Gambling has become ubiquitous at nearly every level of every sport these days. The organizers of the Little League World Series would like it to stay away their tournament.
With the LLWS in full swing, Little League International released a statement Thursday stating there is no place for sports betting on its games or any other youth competition. The full statement:
While Little League® International continues to monitor the complexity and ever-evolving world of sports betting, we feel strongly that there is no place for betting on Little League games or on any youth sports competition. Little 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, and no one should be exploiting the success and failures of children playing the game they love for their own personal gain.
The 2025 Little League World Series is currently taking place with its championship game scheduled for Aug. 24.
While no major sportsbooks offer odds on a tournament that features children ranging from 10 to 12 years old, the same is not true for unregulated, overseas sportsbooks. The brand manager of one such firm, in its fourth year of offering LLWS odds, told the Patch it will see more bets on Little League games than “any professional tennis or soccer match over the next two weeks.”
The floodgates opened for sports betting with a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2018, with each state allowed to determine the legality and advertisements flooding the media environment. MLB, the NFL, the NBA and many more leagues all have official gambling partners.
The transition has definitely not been without incident. Setting aside the ethical concerns of gambling addictions and personal bankruptcies, problems in baseball have included players sidelined for allegedly tipping the scales on micro-bets involving their pitches and horrific death threats against players they supposedly let down.
It’s understandable why Little League doesn’t want that influence to reach its players, with all of its advertisers banned from using any sort of gambling imagery. Still, the bettors are clearly out there.
