubs. The season is split into two tournaments, Apertura (July to December) and Clausura (January to May), and each is decided by a knockout phase called the Liguilla. Promotion and relegation has been suspended since 2020 (Wikipedia: Liga MX).

Why the data picture differs from Europe

• Two champions a year in Liga MX means each tournament is a short sample.
• MLS clubs cover a wide continent. In the 2018 season, the club with the shortest regular-season travel was Toronto FC at 25,891 miles and the longest was Vancouver at 51,178 miles (Wikipedia: MLS).
• Liga MX and MLS clubs meet in the Leagues Cup, which also feeds Liga MX qualification for a North American club competition (Wikipedia: Liga MX).

We have not verified altitude effects or market depth for either league, so this article does not make claims on them.

Legal context

• United States: legal state by state since the Supreme Court struck down PASPA in 2018 (AGA State of the States 2026).
• Canada: legal province by province, after federal law allowed single-event betting in 2021 (Government of Canada).
• Mexico: online betting runs under federal permits from the Secretaría de Gobernación (Dirección General de Juegos y Sorteos).

What an analyst can take from this

• Check each market's legal status before using it as a data source.
• Use travel distance and calendar structure as features, and test them rather than assume them.
• Keep MLS and Liga MX samples separate; their formats are different.

Sources

• Major League Soccer (Wikipedia)
• Liga MX (Wikipedia)
• AGA State of the States 2026
• Government of Canada statement on single-event betting
• Dirección General de Juegos y Sorteos (Mexico)