The University of Mississippi on Monday announced the upcoming launch of its new Center on Collegiate Gambling, which researchers describe as the “first of its kind in the nation” amid rising national concern about betting on collegiate sports.

The center was approved by the Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees in February and will cost about $700,000 a year. It was conceived to study the “heightened risks” for college students and student-athletes caused by the rapid growth of legalized sports betting and online gambling, its founders said. Researchers said the center will now begin hiring staff.

IHL’s approval of the center follows the release of survey results by University of Mississippi researchers showing that 39% of Mississippi college students gambled in a variety of formats in the past year. Of those who engaged in sports betting, 6% of Mississippi college students met criteria for problem gambling as defined by the American Psychiatric Association.

“We really think that this is an issue that affects Mississippi at large,” Hannah Allen-King, executive director of the university’s William Magee Institute for Student Wellbeing and assistant professor of public health, said in a news release. “And so, we’re trying to work with our legislators as they debate policy change around gambling in the state.”

Commercial sports betting was effectively banned with a few exceptions until 2018, when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a 1992 prohibition. Mississippi allows sports betting now, but only inside casinos.

After the 2018 U.S. Supreme Court decision, sports gambling companies launched a full-court press lobbying campaign to bring sports betting to tens of millions of mobile phones around the country, an effort reported to be the fastest expansion of legalized gambling in American history. The companies have poured money into lobbying state legislators, including those in Mississippi.

But Mississippi has remained one of the few holdout states, largely due to fears that legalization could harm the bottom line of the state’s casinos and increase the prevalence of gambling addiction. That hasn’t stopped a thriving black market from taking hold in the state.

In 2024, illegal online betting in Mississippi made up about 5% of the national illegal market, which is about $3 billion in illegal bets in Mississippi, proponents said that year. Supporters of legalization say people will place online sports wagers regardless of whether the practice is legal, so the state should regulate and tax it.

The state House has voted, for the third year in a row, to legalize mobile sports betting during the ongoing 2026 legislative session. But Senate leaders have said they plan to let the measure die again.

Nevertheless, college campuses have become hubs of activity for sports betting and, increasingly, gambling addiction. This has prompted calls for research into mobile sports betting’s growth and impact on young adults. The new center will aim to produce such research, which its founders say is lacking without a national research center in the U.S. dedicated solely to the study of collegiate gambling.

The academic research will focus on college student gambling behaviors ranging from card games to proposition betting and prediction markets. The center will also promote “evidence-based policies and programs to prevent harm,” including training counselors to help students struggling with gambling.

Eight University of Mississippi counselors have already received the certification to better equip them to identify gambling addiction in students, the researchers said.

The rise of collegiate gambling has also led to increased threats directed at athletes, whose performance is now closely tracked by gamblers.

“In a state like Mississippi where we don’t have a lot of professional sports teams, college sports are such a big part of our culture, and a large part of our state population follows and cares about college sports,” Allen-King said. “We’ve seen that it can impact the mental health of student-athletes who are getting threatened and harassed because people are losing money because of their performance during games.

Daniel Durkin, an associate professor of social work who is also one of the center’s founding members, said raising awareness of sports gambling’s prevalence on college campuses will be a central goal.

“Part of the issue right now is everybody’s just having a good time,” Durkin said. “Look at the ads; gambling’s fun. Everybody’s doing it. The seriousness of the issues has not really come to the forefront yet, but it’s only a matter of time.”

The evolution of live sports programming has become a battleground between traditional broadcast companies and streaming platforms, vying for the right to air the best games possible year after year. 

The NFL is the cream of the crop, generating roughly $10 billion per year on its current media rights deal. And the league is likely to renegotiate that deal by the end of this year, with reports indicating that they want it done before kickoff in Week 1 of the 2026 season in September. 

With additional media partners potentially entering the fold in this new deal, where do the incumbents like FOX, CBS and NBC lie in the pie chart that is the NFL schedule?

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Curtis LeGeyt, the CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters, which lobbies federal agencies and lawmakers alike on behalf of the broadcast industry, spoke with John Ourand on “The Varsity” podcast, where he suggested the broadcast industry must consolidate if it wants to continue competing with streaming platforms for live sports rights. 

