Sports betting tends to come at a high cost with a possible high reward. While weighing the risk versus the reward may scare many away, plenty love to test their odds. Whether it is betting on one’s favorite team or player, placing a parlay or putting a wager on the margin of victory, sports betting’s thrilling nature has captured the interest and intrigue of the public.
“People love to take sides, whether it be a debate or gambling. They like the competition, and they believe they will win,” said Jim Larrañaga, head coach of the University of Miami men’s basketball team.
What was illegal as little as six years ago largely affects the sports world today. Betting is an emotional investment as much as it is a financial one, likely one of the reasons its popularity is so high.
“[Sports betting] infuses heightened emotion into the experience and adds individual mental participation in the importance of the outcome,” said Brian Biagioli, graduate program director for strength and conditioning in the Department of Kinesiology Sport Science at UM.
How to Bet
“There’s a few ways [to bet] — either through a bookie, which is a person who you place your bets with and pay instead of a computer. Or you can go through apps like Hard Rock, Draft Kings, and FanDuels; there are so many,” said Morris Riley, a senior at UM.
Everyone tends to bet differently and has strong opinions on the specific betting medium.
“I usually bet through bookies or people I know who run their own sports book. Up until a couple of years back, this was the only way,” said Johnathan Nolan, another Miami resident and avid sports bettor.
“I bet through the Hard Rock app,” said Lee Sterling, owner of Paramount Sports. Other top sports betting mobile apps include Boom Fantasy, Vividpicks, Draft Kings, Fanduel Sportsbook and Superdraft.
Specific terminology is critical to understanding the fundamentals of how sports betting works. When you go to place a bet, the plus [+] is representative of the underdog team. The minus [-] represents the team that is favored to win. The negative is how much you must risk there is in order to profit, and the + is how much you risk to lose. Odds change when more people bet on a particular team so that sports books have a better chance of having a 50-50 or equal payout.
Fantasy Football
The weekend after Labor Day isn’t just any weekend. It’s the kickoff of football season and, thus, the inevitable beginning of the year’s most significant sports betting time. Friend groups to come together and compete in a “friendly” way while wagering their money and pride for an entire football season: Fantasy Football.
“[This type of betting] tends to have individual and group effects – the latter through levels of camaraderie — so it is more fan-based,” said Biagioli. This can be said about many teams, including our UM Hurricanes and Miami Dolphins.
Betting Timeline
How often people bet depends on their identity, financial situation and willingness to risk money.
“I probably bet four times a week if UFC is rolling simultaneously with football,” said Nolan. “When football is out, it’s like once or twice a month when UFC is on. Saturday nights during the football season, I usually bet big on my favorite team, the Miami Dolphins.”
“I bet on sports most every day, and I bet on football, basketball, hockey and the UFC, ” said Sterling in contrast.
Possible Risks
Sports betting is not always fun and games with nonchalant wagers. It involves real and sometimes devastating results.
Windy Dees, professor and graduate program director in sport administration at UM, explained some of the risks of sports betting.
“Debt and gambling addiction are real, and people suffer mightily from both. Athletes gambling on their games and policing the integrity of sports is also a big problem,” said Dees. “If the integrity of sporting events cannot be protected, then the outcomes are compromised, and fans will no longer buy-in.”
Nolan talked about his personal experience with the risks of sports betting.
“I’ve won plenty and lost plenty. Too much to count for sure. Definitely sat through two weeks of losing $6-10k and definitely went through weeks of winning $10k plus,” said Nolan. “My biggest score was $13,500 and my biggest ‘L’ was probably back-to-back $3k losses on the Dolphins.”
Affecting the Sports Industry
It’s important to note that sports betting doesn’t only affect the people who bet. It also affects the actual sports industry as a whole.
“From a research perspective, sports betting is beneficial to sport organizations because fans who wager on games are more involved or committed. They tend to watch more sports in general, stay tuned in for longer, and spend more money on the product,” said Dees. “From a financial perspective, sports betting is a behemoth at producing revenue. The American Gaming Association reported that Americans spent $120 billion on legal wagering in 2023 and the revenue from those wagers [once you accounted for the payouts for winnings] was $10.9 billion.”
Sticky Situations
Something you may not expect when learning about sports betting is how often Waffle House comes up. Yes, Waffle House. When talking to students, professors and even professional sports bettors, almost all of them had something to say about Waffle House when it came to sports betting punishments.
One of the most interesting angles of sports betting, especially regarding fantasy football, is the punishments. Sometimes people who create a fantasy football league will require the loser of the league at the end of the season to do something embarrassing or funny.
“One common one I’ve heard the most is they have to go to a waffle house for 24 hours and they can have an hour taken off for each waffle that they eat,” said Sterling.
Asking other students around campus, there were some that mentioned holding embarrassing signs, participating in a physical fight or even renouncing your American citizenship.
Sports betting can be fun and rewarding when careful of the possible risks. It has skyrocketed in popularity amongst all sports and generations throughout the years.
“Overall, we are seeing gambling explode and U.S. sports leagues and fans are embracing it, but we are still very much in the initial stages of the process,” said Dees. “When it comes to the legalization of sports wagering, you need to invest as much in protection as you do in implementation.”
Betting 101
When it comes to sports betting, it is arguably all about the strategy. Now, strategy isn’t going to hold you over for the entirety of betting as you can not control the actions and outcomes of the actual games. However, there are many different ways to bet online and the different types of bets in general.
Money Line Bets: Money line bets are by far usually one of the most common types of bets because you are solely betting on one team to win rather than a bunch of details hoping that they all lining up together.
Point Spread: This type of bet relies on the margin of victory in a game instead of whether or not they just win or lose.
Over/Under: An over-/under bet is based on the total score from both teams overall and whether or not it will total over or under a given number.
Parlay Bets: This kind is a cheaper type of bet that is based on multiple bets, hoping that they all happen in order to get a larger payout — only get paid if everything happens. They can be worth more because the odds are not as probable
Futures Bets: This involves betting on the future of some type of sporting event relating to championships or the total number of wins in a season for a team. These can also be in reference to specifics about a certain player.
words_lucy carlson-pietraszek. photo_ethan dosa. design_sal puma.
This article was published in Distraction’s Fall 2024 print issue.
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