Time is now for new, comprehensive NCAA national study on sports wagering

In 2003, the NCAA conducted its National Study on Collegiate Sports Wagering and Associated Health Risks, soliciting anonymous responses from some 21,000 male and female college student-athletes.

That was the last time the NCAA conducted a self-described national study on the sports gambling habits of student-athletes. Since then, the NCAA conducted what it calls “surveys” on the issue every four years, beginning in 2004 and continuing through 2016. (There was none in 2020 because of the pandemic.)

But the landscape has undergone seismic change since 2016, much less since the pre-social media days of 2003. Since the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018 struck down the federal ban on sports wagering, sports betting has been legalized in 30-plus states, some colleges have secured partnerships with sportsbooks and student-athletes – like all of us – have been inundated with sports betting commercials and promotions.

In the NCAA’s 2016 survey, which included anonymous responses from 22,388 athletes, 24.3% of male athletes and 4.5% of female athletes acknowledged violating NCAA bylaws by betting on sports for money in the previous year. Where do those numbers stand today in a much more gambling-friendly environment? How prevalent is student-athlete betting in states that have legalized sports betting versus states that have not?

Exposure to sports wagering promotions and content has never been more pronounced. It has never been easier to place a bet on a game. At the same time, potential implications, ranging from problem gambling and mental health issues to maintaining the integrity of games, loom as enormous. Industry experts say it’s imperative the NCAA move now to launch another comprehensive national study.

“It is essential,” said Michelle Malkin, an assistant professor of criminal justice at East Carolina who has done extensive research and spoken at numerous conferences and symposiums on gambling’s connection to crime. 

“We need to know how much they’re engaging in gambling behavior. We need to know what percent are at risk for gambling disorder. We need to know what the effect is, in terms of the differences between athletes in states where it’s legal and in states where it’s not. We need to know how well our student-athletes understand NCAA regulations around gambling. … It takes a couple of years for something to be available to possibly see its effect. And now is the time. Right now.”

When asked if it plans to conduct another national study on the issue, the NCAA issued this statement to On3: “Understanding the impact that the gaming industry’s multi-billion dollar ad campaigns may have on student-athletes is a top priority for the NCAA and weeks after Charlie Baker took over as president, he initiated a new survey to gather the latest data as quickly as possible. The NCAA has long sought detailed information about what student-athletes are experiencing on their campuses to better support their needs and will continue to do so when it comes to issues such as problem gambling.”

When pressed for specifics of the current survey, an NCAA spokesperson said the research being conducted is “general polling” of 18- to 22-year-old college students regarding their gambling behaviors and is not polling confined only to student-athletes. Asked for a ballpark timetable for the survey’s completion, the spokesperson said, “We will provide more information at a later date.”

‘100% probability of sports betting scandal’

The thicket of issues surrounding NIL and potential employee status for student-athletes dominate most discussions these days about college sports. But Tom McMillen, the former U.S. Congressman and current CEO of LEAD1 Association – which advocates on policy issues for FBS athletic directors – told On3 that sports gambling is his own No. 1 concern because it’s existential. Amid much-needed attention being paid to other issues, some industry leaders maintain a head-in-the-sand approach.

In a recent conversation with one athletic director, McMillen asked, “How many of your student-athletes have bet on games?” The athletic director said, “I don’t know. I have no idea. I almost don’t want to know.”

It’s high time to get answers to those types of questions, Malkin and McMillen said. 

While it’s still against NCAA rules for student-athletes to bet on games, sports gambling nationwide has gone mainstream. Opportunities are so ubiquitous that wagering on sports in states where it is legal has almost gamified the behavior. It is easy and fun but also involves real money with real consequences. To that point, McMillen said sports integrity experts say there is a 100% probability of a sports betting scandal on a campus – 100% probability – within the next few years.

The ramifications, he said, could be “catastrophic.”

“I do echo that concern,” Malkin told On3. “I believe that, at the very least, there will be attempts [to entice athletes to sway the outcome of games], and that is concerning, to begin with. But I do believe somebody, somewhere is going to approach an athlete with a substantial amount of money. And that athlete – young brain not fully formed yet [and] looking at their options in life – will say, ‘Sure, I’ll just throw my free throws. I can make it look good. Or I’ll fake an injury.’ It’s going to be something that won’t be obvious, but will really impact them and/or their family. Athletes come from many backgrounds, and sometimes money can be a factor in terms of supporting family.”

Already, McMillen said, U.S. Integrity, which offers sports-integrity solutions for NCAA conferences, universities and professional leagues, says that on any given autumn Saturday, “there are five [football] games that they think there’s anomalous betting occurring, where they see anomalies in their computers.”

McMillen said that the last betting scandal that occurred in Germany involved 200 teams, adding, “Can you imagine a scandal in the United States that involved 100 athletes? Remember, sports betting also has to do with mental health because kids are being lambasted because bets go wrong on social media. It has to do with the integrity of games. It has to do with everything. It is a big issue. We have to benchmark where we are.”

Athletes not learning about gambling behavoir

Getting an industry-wide benchmark is also imperative because, Malkin said, college athletes may be uniquely vulnerable to enticements. Just from an addictive standpoint, the ease with which bets can be placed – on teams, games or even in-game, micro-wagers – could be particularly alluring for those with mobile devices in their hands for the majority of their day. 