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“I think, for better or worse, (consolidation) is an essential thing right now,” he explained. “And I’m looking at this purely through the lens of broadcast. If we’re going to compete for those NFL sports rights, if we’re going to compete locally to ensure that teams feel like they have a local distribution option that is freely available through local broadcasts as opposed to the cable regional sports networks or even streaming, broadcasters need some scale in order to complete for that. The only way to gain that scale is through some level of consolidation.”

We’re already seeing key mergers across broadcast television, including Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery, which is awaiting approval that will likely go through. Also, the NFL and ESPN reached a landmark deal where the sports giant acquired NFL Network, NFL RedZone and NFL Fantasy. In exchange, the league received a 10% equity stake in ESPN, which was valued at around $3 billion. 

A close-up view of a person operating a broadcast camera with a cover with the FOX Sports logo during the NFL game between the Carolina Panthers and the Atlanta Falcons on Nov. 16, 2025 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia. (Erica Denhoff/Icon Sportswire)

Merging these broadcasters together can help compete against the likes of Amazon, Netflix, and perhaps others will join the fray if and when negotiations ensue for a new media rights deal. With JC Tretter elected as the NFL Players’ Association’s new executive director, those negotiations could be coming sooner than later. 

Now, where does the NFL fan come into play here? The price of simply watching the NFL schedule is quite expensive, with fans having to pay at least $575 to watch every game if they wished in 2025. The need for ESPN, Peacock, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and NFL+ subscriptions, among others, only points upward as media rights prices for the league continues to grow. 

Fans would like it if they could access their favorite sports if its free-to-air broadcasts doing so. 

A general view of the Amazon “Thursday Night Football” broadcast set with Charissa Thompson, Tony Gonzalez, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Andrew Whitworth and Richard Sherman during the TNF on Prime halftime show during an NFL football game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium on Oct. 2, 2025 in Inglewood, California. (Cooper Neill/Getty Images)

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The FCC said last month it would seek public comment about the ongoing shift of live sports from broadcast channels to streaming services, which includes the other major sports leagues in the country like the NBA, MLB and more.

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Golden State Warriors guard Moses Moody left Monday night’s game on a stretcher after he suffered a gruesome leg injury against the Dallas Mavericks.

Moody was all alone on his way to an easy dunk in overtime after stealing the ball from Mavericks rookie Cooper Flagg. He gathered himself and went up for the slam but his knee buckled. He landed hard on the floor.

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Warriors head coach Steve Kerr and players from both teams were left in disbelief.

Moody was down for several minutes as medical personnel attended to him. Kerr said after the game that Moody was getting X-rays at the American Airlines Center.

“Just saw his leg buckle. Saw him go down in a heap, in pain,” Kerr told reporters. “We don’t know what it is, but it sure looked bad. Just hoping for the best. What the best-case scenario is, that’s what we’re all hoping for. But it looked bad.”

Moody was playing in his first game since he sprained his right wrist. He led the Warriors with 23 points and three steals before the freak accident.

Golden State Warriors guard Moses Moody (4) grabs his leg at American Airlines Center on March 23, 2026. (Kevin Jairaj/Imagn Images)

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“Mo is such a great human being, great teammate, wonderful guy to coach,” Kerr said. “Puts in the work every day. And was brilliant, by the way. Played so well defensively, changed the game for us with his ball pressure and knocked down big shots. So great to finally have him back. And then for that to happen, you’re just praying that it’s not too serious, but it sure looked serious.”

Warriors guard Brandin Podziemski said the injury reminded him of when Jimmy Butler tore his ACL against the Miami Heat back in January.

“You just hate to see it, especially to the good people in life,” Podziemski said.

Golden State Warriors guard Moses Moody (4) waves to fans while leaving the court on a stretcher during overtime against the Dallas Mavericks at American Airlines Center on March 23, 2026. (Kevin Jairaj/Imagn Images)

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The Warriors won the game 137-131. Golden State is likely headed for the play-in tournament in hopes of being one of the eight teams in the Western Conference vying for an NBA title.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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