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The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act in 2018. Ever since then, the landscape of sports has changed in many ways.
In recent years, sports betting has seeped into the mainstream, especially among younger viewers. Social media and numerous sports leagues and teams have picked up on the trend and have adapted to this new stream of revenue. Almost every NFL team has a partnership with one or more sports betting companies; the NFL itself has three official partners in sports betting.
But these partnerships come at a real cost to viewers.
The idea of making money on sports betting is no longer taboo and even seems encouraged by the teams and governing bodies of these sports. Live broadcasts have become a mosh pit for companies like FanDuel, BetMGM and DraftKings fighting for viewers’ attention and promoting how fans can make money by watching sports and rooting for their favorite teams.
But is sports betting improving the fan experience?
It’s difficult to say. However, in some ways, it can be said it’s hurting more than it’s helping. In a way, it’s starting to feel like people aren’t watching sports because they like them, but because they’re about to get paid or lose a chunk of change.
Buzzer beaters and game-winning field goals have become odd to watch in public spaces. You look around and see people celebrating a $50 payout while others mourn a Ulysses S. Grant-sized hole in their pocket. But lost in all these money matters is the appreciation for a good game or an impressive comeback.
It’s not just in sports bars; it’s in stadiums and arenas. When someone goes to games at places like Canvas Stadium, it’s not surprising to hear people shouting, “I got the over,” or, “I need this win for my parlay,” at refs during warmups. It’s all fun and games till you hear it 40 times in one season — then it starts to be a drag.
At some stadiums, bets can be placed in person. Currently, there are only 13 stadiums with sportsbooks, but many are applying for licenses and may see approval in the near future.
One of the unexpected victims of sports betting are the athletes themselves. It’s not uncommon to see comments from fans on athletes’ personal social media accounts complaining about how they lost them money. It’s unnecessary stress to put on people, especially when some of the athletes are collegiate players who are only 18 years old.
The NCAA has even stated, “One in three high-profile athletes receive abusive messages from someone with a betting interest.” Even worse, they also stated that “more than 540 abusive betting-related messages were directed at men’s and women’s basketball student-athletes, including death threats.”
It was noted that women’s basketball players were more likely to receive threats than male athletes. People are blaming and threatening athletes who are just trying to compete due to their own money losses.
The NCAA interviewed senior compliance administrators at a large number of universities and compared answers from 2019 to 2023. Administrators were asked, “Has your athletics department dealt with a sports wagering and/or problem gambling issue within the past year?” In 2019, only 4% of Division 1 admins said they had; meanwhile in 2023, that number went up to 13%.
It was even worse among the Autonomy 5, which are the five major Division I conferences in the NCAA. In 2019, only 3% said they dealt with a problem, but that number skyrocketed to an astonishing 27% in 2023 — a 24% difference in four years.
And 25% of Autonomy 5 admins stated they had become aware of student-athletes on their campuses being harassed online or in person by somebody with a gambling interest.
It’s not just college athletes who have been bet on. Just this year, it was discovered that there were offshore betting sites that were betting on the Little League Baseball World Series, a baseball competition for kids between the ages of 10-12. It seems there are no sacred grounds for sports anymore. If there are games being played, then there’s someone trying to bet on it, and if someone’s betting, then someone’s making money.
The holding company for Fanduel, Flutter Entertainment, reported a 19% increase in revenue from 2023 to 2024. The company made just over 14 billion dollars in revenue alone in 2024, stating they had over 14 million active monthly players — majority of whom coming from the U.S.
In a study by the NCAA in which more than 3,500 people were interviewed, the results reported that 58% participated in at least one sports gambling activity.
Out of the group who placed bets, 14% reported they bet a few times or more per week. That’s nearly 500 out of the 3,500 participants placing bets on a weekly basis. In the study, 71.7% of bettors reported that the largest sum of money they had lost in a day from betting was between $1 and $100, which left 28.4% reporting they had lost anywhere from $100 to more than $1,000 in one day.
It’s gotten to a point that scammers are creating fake sportsbook websites that just accept betting money and run. In 2022, a group of Russian men impersonated an Indian Premier League cricket game and live streamed it. They hired fake refs and commentators to do impersonations of real people.
Betting fraud isn’t just happening in small Russian villages; it’s happening at some of the highest levels in sports. In 2023, Brad Bohannon, the former head coach of Alabama baseball, was fired midseason for giving insider information to an associate who was making bets. The bettor attempted to place a $100,000 bet but was limited to only $15,000 because of suspicious activity.
All of this has compiled into one big issue that has people cheating, threatening others and stealing money and even has fans questioning the sanctity and legitimacy of our favorite games. When we look back at all this, can we really say that sports betting is improving the fan experience or helping sports at all?
Only time can tell what’s coming and how sports will turn out.
Reach Alex Graser at sports@collegian.com or on Twitter at @AlexGraser5354.
