Young sports fans’ relationship with betting underscores unifying aspect, study suggests
Sports gambling in the U.S. has ramped up since states began to implement their own laws and restrictions around the activity.
Most sports are able to place a bet on their phone or mobile device without ever having to step into a casino or talk to a bookie in a dark alley. The easy access has made it so those of a younger generation, specifically Gen Z or those born between the late 1990s and early 2010s, can wager on nearly every sporting event in the world.
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Those young fans’ betting trends have underscored the notion that sports is one of the great unifiers in the world.
A survey conducted by Bookies.com and shared with Fox News Digital showed that 80% of more than 270 Gen Z respondents showed that they wagered with people of a different demographic. Additionally, 45% who wagered with friends who have a different ideology or presidential vote were three times more likely to listen to that person’s opposing viewpoint.
“Sports is the last and ultimate unifier, and the Super Bowl is the greatest and last unifying event. It is the only time all year when everyone is watching the same event at the same time on the same platform,” Bookies.com senior betting analyst Bill Speros told Fox News Digital in a recent interview. “So, that unification just sort of runs downhill from there.
“The interesting thing about the demographics that struck me was that when you pick a side on a bet, let’s say you’re in a chat group or in a Reddit page or something, and you pick a side, and you say, ‘I like the under in the Super Bowl,’ and everybody else who picks the under on the Super Bowl is going to agree with you. They don’t know who you are. They don’t know what your race is. They don’t know your nationality. They don’t know your politics. They just know that you’re in agreement with them on the under in the Super Bowl.”
Speros added that if a young bettor is interacting with like-minded sports fans online, they weren’t necessarily seeing who the other person was on the other side of a username.
“So, the reason why this sort of cuts across demographics is that when you come into contact with someone over betting per se, you’re doing it based on how you believe a game or an outcome is going to go, and you’re not seeing the person’s face. You’re not knowing who they are [politically],” he said. “Your first interaction with them is that ‘Hey, we agree on this, right?’ It’s a positive interaction.
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“Any time you have a positive interaction with someone, you’re more likely to build a relationship. Nowadays in society, we see our differences first, and then we realize we have a lot in common. With this, everyone sees that commonality first and then later on down the line they might realize they have some differences.”
The survey suggested that young people were building relationships through sports betting, with friends being the most common betting partner. About 55% of respondents said they made friends because of betting.
The study also suggested young fans were more inclined to research a game and thus learn the history and geography of a particular team or city. About 41% of Gen Z bettors said they learned where a city, state or county is thanks to sports betting.
The Super Bowl is routinely the biggest sports betting event of the year. The study said 74% of young people were most likely to bet during the game.
With every high that comes from winning a bet, there’s the low that comes from losing. Gambling is fun for the split-second rush, but getting in over your head is a serious problem that scores of Americans deal with on a daily basis.
Speros told Fox News Digital he gives everyone the same piece of advice.
“My first piece of advice is don’t bet,” he said. “My second piece of advice is, if you choose to bet, only bet what you can afford to lose. And that means set a budget. It’s a very simple way to figure out if you’re able to gamble responsibly or not.
“You always have to go into gambling with [the mindset of], ‘OK, this is money that I may lose.’ So it’s not going to have an adverse effect on the rest of my life. So it has to be money that you can afford or are willing to part with.”
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Super Bowl LIX is set to be played between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles. The game will be broadcast on FOX and fans can live stream it on Tubi. Kickoff is set for 6:30 p.m. ET in New Orleans.
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