00:00The organizers of the Little League World Series would like sports gamblers to know it is not cool to bet on 10- to 12-year-old kids playing baseball.
00:09But there's really not much anyone can do about it.
00:11In the midst of the action in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, the tournament issued a plea on social media.
00:19We feel strongly that there is no place for betting on Little League games or on any youth sports competition.
00:26Little League is a trusted place where children are learning the fundamentals of the games and all the important life lessons that come with having fun, celebrating teamwork, and playing with integrity.
00:37And no one should be exploiting the success and failures of children playing the game they love for their own personal gain.
00:44Yet that is just what's happening at unregulated sportsbooks based outside the U.S.
00:50Like the website BetOnline based in Panama or Bovada in Costa Rica.
00:55There you can take the Connecticut Little Leaguers as big favorites over the kids from South Dakota.
01:01They battle in a primetime matchup on ESPN Monday night.
01:05The Little League World Series is big business.
01:08The non-profit that runs the show generates over $30 million in revenue annually.
01:13Every game is featured on national television.
01:16Gamblers clearly want in on the action.
01:18The Supreme Court made sports gambling legal across the U.S. in 2018, and 36 states now allow it in some form.
01:26But betting on amateur sports is still banned, with the exception of college sports and the Olympics.
01:32Sports betting has become a multi-billion dollar business as leagues partner with sports books like FanDuel, BetMGM, and DraftKings.
01:41As such, sports leagues now have services that monitor gambling sites for unusual activity on player prop bets.
01:48Online harassment of players is also on the rise.
01:51Houston Astros pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. and Boston Red Sox stars Alex Bregman and Lucas Giolito are just a few of the athletes who have dealt with online threats.
02:01Giolito told the Baseball Isn't Boring podcast in July, it doesn't matter how well he pitches.
02:07I'm getting messages after every game, even games where I pitch well, where they're mad at me because I hit the strikeout over instead of being under, or I was under instead of being over, like prop bets, all these crazy things.
02:21And people put hundreds of dollars on it, and they don't have a lot of money, but they're gambling it anyways because it's a disease, and then they freak out.
02:31The WNBA and MLS are also seeing an increase in online harassment.
02:36The more those leagues grow in popularity, the more the betting action increases as well.
02:41It's not unrealistic to wonder how long it'll be before those issues reach the Little Leaguers.
02:47This is the fourth year BetOnline has offered odds on the Little League World Series.
02:51A spokesperson said they received more than 1,000 wagers in the opening hours last week.
02:56They'll also take more bets on the tournament than any professional tennis or soccer match over the next two weeks.
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