In the midst of all the hype surrounding March Madness, the NCAA has rolled out the Draw the Line campaign to help educate student athletes. The project seeks to educate these athletes about the possible risks associated with sports betting, including gambling related harm. Recent research conducted by the NCAA reveals that 67% of college students aged 18 to 22 have engaged in sports wagering, which is troubling considering that the legal minimum age for betting in regulated states is 21. Draw the Line has in part grown out of NCAA concerns about the lack of safeguards for student-athletes’ well-being…

More than 47 million Americans will legally bet on March Madness this year, with online and physical sports book betting expected to grow dramatically compared to 2019, compensating for lower expected participation in bracket contests, according to new data from the American Gaming Association (AGA). “The sports betting landscape has changed dramatically since 2019 – and as a result, tournament betting has transformed,” said AGA President and CEO Bill Miller. “As consumers formerly limited to bracket contests now enjoy access to legal sports book options, they also plan to place traditional sports bets as March Madness returns.” While the overall…

A shift is occurring in the NCAA sports betting relationship. After decades of resistance to legalized gambling on sporting events (with six years as the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit against New Jersey that eventually made its way to the Supreme Court) the NCAA is moving to address sports betting integrity in new ways. “Sports wagering is going to have a dramatic impact on everything we do in college sports,” said NCAA executive Mark Emmert at the organization’s annual convention in January and first reported by the Associated Press. “It’s going to threaten the integrity of college sports in many…

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the US has said that 80% of its athletic directors are opposed to expanding legalised sports betting in the country. The state of New Jersey is currently heading up an effort to overturn the federal 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA). PASPA makes it unlawful for governmental entities to sponsor, operate, advertise, promote, licence or authorise betting, gambling or wagering schemes that are based on games played by amateur or professional athletes. Nevada is the only state in which PASPA does not apply, but the situation may change should the US…

The NCAA bans DraftKings and daily fantasy sports provider FanDuel from their events. In a letter sent Tuesday, college sports’ largest governing body notified executives from DraftKings and FanDuel it would cancel future meetings and ban advertising from the two popular websites during NCAA championship events such as the men’s basketball tournament. Because the NCAA believes the fantasy games meet the definition of wagering, it has decided to ban all advertising, on site and on television, during championship events – a potentially big hit for two companies that have become major advertisers, particularly on television. The NCAA said its advertising…

USA Today – This is the month in Las Vegas you’ve been waiting for. Starting this weekend, everything college basketball takes over this town. The Orleans Arena hosts both the West Coast Conference (March 6-11) and Western Athletic Conference (March 12-15), the Pac-12 (March 12-15) plays at the MGM Grand Garden Arena while Mountain West (March 12-15) tips off at Thomas & Mack. After that, things start to get serious, when thousands of college basketball aficionados take over Las Vegas (and its sports books). Here are a couple of choice spots to catch all the action (plus, bonus baseball!) and…