Online Sports Betting Hits Social Feeds—But Not Evenly, New NORC Study Finds
March 2026
An analysis of users’ data from TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram finds 10 percent of users saw about 50 percent of all gambling content.
Since nationwide legalization in 2018, sports betting has grown at a remarkable pace. Gambling promotion has become a constant presence during major sporting events like the Super Bowl and March Madness, with commercials embedded throughout traditional TV broadcasts. One development that makes today’s landscape unprecedented is the expansion of gambling content across social media, where influencers, betting tipsters, and targeted promotions create a nonstop stream of gambling‑related messaging for certain users.
Most social media platforms ban gambling ads that target youth, prohibit paid advertising where gambling is illegal, and require that all gambling ads include a risk warning. However, these policies do not apply to influencer posts or user-shared branded content. Prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket are regulated differently, with major platforms currently allowing paid ads for federally registered prediction markets. While these markets enable peer-to-peer bets on a wide range of events, sports betting remains their primary activity.
Despite the rapid spread of gambling marketing, research on its effects on individuals’ mental health, relationships, and financial well-being is lacking. An important first step is identifying who is exposed to this content and where that exposure occurs.
NORC’s Social Data Collaboratory (SDC), along with AmeriSpeak®, collected “donated” social media data from AmeriSpeak panelists to examine how much gambling content people view, who sees it, and where exposures occur across social media. Survey participants were invited to download and share their social media account data with NORC via a secure portal.
NORC researchers then processed these data through a custom-built data pipeline to analyze the frequency and nature of gambling content—including sports betting, casinos, and prediction markets—that users saw in their social media feeds over the course of a single week prior to their donation. We then explored how content exposure varied across platforms (Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok) and media types (ads vs. organic videos and posts), offering new insights into the complexities of gambling promotion.
The distribution of gambling content exposure is highly skewed.
Not everyone sees gambling content, but some see much more than others. In our analysis, 10 percent of participants saw approximately 50 percent of all gambling content.
Overall, over the course of a week, approximately 1 in 3 respondents were exposed to gambling content in their social media feeds. Comparing this to other discretionary consumer products, more respondents see gambling than fitness-related content, but fewer respondents see gambling than beauty-related content. Although more respondents are exposed to gambling content than tobacco or e-cigarette content, this difference is not statistically significant.
Gambling content appears the most on TikTok feeds.
Respondents were more than twice as likely to see gambling content on TikTok as on Instagram. Only 20 percent of Instagram account holders saw gambling content, compared to nearly 50 percent of TikTok users.
Not all gambling promotion on social media is paid advertising.
While social media platforms and individual states can regulate which products can be advertised, to date, there has been less research on how social media marketing works alongside and outside of traditional paid advertising. Organic content—posts and videos shared by brands, by influencers affiliated with brands, or reposted by regular people who follow or happen to see those posts or videos—can serve as de facto advertisements.
We analyzed Facebook data to identify different channels through which gambling content is promoted. Although more respondents were exposed through paid ads, nearly as many respondents were exposed to organic posts and videos combined.
Identifying gambling content on social media is not simple.
Identifying gambling content on social media requires a deep understanding of both the gambling ecosystem and the complex, nuanced social media marketing landscape. To do so, we tracked major sports betting brands, like FanDuel, DraftKings, and BetMGM, casinos that offer sports betting, and prediction markets. We also identified affiliated brands, like ActionNow and Rotowire, that offer analytic services and co-promote the major sports betting brands. Last, we identified accounts of influencers who promote sports betting.
We used artificial intelligence to help identify search rules and careful human inspection to eliminate false positives—for example, making sure that a keyword like “bet” was not simply matching unrelated words such as “better”—while leveraging SDC’s subject-matter expertise to refine and validate the rules.
Data donation offers unique insight into users’ exposure to social media gambling content.
“As more of daily life is spent online, it would be naïve to assume that online marketing doesn’t shape people’s offline lives, specifically their health and well-being,” said Soubhik Barari, senior research methodologist and methods lead on SDC’s data donation initiative. “For that reason, it’s critical that we accurately and comprehensively measure these health risks in people’s digital environments. If we can’t get that from the social media platforms themselves, data donation is a really powerful, ethical, and transparent alternative for conducting this research at scale.”
Methodology
NORC at the University of Chicago’s Social Data Collaboratory conducted surveys in collaboration with the AmeriSpeak® Omnibus team. Responses were collected via three waves of cross-sectional online surveys using the AmeriSpeak probability-based panel, designed to be representative of the U.S. household population.
- Wave 1 (August 8-12, 2024): 1,137 completed interviews
- Wave 2 (December 18-21, 2025): 1,042 completed interviews
- Wave 3 (January 22-26, 2026): 1,029 completed interviews
The margin of sampling error for the August 2024 wave is +/-3.8 percentage points, and the margin of sampling error across the combined December 2025 and January 2026 waves is +/-2.9 percentage points, all at the 95 percent confidence level, including the design effect.
Eligible respondents who reported that they had Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok accounts were invited to share or “donate” their own social media data with NORC for research purposes. Out of the 3,208 completed surveys, 2,557 respondents were eligible to donate data (79.7. percent of completed surveys), 831 consented to donate data (32.5 percent of eligible respondents), and 363 completed the data donation process (43.7 percent of consenting respondents).
A comprehensive description of survey methodology, data donation recruitment, data collection, and analysis is available in the methodology report.
About the NORC Spotlight on Health
NORC at the University of Chicago’s Spotlight on Health is a series of quick-hitting national surveys and analyses on issues vital to health and well-being, conducted using AmeriSpeak’s probability-based panels.
NORC’s Social Data Collaboratory
NORC’s Social Data Collaboratory (SDC) brings together a diverse team of social science, data science, and communication experts. With decades of experience, cutting-edge technology, and a commitment to being responsible data custodians, the SDC offers unparalleled expertise in collecting, processing, and interpreting social media data. The SDC can access and analyze data from a wide range of platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Reddit, and X (formerly Twitter), and we continuously add new platforms to our portfolio. We employ advanced computational methods, including natural language processing, machine learning, and AI capabilities, to provide unbiased research and actionable insights.
Our portfolio of work is agnostic to subject matter, and we are agile in our capability to collect and analyze social media data from varying platforms. We have conducted comprehensive analyses on social, health, and political topics. Our partners trust us to harness the potential of social media data for transformative research, informed decision-making, and insights into societal trends.
About NORC at the University of Chicago
NORC at the University of Chicago conducts research and analysis that decision-makers trust. As a nonpartisan research organization and a pioneer in measuring and understanding the world, we have studied almost every aspect of the human experience and every major news event for more than eight decades. Today, we partner with government, corporate, and nonprofit clients around the world to provide the objectivity and expertise necessary to inform the critical decisions facing society.
Contact: For more information, please email press@norc.org or call (877) 832-0392.
