TUSCALOOSA, AL — The Southeastern Conference (SEC) announced Wednesday that all student-athletes competing in the conference will be required to complete a new sports gambling education program before the start of the 2026-27 athletic year.
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Conference officials said the mandatory educational video is the latest expansion of the SEC’s broader integrity initiative aimed at protecting student-athletes as sports betting continues to grow nationwide.
The SEC says the custom-designed video will be shown to all SEC student-athletes before their teams play their first regular season contests and will become part of annual campus compliance training across all member institutions, including University of Alabama athletics programs.
“The Southeastern Conference remains committed to supporting its member institutions and student-athletes through proactive education, monitoring, and resources that promote integrity and protect the student-athlete experience,” SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said in a statement.
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Sankey cited the rapid expansion of legalized sports gambling, recent incidents involving both college and professional athletes and the emergence of prediction markets as reasons the issue has become a “high-priority initiative” for the conference.
The SEC said the educational program will provide student-athletes with guidance on recognizing gambling-related risks, understanding NCAA and conference policies and reporting suspicious activity.
The conference also said it has steadily expanded its sports gambling monitoring efforts over the last several years, beginning with integrity monitoring company IC360 in 2018, when the company operated as US Integrity.
Additional measures implemented by the conference include the adoption of IC360’s ProhiBet monitoring platform in 2023 for real-time tracking of prohibited betting activity, new student-athlete availability reporting requirements introduced in 2024 for football, baseball and basketball, and the distribution of educational posters in locker rooms beginning earlier this year.
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The SEC also established an anonymous sports gambling tip line in January that allows athletes and other conference stakeholders to report suspicious activity.
Conference officials pointed to national survey data showing sports betting participation is especially high among college-age adults.
According to the SEC, approximately 58% of people between 18 and 22 years old have participated in at least one sports betting activity, with that figure rising to 67% among students living on college campuses.
The conference also said roughly $12 billion was wagered during the 2025-26 academic year on games involving at least one SEC team through regulated sportsbooks and prediction markets.
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