The Billion-Dollar Industry – The Reality of Sports Betting

By Zeta Bell

Photos courtesy of NPR

Sports betting. The reality of our favorite sports. A form of gambling where a person places a wager on the outcome of a sporting event. If their predictions come true, they can win hundreds of thousands of dollars, but if they don’t? Money is lost. In a global context, the sports betting market generated an estimated revenue of over $100 billion in 2024. This number represents the total cost of losses for all gamblers, which is more money than the average person earns in a lifetime. According to a TGM global sports betting report, 60% of people worldwide placed at least one bet in 2024 for sports betting. It’s taking the world by storm, and as it experiences a drastic rise to fame, excitement is skyrocketing, but pockets are being drained.

But what’s the big deal? Sports betting is fun and creates more engagement in sports that may not be popular, giving them a chance for fan engagement. But there is a dark, dangerous side to it. To understand the drastic effects of sports betting, we need to look into the history of the obsession.

Some of the earliest sports betting we saw was actually seen in ancient Greece and Rome. Attendees of various athletic events would vote on their favorite athletes, and as Greek and Roman sports spread, so did betting. Though at this time it was informal betting, the form of gambling grew. Somehow, sports betting was carried to medieval Europe. But it was looked down on by religious leaders, and it was outlawed for the poor. But in smaller-scale underground cities that had less enforcement of the rules, the public rallied and used sports betting to help fund public projects. Currently, sports betting is legalized. Over 30 U.S. states have legalized some form of sports betting, whether it be FanDuel, DraftKings, ESPN BET, or Caesars sportsbook. It is taking us by storm, but it isn’t necessarily a good thing.

Any form of gambling is highly addictive, but with sports betting, it doesn’t take much to be able to predict the most probable outcome. Sports fans are easily able to hit big just by using their sports knowledge and placing bets, and this fuels the fire. The more a person wins in sports betting, the more they are likely to engage in sports. It hijacks the brain’s reward system by using an unpredictable win to trigger rushes of dopamine in the brain. Dopamine reinforces a psychological dependence which, in theory, is similar to having a substance addiction.

But really, the biggest issue with sports is their accessibility. Almost everyone in the U.S. has some form of technology. It’s not common for someone to be sealed off from the web, because it’s so accessible; more and more people try betting every day. Websites use persuasive marketing and social normalization to grow and spread like a plague. They get people’s favorite celebrities and influence them into getting these apps.

But the grim reality is that the more people who get these apps, the more they grow. There are very few restrictions on sports betting. In 2018, the Supreme Court removed the federal ban on sports betting. While each state has the authority to regulate it, very few restrictions are in place to effectively protect users. Only 11 out of the 50 states in the United States have banned sports betting. The minimum age to sports bet in most states is either 18 or 21, but really, it should be higher. Having college or even older high school-aged kids with access to this form of gambling can be dangerous, and the lasting effects can be detrimental, with 14% of young adults and teenagers going into debt because of over-gambling or borrowing too much money from other people to pay the fees.

While sports betting can be a fun, healthy way to compete with friends and maybe make some extra cash through predicting the outcome of beloved sports, it’s also extremely harmful, and there needs to be more rules and regulations on the addiction so we can protect the youth of our country from harmful habits and irreparable debt at a young age. Using sports betting responsibly and understanding all possible outcomes, be prepared to pay.