Offshore Sportsbooks Offer Gambling on Little League World Series
Unregulated offshore betting sites are taking wagers on children's baseball, sparking ethical concerns.
Quick Look
Offshore sportsbooks like BetOnline are offering betting markets on the Little League World Series, drawing massive user demand and raising ethical concerns over gambling on children's sports.
AI-generated summary
Why It Matters
Offshore sportsbooks operate outside U.S. laws, allowing them to offer betting markets that state-regulated sportsbooks prohibit.
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.
Open Questions
- Will regulatory bodies take action against offshore sites offering youth sports betting?







