By AMANDA VOGT Associated Press
SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (AP) — This week, as usual, sports bettors can get action on MLB games from U.S.-based gambling sites. Meanwhile, at least a couple of offshore bookmakers are offering odds on games at the Little League World Series.
Team managers, and Little League itself, are not pleased.
“I’m not a fan,” said South Carolina’s manager Dave Bogan, noting he goes to Las Vegas twice a year. “It’s just not appropriate, it feels dirty, quite honestly.”
In news conferences throughout the Little League World Series, U.S. team managers have voiced their displeasure with gambling on their games — players at the tournament top out at 12 years old. Little League International also released a statement last week denouncing sports betting on youth competition.
“Little League is a trusted place where children are learning the fundamentals of the games and all the important life lessons that come with having fun, celebrating teamwork, and playing with integrity,” the statement said. “No one should be exploiting the success and failures of children playing the game they love for their own personal gain.”
BetOnline and Bovada are among the offshore sites offering daily odds on LLWS matchups. They are both based outside the United States and are both illegal to use in the U.S. and not subject to its laws. BetOnline is located in Panama and has offered sports betting and gambling since 1991. Bovada, a Costa Rica-based company, joined the scene in 2011.
BetOnline’s brand manager Dave Mason said in a post on X that BetOnline is making the moneylines itself and that it “ain’t easy.” He has posted odds on X throughout the tournament.
Jon Solomon, the community impact director of Project Play, an initiative of the Aspen Institute’s Sports and Society program, said there are negative effects on young players whose games are the subject of betting. Such wagering, he says, is fairly common.
In 2018, Project Play surveyed Mobile County, Alabama, and found that “26% of surveyed youth said they had played in a game where adults bet money on who won or the final score,” according to its State of Play report.
The report said that tackle football, basketball and baseball were more likely to be gambled on by adults according to the children surveyed.
“This is just, you know, bets that usually sort of happen, maybe at the field, or in the gym,” Solomon said in a phone interview. “Kids are already facing a lot of pressure in youth sports these days. It is a highly commercialized industry with a lot of people already making a lot of money.”
When gambling is involved in the actual performance of the game, Solomon believes the pressure can be even higher. The report showed that gambling “was witnessed by both boys (33%) and girls (19%).” In professional and collegiate sports, Solomon noted instances of athletes getting harassed by gamblers — think any kicker who missed a last-second field goal.
“Now imagine the stakes for a more impressionable child, right, or teenager?” Solomon said. “It’s so unhealthy and so unneeded, and I think if anyone is betting on youth sports, they should seriously seek help because you have a serious addiction most likely.”
Hawaii Little League manager Gerald Oda is adamant that gambling on these games takes away from the “beauty” of Little League.
“This is the only tournament where you’re representing your local community,” Oda said. “It’s that innocence, that pureness that these kids show on the field.”
Oda believes the memories his 12-year-old players make are more important than the games won or lost.
“It’s about them experiencing this whole moment here. They’re going to have memories saying that when I was 12, this is what we did,” Oda said. “Gambling is here to stay, but I am thankful that Little League is very protective of what they have, and they should be. You know that pure joy and emotion whether you win or you lose, that’s the greatest thing.”
Solomon said youth sports is “all about the delivery of the sport” from leagues and coaches.
“Sports, if not delivered properly, can be harmful to children and betting on sports would definitely fall into that category of it being harmful,” Solomon said. Pressure from parents and coaches, as well as early sports specialization, can also negatively impact youth sports.
In 2018, the Supreme Court struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act that made sports betting illegal across most of the U.S for over 25 years. Now, 39 states and Washington, D.C., have legalized sports betting but states don’t allow wagers to be made where those competing are under 18.
In keeping with those laws, no online betting sites such as FanDuel, Draft Kings or ESPN Bet offer lines on the LLWS and Nevada’s manager TJ Fechser hopes that doesn’t change.
“We’re in a big crazy world now and if we ever see publicized sports books throughout the world standardizing it, we have to really look into ourselves. Is this appropriate?” Fechser said. “I’m not the decider on this, but I don’t want to see it being standardized.”
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Amanda Vogt is a student in the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State.