The tactics sports betting apps use to hook users

For most of the last 80 years, sports betting was limited to Las Vegas. But after a 2018 Supreme Court decision loosened regulations on professional sports wagers, it became possible to place bets on games 24/7 – with nothing more than a smartphone and a bank account (and apps from Vegas institutions like MGM and Caesar's.)  In 2013, Just five years prior to the landmark SCOTUS case, gambling was classified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V) in a new category called “Substance-Related and Addictive Disorders.” This grouped gambling with alcohol use disorder and other addictions. Gambling is also known to have the highest suicide rate of any addiction. Fast forward to 2026, and sports gambling companies like FanDuel and DraftKings are being accused of employing aggressive tactics to attract users and keep them betting. In this week’s STATus Report, host Alex Hogan explains what methods like microbets, profit boosts, VIP hosts, etc. look like in practice and how he himself fell for some too-good-to-be-true promotions when the apps came to his home state of Massachusetts. 0:00 Intro 0:57 The app rollout in Massachusetts 1:35 How introductory promos work 4:43 The growth of sports gambling 5:13 VIP hosts and microbets 6:45 How apps track user data 8:02 Potential legal liability? 9:27 Outro More from STAT: Become a subscriber: https://www.statnews.com/stat-plus/ Watch Full Episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@Statnews Newsletters: https://www.statnews.com/signup/