Kentucky<\/a>, Missouri, and South Carolina failed to pass bills this year that would have legalized sports betting in their states.<\/p>\nConcerned About Mental Health Again<\/h2>\n
The Tennessean<\/i> reported Sankey telling APSE members that college athletic administrations were caught off guard by the rise of legal sports betting.<\/p>\n
“In a time when our young people are continually seeking more mental health support as a society, if we are not open and attentive to the reality being (created) from sports gambling, then we are abdicating our responsibility,” Sankey said. “This is a significant factor in their lives that has been introduced. … It affects our coaches as well, plenty of pressure there at our level. They accept that, but this is a changing dynamic that we have not at all been attentive to.”<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not the first time Sankey has brought up the connection between student-athletes\u2019 mental health and sports betting. At the 2019 SEC Football Media Days, he referenced the potential impact in-game betting could have on players.<\/p>\n
“We’re seeing trends in the mental health area that should cause us all to pause before these ideas around specific event betting within college sports are allowed to take place,” Sankey said at the time, according to the AP<\/i>. “And I’m talking about, for example, whether a field goal is made or missed, whether a 3-point try is successful. Is a pitched ball a strike or a ball?<\/p>\n
“That pause should happen before any of these types of activities take place.”<\/p>\n
Sports Editors Interested in Betting Content<\/h2>\n
The Sankey comments weren\u2019t the only time sports betting came up as a topic at the conference Thursday.<\/p>\n
The conference also included two breakout sessions on sports betting that were designed to give editors more ideas on reporting about \u201csports gambling without compromising your journalism,\u201d and going beyond the point spreads many newspapers have published for years in their sports sections.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur goal is to increase the comfort level and knowledge of sports departments in covering sports betting, and to show them how it can be done profitably,\u201d Zach Ewing, director of sports betting for NOLA.com and session moderator, said in a preview article on the APSE website.<\/p>\n
Panelists for the sessions were Mike Kates of Gambling.com<\/em>, Mike Szvetiz of Lee Enterprises’ FrontPageBets<\/em>, and former Indiana Gaming Commission Executive Director Sara Gonso Tait<\/a>, who oversaw the launch of sports betting in the Hoosier State.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the top officials in US collegiate athletics said Thursday that his conference has seen an increase in gambling on its events over the past five years. That shouldn\u2019t necessarily come as a surprise, but SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey told members of the Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) that the growth has reached beyond […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":217670,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,1074],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
SEC Commissioner Says Betting Goes Beyond Traditional Sports<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n