My vocal cords are charred and broken. They are threatening a wildcat strike, along with unannounced mucus and dry-cough attacks, if I don’t stop preaching about sports and gambling. I’ve also learned that my cords snuck up Interstate 15 to Vegas, laying dimes on the Titans, LSU and other bad ideas before returning with their heads up their asses, forced to eat at Denny’s with Zach Galifianakis.
So, I give up.
Never mind that more than 10 million Americans are considered problem gamblers, a number that has soared during the pandemic. Never mind that friends of mine, and maybe friends of yours, have succumbed to the addiction and lost jobs, families and savings accounts. Never mind that the majority of people who watch sports in this country don’t wager on games. Never mind that sports should be protected within its heavenly cocoon from gambling’s Hades, a dark, murky parallel universe wretchedly detached from authentic competition, such as when the Philadelphia Eagles score a late touchdown and two-point conversion in a lost cause and jam suicide hotlines.
I have lost the moral battle.
The drug dealers — defined here as sports leagues, betting operators and broadcast networks — have not only won but annihilated the spread.
You read correctly: drug dealers. Since the Supreme Court lost its sanity in May 2018 and legalized sports betting nationwide, the collective rush to make future billions has been unhinged, like Derrick Henry charging through a mush defense. How many billions? In those 2 1/2 years alone, more than $20 billion has been wagered on sports in America, a godsend opportunity for an industry that has been pummeled without fans in stadiums and arenas for most of 2020. Once, not long ago, any notion of a sports marriage with the gambling world was unspeakable, with leagues in mortal fear of a crooked referee such as Tim Donaghy, or a rogue college football or basketball team shaving points, or Pete Rose calling his bookie while managing his team, or tennis matches routinely thrown in Europe. But money trumps all ethics in 21st-century America, if you haven’t noticed. Between high tech and the 26 states (and counting) that have approved some form of legal wagering, sports no longer cares that much if scandals are happening under their dollar-sign gazes and panting breaths, not when the four major sports leagues can make an estimated $6 billion a year from betting.
Nor do they seem to care if organized crime, which still very much exists in this racket, is thrusting its creepy tentacles to all corners of the new world.
Sports, I reckon, should be known from this point forward as Gambling. Because the essence of who wins and loses, drilled into us starting back in Little League, has been usurped by a uniquely adult game beyond the game — spreads, over-unders, prop bets and anything else deemed bettable that bears no correlation to a game’s actual outcome. As soon as professional leagues and college conferences unlocked those rusty doors and embraced gambling, the networks gleefully followed, as did DraftKings and FanDuel and the like, as did a slew of information sites run by former journalists (“You are looking live at the Vegas Stats and Information Network!” barks Brent Musburger, whose family runs the shop out of a Vegas casino). In that vein, the landscape I see now is unrecognizable, my decades-long fascination with sports swallowed by an abrupt, industry-wide priority: how much money can be pried from a guy sitting on his couch with a betting app and TV remote.
If he is the sports equivalent of a drug addict, they are pretty much waving cocaine in his face every waking hour. Leagues and franchises have deals with gambling companies. Sports networks bombard bettors with carrots, inviting action with the Fox Bet app and glamorizing losses with ESPN’s “Bad Beats” segment. Hallowed ballparks, such as Wrigley Field and Dodger Stadium, have included sportsbooks in their renovations. In the most heinous development, 21 of Sinclair Broadcast Group’s regional sports networks have been rebranded as Bally’s Sports Nets, after the gaming company bought naming rights.
Are we far from betting on a game we’re watching at home? This past Saturday, I was flipping through channels and noticed an English Premier League team with “Betway” across its jerseys. A London suburb? No, silly, it’s an online gambling company — and it’s only a matter of time before U.S. teams splash “BetMGM” and “Penn National Gaming” across uniforms.
Later, on an ABC halftime show, college football host Kevin Negandhi made an unnecessary but telling comment. “He isn’t in the top five yet, according to Vegas,” he said, referring to the Heisman Trophy odds of Notre Dame’s Ian Book. Already having opened a studio in the shadow of the Vegas Strip, ESPN is so eager to brainwash viewers with gambling seeds that it wants you to ponder Book as a betting longshot against Florida’s Kyle Trask and Alabama’s Mac Jones. Isn’t that just a little sleazy? When we’ve already seen NBC’s Al Michaels and even Fox’s Joe Buck make reference to tightening betting lines late in games?
Please don’t say ESPN is getting into the casino business, calling itself the Worldwide Leader in Chalk.
Now that I’m admitting defeat, after years of shouting, all I ask from sports is to at least show concern about the downsides of legal gambling mania. Can we hear more from NBA commissioner Adam Silver — who is fervent about putting betting windows inside arenas — about how his league will regulate spreads, over-unders and prop bets when opportunities to manipulate and fix games are more ripe than ever? Will security be stepped up considerably in every franchise city, or just a bit? Will we ever hear about scandals, or will they be hushed to protect the gambling component? Anyone who has covered the league knows of perception issues in the past, such as mysterious episodes when the United Center clock stopped for sizable time chunks during the Bulls dynasty years.
“Bad Beats” shouldn’t be just a “SportsCenter” segment. When a scenario is especially dubious, it should be investigated extensively by a league. We’ve heard much groaning in recent days about the Eagles, 6 1/2-point underdogs, falling behind 23-9 to Seattle with 1:13 left, only to see Carson Wentz magically awaken and lead a touchdown drive that ended on a 33-yard Hail Mary. With 12 seconds left, the Eagles simply could have kicked an extra point before trying an onside kick. Instead, coach Doug Pederson went for two — and succeeded. You don’t think Pederson, now treated like manure by amnesiac Philadelphia fans after winning a Super Bowl three seasons ago, knew of the point spread? By converting and making the final score 23-17, he at least made Eagles bettors happy while Seahawks bettors were vomiting in the toilet.
But something else is involved here that should interest NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, the noted policy-flipper who also changed course on gambling. Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie recently signed two gambling deals — with Unibet and DraftKings. Wouldn’t those partners have profited from the decision to go for two? And if this is all coincidence, isn’t it still a bad look that leagues will have to deal with? One Seattle bettor was so upset, he e-mailed Goodell and claimed the game was fixed.
Are we certain it wasn’t?
Then there is the disturbing lack of attention given to problem gamblers. Will the leagues and media at least acknowledge that their exciting windfall involves widespread addiction? With record numbers being wagered at sportsbooks and on gambling apps, it’s a nationwide crisis, especially in dire economic times. Like Big Tobacco, Big Sports should be required to fill brains with constant warnings and public-service announcements about gambling’s evils. I’ve yet to see or hear much on this front from any league, though I do see the DraftKings girl on TV ads about five times a game. What, are they going to run from a disease? I wouldn’t be surprised, having watching sports recklessly bulldoze through COVID-19 and treat players like slaves.
We need to hear from more industry leaders who echo Jeff Vinik, owner of the Stanley Cup-champion Tampa Bay Lightning. Appearing at a recent Sports Business Daily virtual event, he squarely placed the onus of gambling-boom accountability on … sports, where it should be. “Sports betting is going to be a tremendous area of growth. It’s got to be done responsibly,” he said.
Please tell the drug dealers.
I’m exhausted.
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Sports And Gambling: Please, Do It Responsibly - Barrett Sports Media
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