Billions in March Madness betting pool is fodder for Brendan Dwyer’s research

By Laura Stassi

Brendan Dwyer, Ph.D., has spent his career studying sport consumer behavior and with the recent legalization of sports betting, he’s hit the jackpot. Dwyer, director of research and distance learning at the Virginia Commonwealth University Center for Sport Leadership, has published a number of peer-reviewed articles on the topic, including one of his latest, “Cognitive Bias and the Impact of Age on Sports Betting.”

“We found that younger bettors were more impulsive” than their older counterparts, Dwyer said of the study findings, “and it made them more susceptible to irrational behavior such as overconfidence in their wagering decisions.”

“That can be something telling in terms of potential problem gambling,” he added. “There’s always been a concern about certain groups that are at risk, and males under 25 years old are one of those. So our study identifying that this group has higher impulsivity confirms our worry about their potential for developing problem behavior.”

Gamblers have flocked to sports betting since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the quarter-century ban in 2018. Almost $167 billion was wagered on sports in 2025, according to the American Gaming Association, an 11% increase from the previous year.

The AGA estimates that over the next few weeks alone, bettors will wager $3.1 billion on March Madness, the annual college basketball tournament.

Regulations on sports betting vary by state, Dwyer noted, including age restrictions to either 21 or 18 and older. However, reliable age-verification mechanisms might not be in place.

“Sports betting is a whole different animal” than traditional gambling, Dwyer said, adding that the accessibility of betting apps on mobile devices and web platforms and user-friendly features enable bettors to gamble on athletic events from anywhere, anytime. Traditional gambling, in contrast, usually requires a physical presence.

Also, it often relies on random chance but with sports betting, Dwyer said, “There’s this unique balance of perceived skill and luck.” That’s because bettors use their knowledge of statistical information such as player injuries and past performances to formulate their (hopefully) winning strategies.

Sports betting doesn’t yield as much revenue as do casinos and other traditional forms of gambling, according to the AGA. But sports bettors are younger than traditional gamblers. A Pew Research Center study found that as people grow older, they’re less inclined to place sports bets. According to Pew, 21% of men under age 30, and 16% of women in this age group, placed an online sports bet in the past year. That’s a jump from three years ago, Pew found, when 9% of men, and 6% of women, said they’d done so.

“I’m worried about the youngest bettors and how easily they’re persuaded by celebrities like actors and professional athletes endorsing sports betting,” Dwyer said. His concerns echo those of the VCU Virginia Partnership for Gaming and Health, which has warned that easy access to gambling apps and online sites has led to increasingly risky behavior among youth bettors, some as young as middle-school age.

Dwyer notes that problem gambling affects more than an individual’s bank account. “There’s chemical dependency. There’s depression. There’s social isolation,” he said. “Those are all things that are directly associated with problem gambling, and I think they’re a major concern if we continue to let younger people gamble unregulated.”

Dwyer said he’s planning further research into age and sports betting. His other studies include “Overcoming a Bad Beat: An Examination of Sport Gambling Consumer Motives, Dehumanization, and Athlete Blame” and the forthcoming re-publication of a study on gambling loss.

As for his own experiences, the former high school football player and college coach said he’s an avid player of fantasy sports, where participants put together teams to compete against each other, accumulating points based on how their athletes performed in real life. He’s also around other older adults who wager on sports, and he can see the appeal if it is done responsibly.

 “But I don’t actually bet,” Dwyer said. “I don’t like losing money, and I know the odds are against me.”

This story was originally published on the School of Business website.