Bloomberg News
@Bloomberg-News·2.8M subscribers·40.1K videos
March Madness: Sports Betting Apps Flood College Campuses
Posted
March 17, 2022
Views
595
Likes
10
Engagement
1.68%
March 17, 2022
595
10
1.68%
Every word spoken in this episode is indexed. Type any phrase to jump straight to the moment it was said.
Type any word or phrase that may have been spoken. Click a result to seek the player to that exact moment.
Try a name, a topic, or a quoted line
5:16Now PlayingPiper Hutchinson isn’t opposed to gambling. But the 25-year-old political communications major says she was “really concerned” with the email she received in January from the athletic department at Louisiana State University.
The message, which was also sent to a large number of LSU fans, encouraged recipients to download the Caesars Sportsbook app. The subject line: “$300 in Free Bets Await.” Hutchinson, a senior, says universities shouldn’t be encouraging their students to gamble.
“There needs to be a line between the business aspect of athletics and the academics of a major flagship university,” she said.
As March Madness kicks off this week, that line is getting increasingly blurry on campuses in the roughly 30 states across the country where online sports gambling is now legal. To date, LSU is one of at least seven schools, including University of Maryland, University of Colorado and Michigan State University, that have reached lucrative advertising agreements with betting apps like Caesars Sportsbook and PointsBet.
Under the marketing deals, sports betting apps are paying to have their names mentioned during radio broadcasts, highlighted on schools’ mobile apps and displayed inside arenas and stadiums for fans and TV viewers to see. On a recent night inside LSU’s Pete Maravich Assembly Center, an ad for Caesars Sportsbook flashed alongside the court. On the school’s sports radio network, an announcer provided “your Caesars Sportsbook scoreboard update.” There’s also a new Caesars Sportsbook Skyline Club at the football stadium.
The agreements are helping colleges fill holes in their budgets created by the pandemic and allowing sportsbooks to reach a key demographic of college sports fans—many of whom will place wagers this month during the NCAA’s March Madness tournament. Last year, nearly 50 million people were expected to bet on the college basketball tournament, with the number of people gambling on the games through an online sportsbook tripling compared to 2019, according to the American Gaming Association.
But the advertising deals have raised concerns about promoting betting to college-age students who may be vulnerable to addiction. Several states and universities restrict betting on college games. While the NCAA allows marketing deals between schools and sports betting apps, it still prohibits gambling by college athletes, coaches and administrators.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Subscribe to our newest channel Quicktake Explained
Bloomberg Quicktake brings you live global news and original shows spanning business, technology, politics and culture. Make sense of the stories changing your business and your world.
To watch complete coverage on Bloomberg Quicktake 24/7, visit or watch on Apple TV, Roku, Samsung Smart TV, Fire TV and Android TV on the Bloomberg app.
Have a story to tell? Fill out this survey for a chance to have it featured on Bloomberg Quicktake
Connect with us on…
Breaking News on YouTube
Sentinel Indexing in Progress
Metadata and chapters are available. Claim extraction for this episode is pending.
All video content is delivered via YouTube embedded players in accordance with the YouTube Terms of Service. Sentinel provides research tools that promote discovery and accountability across political media.
