By Deana Garner
NFL Player Engagement
As we approach NCAA basketball’s March Madness 2014, Las Vegas sports books just celebrated an unprecedented profit of $19.7 million on Super Bowl XLVIII according to the Nevada Gaming Control Board. This was noted as being millions more than the past three Super Bowl wins combined. According to a recent 2012 NCAA survey, wagering among male athletes is down nearly 10 percent from 2008; however, the NCAA still is very concerned about the increased use of social media and technology for betting.
Specifically, the NCAA’s findings reflect that “57 percent of men reported they gambled for money in 2012, a drop of 9 percent from four years earlier. [G]ambling among men who play Division I sports fell from 58 percent to 50 percent from 2008 to 2012. Similar decreases were reported in Division II and III, while female athletes stayed steady at 39 percent. The survey of nearly 23,000 athletes is administered every four years.”
The NCAA reported that “[t]he decrease in the rate of gambling among male student-athletes is encouraging; [h]owever, the explosive growth of sports wagering has caused a noticeable increase in the number and severity of sports wagering cases investigated by the NCAA."
Further, the NCAA study also finds that technology has made it not only easier to gamble, but also noted that the overall culture of gambling has become much more pervasive.
"The days of the student bookie with paper betting slips is gone," said NCAA principal researcher Tom Paskus, the primary author of the survey. "Gambling just looks different today than it did even eight years ago when we first conducted the study."
The NCAA study found that the percentage of male student-athletes who reported placing bets online or through their phone rose from 26.3 percent to 33.7 percent over the past four years. Approximately one-third of all male student-athletes reported in the 2012 study that they first gambled before high school, reflecting an increase of seven percent.
The 2012 NCAA study also found that social media sites like Facebook and Twitter have made it easier for outsiders to contact athletes in search of inside information. Fortunately, however, the NCAA’s findings indicate that the number of athletes providing such requested details has remained essentially unchanged since 2008.
Just 0.8 percent of men's basketball players and 0.3 percent of football players said they have given details beneficial to gamblers, numbers slightly reduced over the past four years.
Lessons learned…. Student-athletes beware. Enjoy the games for the sport… be mindful of U.S. laws, your team and school code of conduct, NCAA regulations, and the true reason you play the sport you love….the love of the game.