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69 points ilamont | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.407s | source
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nradov ◴[] No.45684997[source]
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.
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1. rufus_foreman ◴[] No.45688145[source]
>> 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