Malkin said the proliferation of information – sports betting content, commercials and bonus promotions – are flowing to them without any safeguards. She’s in the very early stages of collecting data for a study, which is already showing that college students – regardless of whether they are athletes – are not getting any information about gambling on many campuses.

They’re not learning about problem gambling, she said. They’re not learning about gambling behavior. They’re not hearing about it in classes. There’s no screening for problem gambling on many campuses. Campus counseling centers are not being trained in how to work with a student who might have a gambling problem. They’re not getting the funds from the state or federal government to prioritize that for their students, she said.

“For drugs and alcohol, yes, but for gambling, what’s going to happen is we’re going to end up having to be reactive, rather than proactive in that space,” Malkin said. “It is just so easy and so fast. And it really appeals to kind of how we’ve kind of reformatted the brain of young people where there’s like 15 seconds of like awareness. They’re constantly scrolling through their phones. You can place a bet every 15 seconds. So, it kind of really fits well into how the brain is developing with young people with social media.”

All the while college students, college athletes and virtually everyone who consumes sports for that matter are being inundated with sports betting content. 

Warm embrace between leagues, sportsbooks

Even less than a decade ago, the betting world maintained arm’s-length separation with pro leagues, college sports and rights-holders. But since the Supreme Court struck down the federal sports wagering ban, the flirtation between the two worlds has escalated and in some corners became a warm embrace. Even MLB, mindful of its complicated, dark history with gambling dating to the 1919 Black Sox scandal, has embraced the sports betting ecosystem because of revenue opportunities. 

And the relationships will continue to evolve. Three years from now, David Levy, the former Turner Sports president, told On3 in the past that “sportsbooks are going to own media companies or media companies are going to own sportsbooks. It is inevitable.”

Even in recent years, there were indications that the line between the two entities in the college space remained distinct. In January 2019, at the NCAA’s annual convention, then-president Mark Emmert said that sports betting could “threaten the integrity of college sports.” And in a July 2020 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on “Protecting the Integrity of College Athletics,” Pittsburgh athletic director Heather Lyke testified that the legalization of sports betting will have a “corrosive and detrimental impact” on college athletes. 

NCAA rules prohibit athletes, coaches and administrators from betting on sports. And still, that once-clear line between the two worlds has blurred.

Seven-figure deals have a funny way of allaying moral concerns. There have been more than a half-dozen sponsorship deals between sportsbooks and colleges in recent years. Among the most prominent, LSU in 2021 entered into a multiyear sponsorship agreement with Caesar’s Sportsbook for “multiple millions” of dollars, a source told The Associated Press. Caesars received naming rights for the Caesars Sportsbook Skyline Club at Tiger Stadium. It can post signage throughout the stadium as well as at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, in addition to having a presence on LSU’s mobile sports app. 

After the deal was signed, the university digitally delivered a promotional deal to would-be-betters – including some students under 21 who couldn’t legally gamble – to “place your first bet (and earn your first bonus)”, the New York Times reported. Robert Mann, an LSU journalism professor, told the newspaper, “You take a daily shower in sports betting when you walk around.”

It’s time for an exhaustive national NCAA study

Last month, the American Gaming Association updated its responsible marketing code to, among other things, ban sportsbooks from partnering with colleges to promote sports wagering. And U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) wrote to 66 universities asking for information on their efforts to form partnerships with sportsbooks and to treat gambling addiction. He also asked the schools whether they have an existing policy on sportsbook deals.

Casey Clark, senior vice president with the AGA, told Greater Baton Rouge Business Report that the partnerships currently in place are not impacted by the updated code but that “we’re seeing very little appetite for entering into any new partnerships in this space.” That said, Clark acknowledged that the AGA is a business association, not a regulator, so it is not formally empowered to stop these partnerships. Its guidelines represent industry standards and often are reflected in regulations in respective markets. 

Malkin said it remains to be seen what effect the AGA upgraded code will have on existing or potential partnerships between colleges and sportsbooks.

“They can get around that [upgraded code] because it’s not a federal law, not a state law,” Malkin said. “It’s a regulation, which means ‘I’m just going to pay the penalties and have it.’ We don’t know how much effect it is going to have. And we don’t know if it will have any effect on those relationships that are already formed versus people being like, ‘You know what, I don’t want to deal with the backlash from this. I’m not going to form new relationships.'”

When it comes to the intersection of sports wagering and college athletics, here’s what Malkin said any college administrator needs to know: Student athletes have a higher propensity for risk, in general, and gambling can potentially have a devastating long-term impact on them. Therefore, athletic directors need to establish a priority for student-athletes to be educated and informed on these issues.

It starts with getting a sense of how many student-athletes are betting on sports and most frequently in which states. The NCAA is now conducting broad research on the gambling habits of all college students. But that’s merely a starting point. Experts say more in-depth research related specifically to student-athletes is needed, and the more granular detail unearthed the better.

“It is imperative that a new national survey be done that includes relevant new items geared toward the growth of online/application-based sports wagering and gaming …,” Malkin said, also adding, “There are all these questions we need to understand. It’s time for a national study.”