A safe bet?

Sports betting is having a moment and so is the conversation around its health-related impacts. This week’s schedule alone—the NBA Finals, the Stanley Cup Final, and the FIFA World Cup—has Americans reaching for their apps. In the past year, 22% of U.S. adults placed a sports bet, wagering $167B on platforms like DraftKings and FanDuel. Since the Supreme Court's 2018 Murphy v. NCAA ruling cleared the way for states to legalize sports wagering, 39 states and D.C. have done so—with most allowing bets to be placed directly online through apps and websites. Sports trading volume has also taken off via prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket. But the fanfare has come with a cost: research shows a sharp rise in gambling-related help-seeking behavior since 2018, with significant public health consequences and related workplace impacts (e.g., increased absenteeism and disengagement).

Regulators are working to catch up, and digital health startups are building targeted treatment solutions. Birches Health, which treats gambling disorder through an in-network telehealth model, raised $10M last fall. Kindbridge, another tele-mental health player, partnered directly with DraftKings to connect individuals who have voluntarily chosen to block themselves from betting with therapy across 25 states. Earlier this year, Kindbridge linked up with Axis Integrated Mental Health, a Colorado psychiatry clinic, to offer intensive care for patients who need support beyond talk therapy.

While digital health builders have been creating solutions for substance use disorder for a while now, the response to gambling disorder remains comparatively nascent. The betting market scaled in eight years, but care infrastructure is still at the starting line.

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