This is a topic I’ve been wanting to wade into, but have also been vaguely afraid to because of how massive sports betting has become. Let me get this off the top – I have no issue with sports betting. I’m not anthropologist or sociologist, but humans seem to have this natural tendency to want to make bets. We have all been betting since middle school, throwing out the “1-15 do I go steal breadsticks,” and then when the number hits making some excuse like “the principal is right there.” A person should be able to do whatever they want with their money, and if that includes throwing a moneyline of $15 every night on the Pistons, who am I to stop them? That’s between that person and the high-interest loan they’re going to have to beg for from Discover to pay their rent.
The issue gets a little frothy when sports betting companies start partnering with leagues as “official betting sponsors.” It gets convoluted when you have sports journalists working for betting companies, and have the ability to sway lines with incorrect reports (this will come up later). And then there’s DraftKings partnering with Lebron, where it seems we have entered a new plane of interaction.
Like I already said, this is a relatively murky topic to wade into, because betting is the new force majuere of advertising, taking up the mantle crypto left behind after being squashed by totally not questionable “market forces.”
The Betting Inquisition
It’s crazy that for so long we have been stuck in, what is essentially, a gambling prohibition. I could go on a whole tangent about how the hedonistic stories that come from DC seem crazy compared to guys just wanting to bet on whether or not Cooper Kupp will actually catch a touchdown. And to be fair to the betting companies, this isn’t some blitzkrieg into the mainstream, it has been slow, consistent growth into the wallets of Americans, and it’s still growing. It is an inquisition, with the companies slowly consolidating regulatory power, while the methods remain questionable.
I say questionable, not because I think the sports betting companies are doing anything legally or morally wrong. It’s actually more targeted at the entities and people partnering with the betting companies. And I don’t mean entities like Barstool that are very outward with their gambling content, and really can’t sway the line. An entity like that can for sure get more people betting, but the information being presented isn’t running into journalistically questionable territory.
This refers to the Shams controversy, which there genuinely weren’t enough people annoyed about. Not even just annoyed, but questioning Shams on the shoddy reporting that swayed the line. A line that, no doubt, lost people money.
I could write a whole blog on how much I think new age reporters are destroying sports media by being information gatekeepers; they don’t trade on reputation, they trade on information. But the questionable part is Shams, a reporter and a FanDuel employee, swayed the line. He swayed the line with what was incorrect information. As it came out later, Henderson was never in contention for that second spot. So people lost money at FanDuel thanks to a FanDuel employee’s reporting, and nothing happened. FanDuel’s insistence that they didn’t know anything about the report feels like a wool-over-the-eyes moment.
The Athletic didn’t say anything. ESPN didn’t say anything. Everyone moved on like this was just a thing that happened, and not a potential journalistic shift. Conflicts of interest be damned, we have lines to push and partnerships to promote.
And then, the NFL has embraced and platformed multiple companies focused on sports betting. My annoyance with the NFL embracing the gambling is how it treats its own players with regard to gambling. It’s my understanding that NFL players can gamble on sports other than football, just outside the NFL facilities.
With the suspensions this past year, the rule really irks me. With so many gambling sponsors, how can the NFL enforce the rule without a twinge of hypocriticalness? I know this isn’t the greatest analogy in the world, but imagine the NFL getting mad at a player shipping an unrelated item through FedEx on their phone from an NFL facility. The action doesn’t affect player performance, integrity, or the NFL.
Unless, of course, the NFL leadership shares a worried sentiment, but wants to embrace the payday they can receive from the gambling companies. The weird, invisible line drawn at the facility is like the TSA. It’s all an illusion so if Congress questions Rodger Goddell, he has some performative invincibility.
We started years about with sportsbooks fighting for life in the regulatory space. And now we’re here, with actual leagues – the biggest league in America – embracing gambling. Happily posting lines for Sportscenter reporters to speculate upon, and networks to report midgame. While that same league clearly realizes the consequences waiting to storm the gates.
LeGamble Gains and Losses
This move feels like we have crossed some kind of incestuous Rubicon. Am I vaguely excited to see LeBron’s week 10 parlay where he bets on the Rams again because he needs media industrialists to like him? Incredibly so, because I imagine DraftKings will run some kind of insane odds for that, using LeBron’s name as leverage. And I don’t doubt that LeBron is getting paid handsomely to associate his name in a pretty low stakes environment. Sure, Michael Jordan “went and played baseball for a year,” but LeBron wouldn’t be forced to go play for the San Jose Earthquake.
And to be truthful in this blog, I’m not fully sure how I feel yet. There’s something that just feels wrong about a current athlete working with a sports betting company. The best word I can associate with it right now is “icky.” I alluded to it already, but the best person to be in this position is LeBron. No one is punishing him, and I imagine he won’t be swaying any lines.
But as the sports world becomes more and more reliant on a system of accepting gambling, involving the same athletes closely. Like how we all cringe a bit when church and state begin to heavily intermingle, this feels similar. Are the wolves being invited into the henhouse? Maybe, but right now the links are tenuous.
There are cultural consequences for this. As with the Shams story, intermingling gambling and the information line is incredibly dangerous, especially for the gamblers. Pull in athletes and you’re asking for a disaster. I can’t predict what’s going to happen, but this isn’t the first sports betting company that is going to sponsor an active athlete. Test runs exist for a reason.
Even if he is just sharing football picks, the new sports state has come. Even this season the number of gambling ads felt over the top, like the companies were making up for years of being locked out of the club. And now that the country club is open to them too, it’s time to swarm every nook with the new standard. There is a new age in sports betting and athlete tie ins, and it’s only just begun.
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