Amaya Gentry
In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Murphy v. NCAA, struck down the federal prohibition and allowed states to authorize sports wagering
Sports betting advertising has since become a prominent part of televised sports and other media. According to an ESPN article citing Nielsen Ad Intel research commissioned by the American Gaming Association,
“Sportsbooks accounted for 0.8% of the total national spend on television commercials in 2024, while advertising for alcohol represented 1.4%.”
The rapid expansion of sportsbook advertising since the 2018 Supreme Court ruling raises questions about how sportsbook advertising attracts and retains users.
Appeal of sports betting apps
Sports betting apps attract users through entertainment, convenience and the possibility of winning money. A 2026 survey by the Siena Research Institute and St. Bonaventure University found 92% of U.S. residents that are bettors said, they continue betting online because betting is fun and exciting.
The survey also found that 89% of bettors find that betting makes watching the live game more interesting, and 85% thought they could make money by placing bets. An additional 85% liked that they could research the players’ statistics while betting.
According to the Responsible Gambling Council, gambling can activate the brain’s reward system and involve dopamine signaling, which can reinforce repeated behavior. As explained by Logan Fields Arcadia University addiction psychology professor, “Sports betting adds an extra layer because it looks skill-based.
You can check injuries, weather, and trends, so it feels like you have more control than you do. This sense of control nudges your confidence higher than the betting odds ever support.”
Sports website SportsTalkSC adds that the convenience of sports betting apps, compared with traditional betting methods, has increased their appeal.
Targets of sports betting app commercials
According to a 2025 Pew Research Center study, 27% of Hispanic adults and 30% of Black adults reported betting on sports during the previous year. Pew found that Black and Hispanic adults were more likely than some other groups to report betting on sports.
That participation data, however, does not establish how advertisers targeted those groups.
According to a report by the 2026 Siena Research Institute, St. Bonaventure University, 27% of Americans report having a sports betting app account.
The same report also found that 94% of bets are placed online. The survey found particularly high account ownership among men ages 18 to 49, with 52% of men ages 18 to 49 having an active online sports betting account.
Sports betting app commercials also target people of color disproportionately. As explained by sociologist Jerel Ezell, “This isn’t altogether surprising considering that the sports most bet on in America, football, basketball and boxing, have been dominated by Black athletes and have a disproportionately high number of Black viewers.”
How sports betting app commercials work
A 2017 study published in the Journal of Behavioral Addictions examined persuasive elements in sports betting advertisements by having and a pre-U.S.-legalization, 611 Australian adults view 20 mock television advertisements involving rugby league.
The study concluded, “The most attention-grabbing attributes were type of presenter and type of bet,” finding that female non-expert presenters were the most appealing to gamblers across all categories. Researchers also found that risk-free bets were rated the most persuasive to gamblers.
In America, as reported by Ezell, “Kevin Hart, LeBron James, Marshawn Lynch and Jamie Foxx are just a small sampling of Black celebrities who have since aligned with major online sportsbooks as ambassadors.”
Ezell also wrote that the commercials portray bettors as confident and certain they will win. Ezell argued that humor can minimize viewers’ perceptions of betting risks.
Pitfalls of sports betting apps
The Australian study may offer limited insight into advertising techniques used in the United States. According to a 2025 Scientific American article by associate editor Allison Parshall, these apps use “dark patterns design features that steer users toward choices they might not otherwise make to keep people betting.
Heather Wardle, a gambling-policy researcher, described dark patterns in user-interface designs that exploit cognitive biases and encourage people to act against their own interests.
Looking at the top 10 betting sites in the United Kingdom, a 2022 behavioral risk audit identified the most common dark patterns used on sports betting apps. Some of these dark patterns include an easy sign-up process, default bet amounts higher than the minimum bet amount, betting prompts popping up one after another, and “immortal accounts” or accounts that are hard to close.
Other dark patterns include hidden or hard-to-find safety features, the absence of a feature that shows how much a person is losing, and a minimum account balance required before withdrawing money.
Takeaways
The Supreme Court’s 2018 decision in Murphy v. NCAA, which struck down the federal sports betting prohibition, allowed states to authorize sports wagering. As more states authorized sports wagering, sportsbook companies expanded advertising that used celebrities, promotions and other persuasive tactics.
However, these apps often use dark patterns to entice people to continue using them, such as making accounts difficult to close and hiding valuable safety information.
People concerned about their own or someone else’s gambling can call the Ohio Problem Gambling Helpline at 1-800-589-9966. The service is available 24 hours a day.
Amaya Gentry has a bachelor’s degree in biology and worked as a quality-control chemist.
