Introducing Alex Connolly – Sports Betting

Introducing Alex Connolly

Hello everyone, my name is Alex Connolly, and I have the pleasure of writing several different blogs here to discuss the intricacies of sports gambling in America. Currently, I am a Clinical Psychology PhD student at the University of New Mexico, and I primarily study problem and responsible sports betting. As many of you may know, sports gambling in America is something that has increased in recent years. Sports betting is legal now in 38 states including New Mexico, and many of those states have online legality as well (NM is in person only). Access to sports betting continues to increase due to federal legislation which removed the ban on sports betting in 2018. However, my experience with sports gambling goes back before it was widespread.

Alex’s Start to Sports Betting

I got my bachelor’s degree at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. While there, I met some of my closest friends, which included a group of several guys who enjoyed hanging out, drinking beer, and watching sports. One member of this group started sports gambling via an offshore website and convinced many of us to participate with him. Thus began several semesters where our main activity was gambling on sports.

Traveling Across State Lines For “Free Money”

As such, over the next several years I learned much about sports gambling. After graduating from JMU I attended Wake Forest University in Winston Salem, NC, to get my master’s in psychology. I started there in Fall of 2020, and on January 1, 2021, the state of Virginia legalized sports gambling. All of my college friends still lived in Virginia, and they started gambling on these legal websites such as FanDuel and DraftKings. Typically, when launching in a new state, these websites will give out many “free money bets” (i.e., Lebron James to score at least 1 point). Thus, my friends convinced me to start making the 45-minute drive across the Virginia state line to start getting this “free” money. My experience sports gambling in the previous years had alerted me to the dangers of gambling, and I realized that this widespread legalization could cause many problems for people in the US.

Changing Direction in Academic Career

Up until that point in my academic career, I had been studying the influence of how expert power influences bullshitting behavior (yes, that is the scientific term). But I started thinking about taking my interest in a different direction, toward how making sports gambling legal in the United States would impact problem gambling behaviors. Weirdly enough, despite leaving the bullshit research behind, my current research on sports gambling knowledge relates more than I intended with my bullshit research (but more on that later!) That summer I had an internship in Prescott, Arizona, working with Algamus, an inpatient gambling rehab center. After talking, interacting and working with the clients there, I decided I want to focus on gambling research for my career.

Now Studying Sports Gambling at UNM

As a result of my personal and professional experiences, I applied to Bowling Green State University in Ohio for my clinical psychology PhD program to work with Dr. Joshua Grubbs in his study of sports gambling in the U.S. I attended there for a year, before he got a job at the University of New Mexico, and I transferred here with him. Now I am starting my third year, studying the prevalence of sports gambling in America, utilizing my personal experience to influence the direction of research I conduct. In future blogs, I will discuss some of my research and what I found (such as type of sports gambling, how sports knowledge relates to gambling behavior, and more!). My future career could go in any number of directions, but I do know I want to help problematic sports gamblers and help increase our field’s knowledge on this ever expanding behavior.

If you are concerned that you might be at risk or are falling into problem sports gambling, this page can help and you can always reach out to us here.

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