BOSTON — If the American Gaming Association’s estimates are correct when the nets are cut down Monday night to complete the NCAA Tournament, 68 million Americans will have bet $1.5 billion on the NCAA Tournament.
Across the nation, college athletic directors, coaches and their compliance office will cross their fingers and hope that athletes for their teams and their schools aren’t included in those numbers.
Sports betting in person and online may be legal in Massachusetts now, but it remains strictly prohibited by the NCAA. College athletes and athletic department employees are prohibited from wagering money on any contest involving a sport that the NCAA sponsors. They can bet on horse racing, boxing and all the international rugby they want, but NCAA bracket pools, Super Bowl squares, daily fantasy etc. are off limits. UMass sends out regular reminders to its athletes and staff.
“We send out a notice on Selection Sunday saying ‘remember you cannot do anything with the NCAA Tournament,’” UMass athletic director Ryan Bamford said. “You can submit a free bracket and if you win something, that’s O.K. You can’t put money into anything to get money out.”
When bettors needed to leave the state or bet illegally to wager on games, administrators were still concerned about steering their charges away from trouble. But now that there’s a barrage of ads and promo codes on social media and traditional media (including MassLive) and billboards enticing people to sign-up from the convenience of their phone, their efforts need redoubling.
“We would be naive to think there wasn’t gambling going on before this law passed into place,” Boston College Athletic Director Blake James said. “It’s going to be all the more prevalent in Massachusetts with the passing of the law. We continue to educate and inform our students.”
Bamford said he expects UMass to spend $10-20 thousand in enhanced education and preparation for the school’s athletes and staff. He said he’s been in contact with the NFL, which offers its education program to colleges in states where sports betting has just become legalized. He plans to have a former FBI agent speak to his teams as well. Bamford said he’s planning a more extensive program during the summer.
“The NFL has a really good in-house program. They reach out to states where it’s becoming legalized. We’ve had some conversations with them about doing programming work, especially for football and men’s basketball next summer,” Bamford said. “We’ve done a lot with our coaches and we’ll do a really heavy dose next summer when our guys are here and we’ll have a captive audience.”
Online sports betting sites aren’t specifically targeting athletes to become bettors. They are targeting college campuses. According to research conducted by the Fantasy Sports & Gaming Association, 50% of sports gamblers are between the ages of 18–34. College students, especially men, (who represent 80 percent of the bettors) are a logical demographic to target. Bamford said there were persistent ads on social media offering signup bonuses and other deals leading up to and immediately following the legalization.
“It’s a lot like the marijuana lobby. They’re smart. They know where the pockets are,” Bamford said. “Draft Kings has been hammering us trying to infiltrate our campus. Draft Kings is all over TikTok and Instagram. That’s where 18-22-year-olds are living.”
College athletic departments can benefit from revenue from those same ads. UMass currently has a sponsorship with MGM Springfield, but it’s for the downtown casino. The current ads and signage do not include any inducements or references to the on-site or online sports books.
Bamford said sports betting sites have approached UMass about advertising.
“They’re are hitting us up to see if we want to do it. There’s money to be made from a corporate sponsor standpoint,” he said. “I’m not comfortable with it just yet and as an institution, we might never get comfortable with it.”
To this point, Boston College hasn’t had any direct affiliation with gambling companies.
According to Massachusetts law, fans can’t bet on college teams from inside the state (except in the NCAA Tournament), a distinction both Bamford and James appreciated.
“I was happy to see the Massachusetts schools were off the boards,” Bamford said. “Some of our kids are very naive about this.”
James agreed.
“As the state opens up this opportunity to residents of Massachusetts which I totally understand, it was the right approach to not allow gaming on teams in the state,” he said.
But legal sports betting is up and running in Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island and New Hampshire. It’s legal in Maine, but the logistics are still being sorted out. If someone wants to bet on a Massachusetts team, it can be as simple as driving over the border and opening an app.
The concerns are more than just keeping the athletes from betting. Any insider information athletes give their friends or even business partners they’re working with through Name Image and Likeness deals can be valuable to a gambler.
“We’ve talked about that even before this became legalized – not sharing any team-related information. Injuries, relationship status, academic status of your or your teammates,” Bamford said. “NIL adds a whole other layer of somebody you get to know personally. There are so many layers to this. There are so many things you have to be cognizant of.”
James said the key is hammering home the idea to exercise restraint if someone isn’t sure and to reach out and ask.
“We have to make sure we give our young people the information and knowledge that they need to navigate some complicated situations,” he said. “It’s just going to be more present. We’re just going to have to have a great reminder and constant reinforcement of what is and what isn’t allowed. … As this has opened up more with the opportunities for what our young people are able to do with name, image and likeness, the need for reinforcing for what is and isn’t compliant within their opportunities is a message that we’re going to have to reiterate to them on a regular basis. Hopefully, we’ve gotten to the point where they err on the side of caution. That’s the message we need to reiterate to them — don’t act before you ask.”