I am going to say something that is probably on the minds of many.
Sports betting is literally everywhere now, and I can’t stand it. There are ads during the game, odds on the screen, and promo codes from guys who look way too happy about a same-game parlay. FanDuel is as mainstream as McDonald’s. It’s become part of watching sports that nobody really asked for.
TL;DR: Sports betting has become part of being a sports fan, and teens see all of it. Betting ads run during games and all over their phones, athletes they look up to endorse betting apps, prediction apps like Kalshi let anyone 18 and up bet on almost anything, and video games sell packs that work like slot machines. Teens and sports betting shouldn’t feel this normal, but right now they do.
I don’t gamble. The riskiest bet I make is putting vegetables in pasta sauce, hoping my kids don’t notice. My two teenage boys? Well, thanks to the overdose of sports betting in their lives, to them betting just looks like part of being a fan.
For those of us over 40, did you know what an over/under was when you were watching sports as a kid? Mine do.
And it’s not only the ads. It’s in the video games they play, it’s all over their feeds, and with apps like Kalshi, anyone with a phone can bet on pretty much anything, whether they’re old enough or not. Teens and sports betting shouldn’t go together at all, and right now they’re hard to pull apart.
The prediction apps are the ones that really get me, Kalshi and Polymarket and the rest. They’re full of what teenagers actually care about, because you can bet on literally anything. The game, sure, but also an election, an award show, or whether this year ends up the hottest on record.
I recall my oldest teen making money-free wagers on whether the TV broadcast would show Donald Trump at the NBA Finals. Basically, if it can happen, somebody’s taking bets on it.
And it’s no coincidence their marketing talks like teenagers. Their social accounts post memes about athletes with captions like “Wait he’s goated” and “The league is cooked.” Nobody writes a caption like that for a middle-aged dad.
It’s not even called betting as much anymore. It’s “trading,” you can start at 18, and that’s a lot closer to my boys than I’d like. Did you know Kalshi started using face scans to stop kids logging in through their parents’ accounts? If you need face scans to keep kids out, I’d say you know exactly who’s showing up.
Then there’s the game itself. Watch the pregame show and the panel talks through the odds like it’s part of the analysis, the line sits next to the score, and there’s always a segment brought to you by some sportsbook. Nobody ever says the age limit out loud. It’s in that tiny print at the bottom of the screen that legally makes it all good.
I say get the betting out of the broadcast and let me watch the damn game. I’m already paying for half a dozen streaming services to do it.
Those who are already betting know where to go. They always have. There is no reason to promote it so much in places that young eyes can easily see it.
The athletes make it worse. Teens copy these guys, their shoes, their haircuts, the way they celebrate. Athletes like LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Lionel Messi, Devin Booker, Ronald Acuña Jr. and more are all linked to sports betting. Putting one of them in a betting commercial is about as cynical as advertising gets, and everybody involved knows exactly who’s watching.
The video games are where it gets sneaky, because nothing about them says gambling. In games like EA Sports FC and NBA 2K, teens spend real money on digital packs of players, and they don’t know who they’re getting until the pack opens. Usually it’s not who they wanted, so they buy another one. If that’s not a slot machine, I don’t know what is, but because it’s a video game, nobody calls it gambling.
Give me a break. When I was a kid, the worst surprise in a pack of cards was that stale pink gum.
Betting content is all over their phones too. A YouTube video starts with a betting ad, Instagram slips one in between their friends’ posts, and the free games and the app they check scores on have them as well. Then there are the streamers who gamble live, the guys posting their picks and the clips of big wins all over TikTok. No matter where they go online, somebody is trying to get them to place a bet.
It’s social, too, which is what makes it stick. Most teens aren’t betting alone. They watch the game together, talk about who picked what and give whoever got it wrong a hard time, so it feels like hanging out instead of gambling.
Between the apps, the ads and their friends, the way teens talk about sports has changed. Arguments used to be about who’s better and who’s going to win. Now they’re about the odds, and young people pick up the betting lingo years before they’re old enough to bet.
Need the money line explained to you? Ask a teen who is into sports.
Adults, of course, make it look normal, too. And that’s where teens can pick up on the rush. The office pool, the Super Bowl squares, the fantasy league with the guys from work. Most parents don’t think of any of that as gambling, so it’s no surprise teens don’t either.
I admit, my boys participate in a large family March Madness pool every year. But that is controlled by us. Not the local sportscaster dropping the live game odds on my son’s screen.
I wish I could just turn it all off. I don’t need to see the ads or the odds in my face. And that especially goes for my teens. They definitely don’t need to see it. I don’t think it’s going to stop them being curious or even participating. But they don’t need it being presented as normal. And that’s what the current climate of sports betting is doing.
I guess that’s what bugs me the most. It’s how normal betting looks to teens now. It’s been folded into sports so completely that most people don’t even see it as gambling anymore. Watching a game with your teens shouldn’t come with a sales pitch. Right now it does, and I can’t stand it.
What do you think? Are you tired of the amount of sports betting that is forced upon us? Does it change how you enjoy watching the actual games? Let me know in the comments.
