{"id":103620,"date":"2025-07-30T14:39:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T18:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=103620"},"modified":"2025-07-30T16:54:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T20:54:13","slug":"brock-prof-joins-global-team-championing-responsible-sports-betting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2025\/07\/brock-prof-joins-global-team-championing-responsible-sports-betting\/","title":{"rendered":"Brock prof joins global team championing responsible sports betting"},"content":{"rendered":"

As sports betting gains momentum across North America, Brock University\u2019s Michael Naraine has joined a group of international experts leading the academic response to the rapidly evolving industry.<\/p>\n

The Associate Professor in Sport Management is the first Canadian member of the newly formed Institute on Sports Wagering and Gaming (ISWAG) at San Diego State University.<\/p>\n

ISWAG serves as a hub for research, policy development and responsible gaming practices in the sports betting sector, an area Naraine says demands urgent academic attention.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s research on gambling in general, but almost nothing in Canada that focuses exclusively on sports gambling. That\u2019s a big gap, especially considering Ontario is one of the top five jurisdictions for sports betting in North America, alongside places like New York and Nevada,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The industry has exploded since the United States Supreme Court struck down federal prohibitions on sports betting in 2018, with Canadians joining in after Ontario opened its market in 2022.<\/p>\n

Now, everything from pitch-by-pitch bets in baseball to real-time player performance wagers in hockey are available at users\u2019 fingertips. This shift has created an urgent need for education, regulation and research.<\/p>\n

\"A

Brock University Sport Management Associate Professor Michael Naraine is helping shape the academic response to the booming sports betting industry as Canada\u2019s first member of the Institute on Sports Wagering and Gaming.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not just talking about betting who wins or loses anymore,\u201d Naraine says. \u201cWe\u2019re talking about micro-bets. Predicting the next pitch or whether a player gets a double-double. These are new forms of engagement that didn\u2019t exist in our region even a decade ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

Naraine points out that while gambling research has existed for years, often focusing on addiction and harm reduction, sports gambling is a different beast<\/p>\n

\u201cIt combines the economics of betting with the psychology of fandom, and as we know, sports fans are among the most emotionally driven consumers out there,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The growth of the sports betting industry also has major implications for education and employment. Naraine says gambling and data analytics are now the two fastest-growing sectors for Sport Management students seeking internships and jobs.<\/p>\n

\u201cStudents entering the sports industry can\u2019t afford to be in the dark about this,\u201d he says. \u201cUnderstanding how sportsbooks operate, the marketing strategies they use and the ethical considerations involved is crucial.\u201d<\/p>\n

He plans to propose a dedicated course on sports gambling at Brock in the near future.<\/p>\n

The course would explore not only betting mechanics, but also industry regulation, athlete behavior, marketing ethics and sport integrity issues.<\/p>\n

Recent scandals involving athletes and betting violations, from the National Basketball Association\u2019s Jontay Porter to Shohei Ohtani\u2019s Major League Baseball interpreter, have underscored just how deeply sports gambling is affecting the integrity of professional leagues.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to get ahead of this,\u201d he says. \u201cOtherwise, we\u2019re going to be reacting to problems instead of preventing them.\u201d<\/p>\n

That includes investing in Canadian-led research and establishing policy partnerships that can examine how gambling affects racialized and Indigenous communities, youth behavior and public health outcomes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe current funding models don\u2019t support that,\u201d says Naraine. \u201cWe\u2019re taxing these bets, but where is that money going? It should be flowing back into education and research to make sure this industry evolves responsibly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through ISWAG, Naraine will collaborate with global scholars and policymakers to shape the future of sport wagering and ensure Canada is at the table.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m honoured to represent Brock on this platform,\u201d he says. \u201cWe have the expertise, the student talent and the will to lead in this space. Now we need to make sure the resources follow.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Ontario, and other provinces, continue to expand their gambling markets, Naraine believes universities must be part of the conversation, not just as critics, but as solution-builders.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t ignore it,\u201d he says. \u201cWe need to study it and we need to teach it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the rise of sports betting gains momentum across North America, Brock University\u2019s Michael Naraine has joined a group of global experts leading the academic response to the rapidly evolving industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":103624,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36,1],"tags":[7488,419,8568,57,14773,14774],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103620"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103620"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103640,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103620\/revisions\/103640"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}