U.S. Details Gambling Cases Involving Pro Athletes and Mafia Families

The pro sports leagues made a Faustian bargain when they partnered with sports books like FanDuel and BetMGM. Those deals brought in licensing revenue and drove up short term fan engagement because the punters betting on games watch the whole thing without switching channels. But long term I think it's going to burn their business model. The temptation for players to take a bribe is huge and now every time fans see something happen on the field that seems unexpected they start to doubt whether it's real. If the leagues don't get a handle on this then in a few decades they'll be seen as jokes: anyone still watching will be doing it for campy or ironic entertainment like professional wrestling.

Professional sports used to exist to profit off viewership, and thus games would occasionally be rigged to increase entertainment value and align with market demand. However, the authenticity carried a large part of why the sports were interesting to watch.

Now, sports exist to facilitate gambling. Sports are interesting to viewers who have money on the line, and thus the authenticity is irrelevant and actually undermines the sport. Every gambler wants to believe they have an edge and that the outcomes are rigged... in their favor. If the outcomes are determined by the players simply trying their best, then what's the point of gambling?

You know sports betting has existed in other counties for dozens of years, right?

All these people making predictions like this is some bold leap into the unknown but it's been legal in the UK since the 1960s.

The UK hath no fury like a forbidden US market unleashed.

Also been legal in Vegas for decades, including the days of "Lefty" Rosenthal and the Stardust Hotel when the mob was deeply entrenched there.

I bet somebody could make a movie about this.

The UK has evolved a sophisticated detection and deterrent system: https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/licensees-and-business...

UK regulations are also more coherent, centralised, and strict than the patchwork US model.

The question is whether the US has the gumption and collaborative power to put something similar in place before the damage is done.

>> anyone still watching will be doing it for campy or ironic entertainment like professional wrestling

"The 1877 Louisville Grays scandal was an incident in which members of the Louisville Grays baseball team accepted money to lose games. Four players – Bill Craver, Jim Devlin, George Hall and Al Nichols – were subsequently banned from professional baseball for life."

-- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1877_Louisville_Grays_scandal

You are aware the rest of the world exists right? It's the entire reason horse racing exists. The game you call soccer is massively sponsored by betting companies. Sure various scandals do erupt from time to time, but it hasn't driven fans away.

You could sports bet in the US before this. The people I know now who are heavy into sportsbetting were using under the table bookies before legalization. You could also sportsbet in vegas. Lest we forget they were controlled by the mob and there was much less oversight into this sort of thing decades ago. Arguably old records are the ones that are most suspect either gambling or doping issues neither of which will probably ever be uncovered if they haven’t already by this point.

There has been so many questionable calls by officiating in most all pro sports over the years that have heavily favored the large market team. People are only half kidding when they say things like “the fix is in” or “the refs are bought.”

c’mon mate… this is like saying “in the 60’s you could have gone to the Moon”

> You are aware the rest of the world exists right?

I wish this was posted on every comment thread with that reminder.