Betting in track and field: are we into it?

Betting gets people excited about sport. From the NFL to the NBA, fans and even those who aren’t that invested in the game can find themselves betting on matches or events that they otherwise wouldn’t have cared that much about. Through betting, spectators have put something personal on the line, and become invested in the outcome in a more personal way. Attendance of track and field meets is on the decline and some suggest that betting is a way to reverse the trend. In Italy, Stranieri.com reports that more than 40% of attendees to track and field events are there because of some stake in the game – often through online bookmakers that offer gamblers an option to place bets before games begin.

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Darren Rovell published an article on Sunday for The Action Network about the declining spectators rates of the sport. In his analysis, he proposes sports betting as a possible solution. “On Saturday, I went to the New Balance Grand Prix to watch the pro debut of Sydney McLaughlin, the most heralded woman to come to American track since Allyson Felix. The 19-year-old signed a massive deal with New Balance and brought on WME to represent her in off-track endeavors such as modeling and television. There are going to be only so many ways that track and field can capitalize on her stardom, and she could very well transcend the sport without contributing substantively to its future. That’s where betting comes in.”

Admittedly, The Action Network is a sports betting site, but Rovell is a sports business analyst who has been with ESPN for several years and has a real understanding of track.

Kris Mychasiw was in the sport of track and field for 14 years. He’s been everything from a race director to the Elite Athlete Coordinator for Athletics Canada. Mychasiw has now moved on from track, but he remains a fan of the sport and a big proponent of bringing track and field gambling to Canada. “Track is on the decline. Not just in North America but the whole world. There’s less money, less sponsorships and less people in the stands.” On top of that, since Usain Bolt, there hasn’t been a runner that has captured the public’s attention as broadly.

Mychasiw said there’s been attempts to bring betting to Canada in the past, but due to several struggles, including those with provincial lottery and gaming organizations, it’s never come to fruition. “The problem is, to get this off the ground you need people in the seat in the first place. Right now we’re struggling to get enough people in any given stadium. It could potentially work well at an event like Canadian nationals if it was held in the right city. I’d love to see it happen.”

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Currently, there’s betting on track and field in Europe, where the sport has a much larger following than in North America. Mychasiw says he used to have a programme from the Zurich Diamond League complete with betting odds and favourites for races. “There are two meets that have had betting for as long as I can remember: Zurich and Lausanne in Switzerland.” There are still meets in North America with long histories and strong attendance rates like the Pre Classic, and those could potentially be the starting point for bringing track betting back to North America.

While track and field betting could bring in potential sponsorship deals and a bigger following, there are also downsides to the proposed change. Adding a betting component could encourage doping and race fixing, and depending on the infrastructure built around it, there’s a chance athletes might never see any of the additional sponsorship dollars.