Gambling on the Little League World Series? Sports bettors have gone too far

Have we tried turning off society and turning it back on again? We need a complete cultural reset, because there are actually sports betting providers that let people gamble on Little League World Series (LLWS) outcomes.

For the uninitiated, the LLWS is an annually televised tournament where ten- to twelve-year-old baseball players from around the world face off. It’s a pretty wholesome event, though hopefully not too traumatizing for the kids who drop routine fly balls on a global broadcast that everyone they know is watching.

State-regulated sportsbooks and federally regulated prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket do not allow bettors to gamble on the LLWS (though Polymarket did offer LLWS bets in 2024). But offshore sportsbooks like BetOnline Sports & Casino don’t have to adhere to U.S. laws, so they can offer the opportunity to gamble on children.

“We offer Little League World Series odds because there’s a massive demand for it,” BetOnline Brand Manager Dave Mason said in a press release, which added that bettors gambled twice as much money in 2025 as they did in 2024. “Our customers request these odds every year, and we’ll take more bets on the LLBWS over the next two weeks than on established markets such as the WNBA, Major League Soccer, pro tennis or golf.”

Mason claimed in a post on X that more users are wagering on a Little League matchup between teams from South Korea and Canada than on certain Major League Baseball games.

Whether it’s technically legal or not, we should be able to agree that this is gross and anyone betting on kids should feel bad.

Last year, the LLWS put out a statement about sports betting, which it reposted on Wednesday as a reminder.

“Little League is a trusted place where children are learning the fundamentals of the games and all the important life lessons that come with having fun, celebrating teamwork, and playing with integrity, and no one should be exploiting the success and failures of children playing the game they love for their own personal gain,” the organization said.

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

Amanda Silberling is a senior writer at TechCrunch covering the intersection of technology and culture. She has also written for publications like Polygon, MTV, the Kenyon Review, NPR, and Business Insider. She is the co-host of Wow If True, a podcast about internet culture, with science fiction author Isabel J. Kim. Prior to joining TechCrunch, she worked as a grassroots organizer, museum educator, and film festival coordinator. She holds a B.A. in English from the University of Pennsylvania and served as a Princeton in Asia Fellow in Laos.

You can contact or verify outreach from Amanda by emailing amanda@techcrunch.com or via encrypted message at @amanda.100 on Signal.