A hearty embrace of gambling – with gambling companies as sponsors, designated gambling areas at stadiums, the ability to bet within the league-run apps (hello, NBA!) – has created a new major revenue stream that will eventually cost the leagues dearly.
They're headed to a cliff, but are too busy counting money to see it.
Gambling has always been a part of sports. At the dawn of man, two guys raced each other while other members of the communities likely bet on who would win. Gambling endured through time and when pro sports became a major part of American life in the early 20th century, gambling was a shadow partner. But it was in the shadows.
The people who ran sports railed against gambling (at least publicly). Athletes who gambled were suspended. The worst-case scenario for a sports league was the gamblers getting involved and athletes being more interested in ensuring that a bet paid off (by point-shaving or even losing games on purpose) than in winning.
From the 1920 Black Sox scandal in baseball, gambling has been forbidden. The NFL suspended Paul Hornung and Alex Karras for the entire 1963 for gambling. Pete Rose has a lifetime ban from baseball for gambling on the game. It took more than a generation for college basketball to recover from the 1950s point-shaving scandals that rocked the game.
Pro sports kept gambling at a distance. They couldn't deny it was happening, but rules prohibited participation by athletes and coaches.
Then . . .
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2018 that states other than Nevada could have gambling if they chose. The stigma was gone. The FanDuels and DraftKings and BetMGMs of the world emerged. Technology met big money met pro sports.
And sports leagues ultimately embraced gambling. Leagues and teams formed partnerships with gambling sites and apps. ESPN, maybe the most powerful organization in American sports, created ESPN Bet, so it could entice users into betting on games without leaving the website.
The biggest problem is that sports leagues can no longer criticize gambling because the gambling companies are now their partners. Leagues and teams encourage gambling. They want you to gamble.
What happened? Well, at least 10 NFL players were suspended last year for gambling, a statistic that should be shocking. A few weeks ago, Jontay Porter, a player for the NBA's Toronto Raptors, was handed a lifetime suspension for his role in a gambling scandal. The interpreter and friend of baseball's greatest player, Shohei Ohtani, stands accused of stealing more than $16 million from Ohtani to cover his gambling losses.
The sports leagues can only say they're shocked – shocked! – that this is happening.
They can't say gambling is bad, because that's bad for business.
Sometime soon, sports will be rocked by a huge gambling scandal. It won't be like Ohtani's, where the star player apparently was unaware of his friend's stealing his money. It won't be like Porter, who is a largely unknown player. It won't be like the 10 suspended NFL players last year, who were largely overlooked (including by ESPN, which wants to remind you that you can bet on that next game!).
Public, legal gambling is (probably unfortunately) here to stay. Athletes would gamble regardless.
But pro sports' embrace of gambling is the problem.
We'll sometime soon see a scandal that is bigger than what we've seen so far. We'll have a scandal that brings into question the integrity of the game.
But the leaders of major league baseball, the NFL, the NBA or the NHL will be left to shake their heads, while being unable to condemn the action while being interviewed on the DraftKings postgame show with a huge BetMGM banner behind them.
When pro sports got in bed with the gambling industry, it eliminated its ability to criticize gambling. That ensured problems.
Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@outlook.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment