The sports gambling reckoning will come
Baseball might have an enormous scandal on its hands. College sports has already faced them. It will come for the NBA, too.
Good morning. Let’s basketball.
Dead Matador; Edouard Manet; 1864-65
In retrospect, it’s a bit stunning that the major American sports league with the most recent gambling-related scandal — the Tim Donaghy catastrophe, 17 years ago — was among the first to embrace sports betting as a revenue stream.
The NBA has embraced the rise of legalized sports gambling and seems to be pushing it as far as any league. The league and its data partner Sportradar announced this week that live odds will be shown inside NBA League Pass, and in states where it’s legal, fans will be able to place bets directly from the app.
We’ve gone from the NBA commissioner supporting expanded sports gambling in amicus briefs to league partnerships with sportsbooks to broadcasters doing betting line voiceovers during live action to this, in like five years.
The NBA isn’t alone, of course. All the pro leagues are doing it, and sports gambling is legal and easily available for much of the country. There have been scandals. College baseball had one of the wildest ones I’m aware of, where the well-paid coach of Alabama’s team was feeding inside info to an associate. You have Iowa and Iowa State football players getting charged and suspended due to betting on their own games. NFL players have been suspended for betting on football. And now the biggest star in Major League Baseball, Shohei Ohtani, is at the center of a very curious, potentially explosive scandal involving his interpreter and $4.5 million in wire transfers from Ohtani’s bank account to a SoCal bookie.
There’s zero question about whether sports betting is popular. In some ways, the leagues are responding to fan demand. The legislators in these states that are greenlighting expansion are responding to fan demand, and many are setting up vice taxes to provide a budget boost. (Lobbying efforts by the DraftKings and MGMs and FanDuels of the world matter here, too.) The media is responding to high interest within a shrinking audience. As a result, the leagues have a financial interest in the continued growth of sports betting, some states have financial interests in the continued growth of sports betting and the media has a financial interest in the continued growth of sports betting.
The thing with sports betting is that most participants are going to lose. That’s how gambling works these days, inasmuch as I understand it. A few sharks with sophisticated models or sophisticated arbitrage engines or inside information will make the money. The “house” — which now includes the NBA itself — will make the money. Most fans will lose.
And with a very low barrier to entry and all these incentives from interested parties in lowing that barrier further — to the point where you will be able to bet on an NBA game you are watching with a click or two, the definition of an impulsive action — the scope of the losing by NBA fans is going to grow and grow and grow. And the stakes of that losing are going to hit some people differently.
No one has to gamble. No one has to pay attention to the odds widget on the screen or read gambling-focused content or learn what a moneyline or parlay is. As fans, you can opt out of this, you can focus on action instead of the action. Media companies can opt out. (This 1-person media company has opted out.)
You know who can’t opt out? The athletes. The coaches. The team personnel. This is all around them. Here’s Cavs coach J.B. Bickerstaff on the tentacles of sports betting:
Cleveland Cavaliers coach J.B. Bickerstaff revealed he received threats from gamblers last season and reported it to the NBA.
"They got my telephone number and were sending me crazy messages about where I live and my kids and all that stuff," Bickerstaff said before the Cavs hosted the Miami Heat. "So it is a dangerous game and a fine line that we're walking for sure."
I presume that most sports bettors will listen to Bill Simmons and put a little action on preseason futures or their favorite team to win the title or whatever. Some sports bettors will gamble a couple times a week with some low-risk, high-reward parlay. (This is also known as a non-deductible donation to a corporation.) A few sports bettors will create incredibly high-stakes situations for themselves, and watch too many mob movies, and get totally out-of-pocket by stalking NBA coaches and players and whoever else. It’s the dumb “you ruined by fantasy team” discourse dialed up to 11, with real financial stakes attached. Those few bettors are enough to ruin some lives, including their own.
The question is what happens when a scandal inevitably hits the NBA again. Will the league continue to push growth of sports betting, as is its capitalistic imperative? One presumes that a study will hit in the next couple of years showing an enormous uptick in gambling addicition. Will the NBA still be lowering the barrier to entry at that point? Something truly dangerous will happen at some point. What’s the league’s response going to be?
The reckoning will come. Who will it take down when it arrives?
Scores
Pacers 122, Pistons 103 — I will admit that I’ve been checked out on the Pistons for a while. So imagine my surprise to see Stanley Umude and Tosan Evbuomwan out here starting games with Cade Cunningham, Jaden Ivey and Jalen Duren. NEXT MAN UP mentality.
Prayers up to Ausar Thompson, who will miss the rest of the season with a blood clot.
Heat 107, Cavaliers 104 — It’s hard to have an absolute backbreaking defensive possession in a game you lead with more than a minute left. But with 1:34 remaining and the Cavaliers up four, Isaac Okoro fouled Terry Rozier on a made three, and J.B. Bickerstaff challenged it unsuccessfully. So on that possession alone, the Cavaliers lost
their entire lead and
one of their two timeouts
Disaster.
Kings 123, Raptors 89 — A blowout win over a bad team? The Kings? Huh.
The Keon Ellis thing might be legit. Dude works hard as hell on defense, he will take the open three, he’s putting together insane per-36 steal numbers, he’s a classic “surprise” shotblocker. It might be legit. Sacramento is 7-0 when he starts. And Mike Brown — who can be a tough sell — is raving about his impact.
Assuming the Kings make the playoffs, Ellis’ first round match-up is going to be Jamal Murray, or Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, or Anthony Edwards. It’s going to be fun.
Bucks 119, Celtics 122 — Boston was up 21 early in the fourth without Jrue Holiday. The Bucks, missing Giannis Antetokounmpo, raged back … and pulled within two points. We almost had to have another conversation about the Boston Celtics.
Except Malik Beasley got whistled for defending Jaylen Brown too aggressively (a backbreaker), Dame Lillard missed a layup going for the quick two down four with 20 seconds left, and the C’s closed it out.
Great win for Boston, great comeback from the Bucks. Both teams played hard.
Jazz 107, Thunder 119 — Chet Holmgren heard we’re all dunking on the Jazz now. Sheesh.
He wasn’t just dunking, though. He had 35 and 14.
Good vibes on this team.
Clippers 116, Blazers 103 — Hey man, James Harden really just wants to have fun. Can’t blame him, we’re only on this rock 80, 90, 120 years if we’re lucky. So I support him passing to Kawhi Leonard in the short corner and then … jumping out to contest the shot in a blowout.
Best defense Harden has played in a decade. He later said he did it to break the Clippers out of their funk.
Sixers 102, Suns 115 — The Suns are undefeated this season (1-0) when Isaiah Thomas plays.
Grizzlies 116, Warriors 137 — Draymond Green gets mad that Santi Aldama scores on him and doesn’t detour around him to get back on defense. Then, when Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins gives the ref hell about the lack of a tech on Green during the next timeout, Green inserts himself in that conversation until Desmond Bane pushes him out of the way … into Jenkins, who gets knocked down.
Jenkins stayed down for a while. As we have recently covered in these parts: falling down sucks! Jenkins seems to be fine. You know what? I’m going to say it. There’s been a lot of Taylor Jenkins this season.
The result: offsetting techs on Bane and Green. Ah well.
Good blowout win for the Ws. Lots of rest for everyone. Shout out to GG Jackson II for putting 35 in his first ever NBA game against his AAU coach Chris Paul.
Schedule
I hope March Madness is fun, though I will not be watching, as I wrote in
’s latest roundup.
All times Eastern.
Pelicans at Magic, 7, NBA TV — important test for both squads
Kings at Wizards, 7
Bulls at Rockets, 8 — CHI can hit .500, HOU is two games under
Nets at Bucks, 8
Jazz at Mavericks, 8:30 — who’s getting the epic dunk on the Jazz tonight, Dereck Lively II or Derrick Jones Jr.?
Knicks at Nuggets, 9 — 👀
Hawks at Suns, 10:30, NBA TV
Be excellent to each other.
Hell yeah man. This should be shouted from the rooftops: sports and gambling should never mix! Sad state of affairs.
I’ll be becoming a paid subscriber because of this post.
Props to Good Morning It’s Basketball, TrueHoop and other Substack writers who aren’t beholden to sports books advertisers! 🫡