By TheNuts - Dec 18, 2025
The Rapid Growth Of Microbetting On Sports
On college campuses,
sports betting has become a common pastime. According to a 2023 NCAA survey, over 58% of college students had engaged in some form of sports betting, including fantasy sports.
A rising number of people believe that sports gambling is detrimental to both sports and society.This tendency is likely to continue as online sports betting expands because sports bets can be made on smartphones around-the-clock.
However, the scope of sports betting has expanded well beyond determining the outcome of a game or whether the spread is covered. There are several chances to place bets in every game.These microbets break down the numerous plays that make up a game into a series of unpredictable events that may all be bet on in real time at breakneck speed.
Football players have the ability to wager on whether the starting quarterback throws for two or more touchdowns or runs for a score, or whether the starting running back reaches or misses 100 yards.In basketball, similar statistics can be bet on, such as how many free throws or three-pointers a player will make.
Players may be motivated by a competitive spirit, but anytime blowout victories or defeats take place, there is a chance for serious corruption. Small mistakes that don't effect the game's conclusion can nonetheless have an impact on microbet results in these kinds of games. In order to guarantee that microbets pay out without influencing a game's outcome, this gives participants an unwarranted incentive to alter their performance.
College players can now be compensated through name, image, and likeness partnerships. While most people make as little as $100 a year, many are thought to make millions of dollars. Large contract holders are less likely to participate in microbet-influencing operations. However, with over 81,000 college football players taking part, dishonest people looking to profit from microbets might attempt to sway a few of them in an effort to change the chances in their favor. The approximately 36,000 college basketball players face the same dangers.
It is simple to eliminate all of these risks:Prohibit microbetting in all collegiate athletics. Bets on game results are not going away anytime soon because the Supreme Court authorized sports gambling by permitting states to regulate it.But extending wagers on game results to specific plays inside games is a step that the Supreme Court might not have anticipated.
What, then, inspired bookmakers to develop microbets? Of course, the chance to earn even more money. A single wager is made when one wagers on the result of a game. Conversely, microbets provide players with an almost infinite number of betting chances. Because microbets can be placed quickly and easily, sportbooks have hundreds of opportunities to make extra money from every game.
Based on the tiny percentage (or vig) they take from each wager, sportsbooks profit in direct proportion to the amount of money wagered. Nearly $150 billion was bet on sports in 2024, while sports books made almost $13.5 billion. The billions of cash connected to illicit sports betting are not included in this. Sports bettors never, if ever, consistently make money over any length of time, since less than 3% of frequent sports bettors make money over a six-month period.
Additionally, microbetting encourages obsessive gambling. Microbetting creates a fast-paced betting atmosphere that fosters addiction rather than placing bets on a single game outcome.
Microbets on individual player performance or plays during games must be removed if the risks of sport gambling on college athletes are to be decreased, including the development of gambling addiction. Since states have the authority to implement such reforms, they would not be in violation of Supreme Court precedent.However, it would have an impact on sportbooks' income, and they are likely to fiercely fight any such limitations.
Because reduced sportsbook earnings translate into lower state tax receipts, change is challenging to execute. States have received over $10 billion in tax income from sports betting since 2018. States would lose tax revenue if microbets are discontinued, so they will need to find other ways to raise money to address budget shortages.
Microbets have obvious implications. State governments must take decisive action to refocus sports gambling on game outcomes rather than individual play outcomes within games in order to put an end to this growing epidemic.
Enacting beneficial reforms might require a state legislator who is directly impacted by the sports gambling tsunami, such as having a son or daughter who becomes enmeshed in this addiction cycle.Before further detrimental effects on college athletes materialize, the first state to enact such laws will serve as a model for others to follow and take necessary action.