ANN ARBOR — Given Michigan’s incredible start to the season, Dusty May hasn’t been receiving any Venmo requests lately. He was last year.
Michigan’s coach would regularly receive requests via the mobile payment platform from bettors who’d lost money on the Wolverines last season. There was a stretch where Michigan was winning, but not covering the point spread, and gamblers were upset.
“I feel bad for them because they lost their money,” May said recently, “but that’s the decisions they made, not the decisions we made.”
As sports betting has become ubiquitous in America — leagues are partnering with gambling sites; legal wagers are just a tap away on smartphones; ads for betting apps flood TV, radio and billboards — it has created issues for the athletes and coaches.
“I go to high school games and I hear high school and frickin’ middle school kids talking about gambling and over-unders and sports betting lines,” Michigan assistant Kyle Church said. “I see teenagers doing this and I’m like, ‘This is crazy.’”
Added fellow assistant Mike Boynton Jr.: “It’s more than a bit problematic.”
At the risk of overexplaining, every game has a point spread. Michigan was favored by 18.5 points in its most recent game against Maryland, for example. The Wolverines won by 18, meaning they failed to cover the spread and those who bet on them lost money.
Bettors can also wager on the total amount of points scored in the game and a host of other things, including how specific players will perform.
As a result, the actual participants — players and coaches — have to be careful about what information they share publicly. May is incredibly accessible and open with the media. But if a fan asks him about the Wolverines, his antenna goes up.
“If I gave them any answer, you could possibly incriminate yourself,” he said last month. “And it might be just a buddy asking a question because he likes watching your team play and he comes to games. But I don’t answer any questions just because I’m terrified of that stuff.”
May immediately mutes social media users he suspects might be looking to gain an edge for a bet.
Michigan guard Nimari Burnett, in his sixth year of college, mostly avoids his DMs. He’s wary after hearing from teammates who got bombarded by “fans saying the most ruthless things because they were betting,” he said.
Even an innocent encounter with a fan can turn when he — it’s almost always a “he” — mentions gambling. “In one ear, out the other,” Burnett said.
The Wolverines receive education on the perils of sports betting, both in formal workshops and in casual conversations with coaches. Recent news stories act as deterrents. Each time a scandal is exposed, it serves as a “wake-up call” for athletes, Church said. “They see that it’s a federal offense.”
Just last week, the NCAA accused a former basketball player at the University of San Francisco of knowingly sharing information about his statistics in upcoming games with a player at a different school. The NCAA has ruled more than a dozen players from eight schools ineligible because of betting violations this year alone. A betting scandal hit Michigan’s neighbor, Eastern Michigan, last season.
That’s just men’s college basketball. Other sports, at the college and pro levels, have had similar problems.
“The prop bets are probably the biggest issue,” May said last month.
Those are wagers involving specific elements of a game including, for example, how many rebounds a particular player will get in a game. They can be particularly enticing for players to manipulate. Widespread legalized betting should, in theory, prevent or at least help catch such behavior. The aforementioned probes indicate the system is working.
Gambling isn’t all bad. The NCAA Tournament is so popular partly because people love filling out brackets. Betting apps like DraftKings and FanDuel give certain fans more reason to care about, and in turn watch, games.
“A lot of these fantasy leagues and the gambling brings eyeballs to our sport,” May conceded. “I mean, let’s not be naïve.”
Michigan played three games in the gambling capital of the world, Las Vegas, last month, as part of the Players Era Championship.
The Wolverines dominated that event and are 10-0 this season. They have covered the spread six times, including a run of five straight before Saturday’s near miss at Maryland. Michigan bettors, who never had a right to ask May for refunds, have little reason to this year.
May wants no part of that aspect of the game.
“Those of us that are in (the sport) need to stay as far away as possible (from betting),” he said, “and continue to educate and put up guardrails.”