A recent survey highlights a concerning shift among young investors, with over a quarter of Gen Z viewing sports wagering as part of their long-term financial strategy, raising alarms about future retirement preparedness.
A new survey from Betterment suggests that a meaningful share of young investors are treating sports wagering as more than entertainment, with the findings pointing to a growing blurring of lines between speculation and long-term planning. The asset manager said 26% of Gen Z respondents view sports betting as part of their retirement strategy, a figure far above the shares recorded among older generations.
The survey, part of Betterment’s annual retail investor research, also indicates that the behaviour is not limited to attitudes. Betterment said 52% of Gen Z respondents reported moving money away from brokerage or retirement accounts and into sports betting or prediction markets instead, with 14% doing so multiple times a month. By comparison, 12% of investors overall said they see betting as part of a deliberate long-term plan, rising to 14% among Millennials but falling to 6% for Gen X and 1% for Baby Boomers. Betterment’s 2025 retail survey also found that younger investors are engaging with their finances earlier than previous generations, with the average age of account funding falling and 25-year-olds holding roughly twice the assets on the platform as older Millennials did at the same age.
The company said the trend should alarm anyone concerned with retirement readiness. Sarah Levy, Betterment’s chief executive, said in a statement that when a prediction market or sportsbook starts to resemble a retirement strategy, “we have a problem”. She added that these products are built to encourage repeated risk-taking rather than wealth accumulation. Dan Egan, Betterment’s vice-president of behavioural investing, said the bigger danger is not just losing money on a single wager but weakening a coherent financial plan. BlackRock’s 2026 Read on Retirement Report has separately described Gen Z as a “window generation”, noting that many are facing retirement without the pension support that helped earlier cohorts, which makes disciplined saving and investing more important.
Betterment also used a hypothetical example to show the cost of redirecting savings into bets. It said someone wagering $1,000 a month could instead split the money between betting and an index fund tracking the S&P 500, and over 20 years that second stream of contributions could grow to about $246,000 assuming a 7% annual return. That estimate is conservative relative to the index’s long-run average, underscoring the gap between speculative habits and compound growth. Other recent research points in a similar direction: a 2026 Urban Institute study found Gen Z combines caution with a willingness to try speculative tools such as crypto, retail investing and sports betting, while a separate survey from Blockport found many young adults see such platforms as a faster route to financial goals than traditional saving.
Disclaimer: This article is intended to inform and educate, not to recommend or endorse any financial product, investment or strategy. Please consider your own financial circumstances and seek professional advice where appropriate before making financial decisions.
