The Washington Post published a study on May 19 regarding the prevalence of gambling advertisements during American sports broadcasts. Utilizing its own AI tool, Haystacker, the publication analyzed 50 broadcasts across three sports: American football, basketball, and hockey.
Key findings include:
- Overall Statistics: 27% of the broadcast time—on average, 1 minute out of every 4—contains at least one mention of gambling.
- Frequency of Mentions: Gambling is mentioned every 4 minutes on average across all broadcasts.
- Universal Presence: All 50 matches analyzed featured at least one mention of gambling.
When broken down by sport, the share of minutes with gambling mentions is as follows:
- Hockey: 60% of broadcasts
- NBA: 33% of broadcasts
- NCAA Football: 6% of broadcasts (the lowest among all sports)
Specifically for hockey:
- On average, gambling advertisements appear every 11 seconds during broadcasts (based on 8 hockey matches).
- 3 out of 8 hockey matches contained advertisements for prediction market platforms (Polymarket in 2 matches, Kalshi in 1).
Regarding ESPN's display of betting odds tickers:
- In NCAA women's basketball, odds are shown 3 minutes out of every 4.
- In NCAA men's basketball, odds are displayed at least once per minute.