ANN ARBOR \u2014 Given Michigan\u2019s incredible start to the season, Dusty May hasn\u2019t been receiving any Venmo requests lately. He was last year.<\/p>\n
Michigan\u2019s coach would regularly receive requests via the mobile payment platform from bettors who\u2019d 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel bad for them because they lost their money,\u201d May said recently, \u201cbut that\u2019s the decisions they made, not the decisions we made.\u201d<\/p>\n
As sports betting has become ubiquitous in America \u2014 leagues are partnering with gambling sites; legal wagers are just a tap away on smartphones; ads for betting apps flood TV, radio and billboards \u2014 it has created issues for the athletes and coaches.<\/p>\n
\u201cI go to high school games and I hear high school and frickin\u2019 middle school kids talking about gambling and over-unders and sports betting lines,\u201d Michigan assistant Kyle Church said. \u201cI see teenagers doing this and I\u2019m like, \u2018This is crazy.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Added fellow assistant Mike Boynton Jr.: \u201cIt\u2019s more than a bit problematic.\u201d <\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
As a result, the actual participants \u2014 players and coaches \u2014 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I gave them any answer, you could possibly incriminate yourself,\u201d he said last month. \u201cAnd it might be just a buddy asking a question because he likes watching your team play and he comes to games. But I don\u2019t answer any questions just because I\u2019m terrified of that stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
May immediately mutes social media users he suspects might be looking to gain an edge for a bet.<\/p>\n
Michigan guard Nimari Burnett, in his sixth year of college, mostly avoids his DMs. He\u2019s wary after hearing from teammates who got bombarded by \u201cfans saying the most ruthless things because they were betting,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Even an innocent encounter with a fan can turn when he \u2014 it\u2019s almost always a \u201che\u201d \u2014 mentions gambling. \u201cIn one ear, out the other,\u201d Burnett said.<\/p>\n
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 \u201cwake-up call\u201d for athletes, Church said. \u201cThey see that it\u2019s a federal offense.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2019s neighbor, Eastern Michigan, last season.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s just men\u2019s college basketball. Other sports, at the college and pro levels, have had similar problems.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe prop bets are probably the biggest issue,\u201d May said last month.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Gambling isn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of these fantasy leagues and the gambling brings eyeballs to our sport,\u201d May conceded. \u201cI mean, let\u2019s not be na\u00efve.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michigan played three games in the gambling capital of the world, Las Vegas, last month, as part of the Players Era Championship.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s near miss at Maryland. Michigan bettors, who never had a right to ask May for refunds, have little reason to this year.<\/p>\n
May wants no part of that aspect of the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose of us that are in (the sport) need to stay as far away as possible (from betting),\u201d he said, \u201cand continue to educate and put up guardrails.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ANN ARBOR \u2014 Given Michigan\u2019s incredible start to the season, Dusty May hasn\u2019t been receiving any Venmo requests…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188986,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[342,111,139,69,145],"class_list":{"0":"post-188985","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mobile","8":"tag-mobile","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}