Understanding The Spread Of Sports Betting
By: Darby Graff
Ding. I see a notification from my boyfriend. I open it to see an invitation to an app, Underdogs. I roll my eyes already knowing the string of texts that are about to be sent my way. Regardless, I click on the link. It says that if I open an account and put in five dollars my boyfriend will receive $100. This is sports betting. A world of recycling money that never seems to end up back in the hands of the bettors. However, as the users grow rapidly how do they all claim to be “winners”?
To put it simply, nobody’s a winner.
Let me break this down. Let's say you decide to open an account for a sports betting app, specifically Underdogs, when you open the account you will get money. This money is trapped in the game and can only be used to place bets. There are limits on how much of the app's money you can bet because they don’t want anybody winning big on their dime. You can place bets on any sport, whether it's college level or professional. One of the many types of betting that Underdogs does is called spread betting. Spread Betting is not just betting on who will win, but instead betting on a team being able to cover a certain margin of points, and another team not to.
Here's an example: let's say the Cowboys have a spread of -3 points and the Bengals have a spread of +3 points. The Bengals are favored to win, and if you bet on them, in order for you to win any money they would have to get three points higher than the Cowboys. If the Bengals are 12-10, you lose your money.
Underdogs, along with other sports betting apps, does similar things with players. In basketball, you can bet specifically on how many rebounds, assists, or even blocks one player is expected to make. You can form a parlay through various players' expected performances- if your parlay hits you can make a decent amount of money. The more players are in the parlay the less likely it is to hit, but you can make a ton of money with little investment. That is what makes it so appealing.
In 2018, the Supreme Court struck down a previous 1992 federal law that prohibited sports betting. Now, there are 38 states that have made sports betting legal. Over the past seven years sports betting has become ingrained in the sports culture of the U.S. Through online forums, dozens of apps, and now networks even partnering with betting organizations, it’s impossible to hear about sports without at least someone talking about their stakes in upcoming games.
The combination of the idea of low investment, possible high rewards, plus sports bettings increasing accessibility make it not shocking that young users are flocking to the apps. According to the Responsible Gaming Commission 7% of young adults (18-24) have reported a gambling addiction in 2024. The NCAA decided to run a report among students ages 18-22. 3,527 people answered and 58% responded that they had participated in sports betting. The study also found that 67% of bettors are college students that bet at a high frequency, many placing multiple bets everyday. The thing with betting though is the advertising. In the NCAA study they also looked into how much of an effect advertising has on actually getting users on the app. 58% of users stated that they started gambling after they saw the advertisements.
So, what’s so appealing about betting advertisements? It’s not just that they are flat out stating that you will win money, guarantee you cash prizes, or even bribe you with in-game money- It’s a multitude of things. It’s the celebrity endorsements- from people like Jamie Foxx to Allen Iverson- that just by looking at them are enticing you with their glamorous lifestyles, almost promising you the same thing. According to Northeastern Global News they are even more effective than old cigarette ads, with companies spending close to $300 million just last year on TV ads alone.
If the most effective parts of the ad campaigns contribute to this idea of being a winner then how much are people actually winning? Americans bet $150 million on sports betting in 2024 according to Investopedia. On average every household that participated in betting spent $1,100. What financiers found along with that is that in the states that just recently legalized sports gambling, their investment and savings per household went down by 14%. The states that legalized it have also seen a 28% increase in bankruptcy filings in the last four years. The only winners are the companies who made $14 billion in 2024 alone.
The more you spend the less likely you will win and the more the companies do. Common traits of developing gambling addictions can be needing to spend increasing amounts of money on gambling to get the same thrill, constantly planning gambling activities, trying to get money for the purposes of gambling, and also trying to get back lost money by gambling more. This is what gamblers do, and while they go into increasing amounts of debt, companies are only growing and infecting more people through their promises of making you a winner, when really you’re just one of their losers.
The only real way to prevent people from falling victim to these huge companies' false promises is by making sure that there are no false promises. The best way to do this is by passing legislation that ensures that companies are being transparent about the likelihood of winning, the dangers of gambling addictions, and even getting rid of celebrity endorsements.
Sports betting can disrupt people's entire lives. It can create relationship issues, financial problems, legal troubles, and even imprisonment. The fact that betting companies are reaching the youth at an increasing rate means a higher chance of people getting addicted to gambling long-term. This only means more money for them and less money for bettors. If you are in a cycle of abuse call the Gambling Hotline (1-800-522-4700).
Don’t give Gambling Companies any more money, all they're going to do with it is make more people addicted.
