The NCAA is grappling with the spread of legal sports betting in the United States and its effects on student-athletes.
Legal sports betting is becoming a growing concern for some of the biggest college sports schools.
That’s according to the latest NCAA survey, which was completed by 546 school compliance administrators from July 18 to Aug. 1, with usable data provided by 500. Responses included 42 from so-called “autonomous” schools. », which are colleges. in Power Five conferences such as the Big Ten and SEC.
Problems with sports betting have been most widely reported at the largest and most prominent universities. According to the survey, 27 percent of respondents from Power Five conferences said their athletic department had experienced a problem with sports betting and/or problem gambling in the past year, double the total of 13% for all Division I schools. The result of 27% is up from 3% obtained in a similar survey carried out in 2019.
The last investigation, whose results were released earlier this week, also revealed that a growing number of administrators are increasingly concerned about sports betting. Among Power Five respondents, 53% said they were “extremely or moderately concerned” about sports betting, up from 38% in 2019.
Power Five conferences had the biggest problem with users of online sports betting sites also aimed at athletes. The survey found that 25 percent of self-school respondents said they were aware of student-athletes on campus who had been harassed by someone with gaming interests in the past year, far more than all 10 % reported for Division I as a whole.
“We need all the help we can get.”
“Student-athletes are being harassed by gamblers and billion-dollar ad campaigns are targeting young people across the country,” NCAA President Charlie Baker said in a press release. “We need all the help we can get, including from regulators and sportsbooks, to protect student-athletes and protect the integrity of the games.
The NCAA is grappling with the spread of legal sports betting in the United States and its effects on student-athletes. Last year, numerous gambling-related incidents hit college sports.including a criminal investigation in Iowa, which prompted the NCAA to invest time and money to learn more. The results of one of these surveys were published earlier this yearshowing that betting on events is prevalent on campus.
But the latest survey delved into the type of education athletes receive from their schools about legal sports betting, with more than 95% of respondents at DI schools saying some form was happening at their establishment .
Respondents were asked if they would likely use the resources provided by the NCAA and what topics they would be most interested in. For the Power Five, 80% of respondents said educational resources on NCAA sports betting regulations and penalties would most likely be used. Additionally, 83% of P5 respondents said they would likely use resources provided by the NCAA to combat “player harassment.”
Only 34% of Power Five respondents said their school used a sports betting integrity service to keep tabs on their games. However, 63% indicated that their conference uses integrity services on their behalf.
“The NCAA will use data from this staff survey, along with data from our previous sports betting activity survey of college-age respondents, to create the best tools available to help schools educate students- athletes on how and why to avoid sports betting,” Baker said in the press release. “It is clear that there is still work to be done, but this investigation will be of great assistance in all of our sports betting efforts.”
Bet on the greens
The survey found some success stories among respondents, including that NCAA data provided deeper insight into the situation, such as “golfers exhibiting very high levels of all playing behaviors.”
The survey also noted that “compliance staff believe that many students and coaches learn the rules” but simply choose to ignore them. And while the NCAA has refined its approach to student-athlete betting penalties, there may be an appetite for further modernization.
“Many believe student buy-in is lacking because behaviors such as putting $20 in a swimming pool are apparently equated with the worst behavior covered by the NCAA bylaws,” the survey states. “A number of comments that the NCAA should modernize betting laws and focus on college (and non-professional) sports betting.”
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