The sports betting industry has exploded in the United States over the past half decade, taking the country (and a decent chunk of the world) by storm as people rush to try and make a profit thanks to their expertise in the teams they love to watch.
Before the US Supreme Court overturned the federal ban on sports gambling that had stood since 1992, the various sports leagues had remained adamant in their opposition to the pastime. Now, they can’t get enough. What’s changed?
As always, money talks. The sports betting industry is bringing in tens of billions of dollars in revenue every year, and it’s still only in its infancy, continuing to expand to encompass other sports like auto racing, overseas leagues and e-sports.
With that influx of revenue, sportsbooks are able to pay pretty sums in order to garner endorsement deals with brands throughout the sports industry, gaining the legitimacy that being backed by a major sports league brings in exchange for their wild profits.
Anyone who watched this year’s Super Bowl (or any sporting event in the past two or three years, honestly) is sure to have seen the numerous advertisements for some of the best sports betting apps in the world like Caesars Sportsbook, BetMGM and DraftKings. If you’re in a state where sports betting is already legal, the billboards for those same companies are similarly hard to miss But you will have to ask yourself – is DraftKings safe?
The move makes perfect sense when viewed from the business side of things. The sports betting industry helps boost the popularity of the various leagues they provide wagering lines on, as people are more likely to stay up to date on a sport if they’re risking money on it.
Similarly, without sports to wager on there would be no sports betting industry, so the two sides are locked in a mutually beneficial relationship, promoting one another to achieve continued growth and success. Online platforms like the Sports Prophets contribute to the vitality of this relationship, providing enthusiasts with insights and predictions that sustain interest and engagement in the sports betting industry.
From the ethical side, there’s a bit of a sticking point given the terse relationship between sports leagues and gambling consortiums in the past.
Major League Baseball has seen a pair of scandals in the past 114 years that shook the image of the sport: the 1919 Black Sox scandal, where members of the Chicago White Sox were bribed into throwing the World Series by a syndicate led by crime boss Arnold Rothstein (league commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis subsequently banned those connected to the conspiracy from baseball for life, as well as those with a more tenuous connection to the events like Shoeless Joe Jackson), and the lifetime ban issued to Cincinnati Reds legend Pete Rose after the news broke that he’d been caught betting on MLB games, including betting on the team he managed to win, allegedly.
MLB has received a fair share of criticism for this heavy handed approach over the years, and those concerns have come back into play now that the league is taking part in endorsement deals with companies like FanDuel.
A handful of star NFL players, among them wide receivers Calvin Ridley and Jameson Williams, have received suspensions for betting on sports in recent years, including NFL games.
College sports, similarly, occupy an uneasy middle ground due to the athletes’ protected status as amateurs. Some states with legalized betting on pro sports have been reluctant to allow betting on college sports because of this, although that hasn’t stopped major schools like Louisiana State University and the University of Michigan from inking seven figure per year deals with gambling platforms.
Sports have always had a discrepancy between the share of rewards offered to the athletes who put their bodies on the line as opposed to the owners and chancellors who invest in them: the advent of sports betting could help move the needle towards changing this, like when Colorado Rockies’ outfielder Charlie Blackmon picked up an endorsement deal from MaximBet Sportsbook without any repercussions (provided he endorse gambling generally, not betting on baseball specifically): the whole point of an endorsement deal is for an athlete or league to say they recommend using a certain product, so inroads are being made as the market opens up between ballplayer and bookie, sportsbook and sports franchise.
It’ll be interesting to see how the various leagues decide to balance the ethical concerns surrounding the contradictory approaches, and whether the rise of the gambling industry could mean justice for athletes long slighted like Rose and Shoeless Joe.
The industry is still in its infancy here in the states, and it’ll take time to figure things out… growing pains are a part of life.
