The Little League World Series is pleading with sports gamblers to leave their tournament alone. Betting on pre-teen kids playing baseball is happening online, and there’s not much Little League International can do about it.
What did the Little League statement say about betting?
Amid the action last week, the tournament issued a statement on social media addressing the issue.
“While Little League International continues to monitor the complexity and ever-evolving world of sports betting, we feel strongly that there is no place for betting on Little League games or on any youth sports competition,” the statement reads. “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, and no one should be exploiting the success and failures of children playing the game they love for their own personal gain.”
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That is precisely what’s happening at unregulated, online sportsbooks based outside the U.S., like the website BetOnline, based in Panama, or Bovada, based in Costa Rica. Using your laptop or phone, you can place a bet on the Connecticut Little Leaguers as big favorites over the kids from South Dakota. They battle in a prime-time matchup on ESPN Monday night. You can also place a “futures” wager on which team will win the entire tournament.
Why is betting on the LLWS increasing?
The Little League World Series is big business. The nonprofit that runs the show generates over $30 million in revenue annually. Every game is featured on national television. The city of Williamsport benefits from close to $40 million in tourist revenue every summer. Gamblers clearly want in on the action.
The Supreme Court made sports gambling legal across the U.S. in 2018, and 36 states now allow it in some form. It has become a multi-billion dollar business as major sports leagues partner with national sportsbooks like FanDuel, BetMGM and DraftKings.
Betting on amateur sports in the U.S. is still banned, except for college sports and the Olympics. Sports leagues now have services that monitor gambling sites for unusual activity on player prop bets. Online harassment of players is also on the rise.
How has legalization changed major sports?
Luis Ortiz and Emmanuel Clase of the Cleveland Guardians are on leave due to a gambling investigation. Houston Astros pitcher Lance McCullers, Jr. and Boston Red Sox stars Alex Bregman and Lucas Giolito are just a few of the athletes who have dealt with online threats. Giolito told the “Baseball Isn’t Boring” podcast that it doesn’t matter how well he pitches.
“I’m getting messages after every game, even games where I pitch well, where they’re made at me because I hit the strike out over instead of being under, or I was under instead of being over like prop bets – all these crazy things,” Giolito said. “People put hundreds of dollars on it and they don’t have a lot of money, but they’re gambling it anyway because it’s a disease. They freak out.”
The WNBA and MLS are also seeing an increase in online harassment. The more those leagues grow in popularity, the more the betting action increases. It’s not unrealistic to wonder how long it will be until those issues reach the little leaguers. This is the fourth year BetOnline has offered odds on the Little League World Series. A spokesperson said they received more than a thousand wagers in the opening hours last week. They’ll also take more bets on the tournament than any professional tennis or soccer match over the next two weeks.
