BetOnline, a private international online gaming company, announced that the proverbial sports calendar is “rather light” at this time of year and that its sportsbook will offer wagers on the 38 games of the Little League World Series (LLWS) tournament, including those featuring the South Hill Little League baseball team from Puyallup.

The Puyallup Little League team currently represents the Northwestern United States in the Little League World Series.

This is the fourth year that BetOnline has offered betting on the Little League World Series; BetUS and Bovada also offer betting on the event.

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“We create odds for the Little League World Series the same way we do for other sports like baseball, football and basketball,” Sportsbook Manager Adam Burns told MyNorthwest. “Basically, our oddsmakers do research by watching the teams play, gathering information from reports and digging through game records for data. There are other factors that go into our performance ratings and we know that some of these teams have a certain amount of tradition, so we have to respect that.”

The Southeast’s representative, a team from Florida, is the tournament favorite, while the Puyallup team has the seventh-best odds for an American club, according to BetOnline. The 17-time champion Chinese-Taipei, representing the Asia-Pacific portion of the international bracket, is the favorite among the international teams. America has won five consecutive Little League World Series championships.

“We tend to see the same geographic dominance that we see in high school football,” Burns said. “The southern states like Texas and Florida and California in general always seem to be stronger. That’s not always the case, but most of the time.”

The Puget Sound region is increasingly becoming an exception to this rule, as the South Hill Little League team became the fourth consecutive team from Washington to qualify for the LLWS tournament.

BetOnline argues that its sportsbook competes with anything it considers an entertainment or political betting option, including eSports and the Olympics, making the LLWS event a fair one.

“The Little League World Series is an exciting tournament that our customers love to watch and bet on,” Burns said. “It may sound surprising, but we will be taking more bets on these Little League games over the next two weeks than on any professional tennis or soccer game.”

According to Chron, a Houston-based digital media company, BetUS has not provided specific figures on the amount of bets or the total amount the bookmaker took in at the 2023 LLWS.

Some condemn betting on the Little League World Series

Other bookmakers, especially those based in the US, have abandoned the idea of ​​betting on the LLWS.

“The only bookmakers offering odds on the Little League World Series are all illegal offshore operators who have no concern for the communities in which they operate,” Griffin Finan, senior vice president and deputy general counsel at DraftKings, told Chron. “No jurisdiction in which DraftKings offers sports betting would allow betting on such events.”

BetOnline disputes this statement, claiming that this only increases the popularity of the LLWS, while other events, such as professional wrestling – which has a predetermined outcome – can still be bet on at certain sportsbooks.

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“I’ll use the Olympics as an example, where there was widespread betting this year,” Burns said. “The Summer Games featured 12- and 13-year-olds and people were able to bet on those events. The LLWS is a world-class organization with a long history of success. By allowing people to bet on this incredible tournament, you’re only bringing more attention to this league, these teams and their incredibly talented athletes.”

Figures on the amount of money wagered on the 2024 Paris Olympics have yet to be released, but the sheer volume of potential bettors dwarfed that of previous Olympics. In 2021, 97 million American adults were able to place a bet, according to NBC Sports. Additionally, 164 million American adults were able to bet this year, as more than 30 states now allow some form of sports betting, a significant increase from the last Summer Olympics.

Burns says it’s difficult to predict which sport will be the next to make a breakthrough in terms of gambling, but he can’t wait to see what’s on the horizon.

“Maybe it could be a success if they start putting together a flag football league in front of a national audience,” Burns added.

The 38 LLWS games will be broadcast daily on ESPN starting Wednesday, with the event concluding on Saturday, August 25.

Frank Sumrall is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read his stories here and email him here.