Your favorite sport — sponsored by DraftKings — might have a problem
Since sports leagues remain entranced by sports gambling, here’s an idea for their next prop bet. What’s the over/under on how many professional athletes will get snagged in a betting scandal before you finish reading this sentence?
The sports world couldn’t get through Thursday without learning of another gambling-related investigation, this one involving Major League Baseball and Cleveland Guardians pitcher Luis Ortiz. MLB placed Ortiz on “non-disciplinary paid leave” before he was set to take the mound Thursday night, news that should be shocking to absolutely no one. Especially since the Guardians had partnered with a Fanatics Sportsbook retail store for two years.
The Ortiz ordeal follows a federal probe that stained the start of NBA free agency. Last week, news broke that federal prosecutors were investigating Detroit Pistons sharpshooter Malik Beasley in connection with alleged gambling on NBA games during the 2023-24 season. Yet before anyone wags a finger, please remember that Pistons games air on a television outlet named FanDuel Sports Network Detroit. So wanna bet that Beasley won’t be the last NBA player involved in a gambling investigation?
Season after season, players keep getting caught in salacious headlines involving betting on games. And yet the teams and leagues that employ them remain comfortably in bed with the very traps that can ensnare their athletes. The money must be so good that it masks the hypocrisy, allowing NBA Commissioner Adam Silver to condemn a player for committing the “cardinal sin” of betting and yet still govern a league that features a tab promoting sports gambling apps on its website. Roger Goodell’s NFL can snuggle up with as many sportsbooks as possible and yet make a show of disciplining 25 employees for violating the league’s betting policy.
Ever since 2018, when the Supreme Court struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act — a law that banned wagering on sports in almost all states — online betting has overwhelmed the U.S. sports landscape. Following that landmark decision, the Washington Wizards and Capitals became the first American sports teams to have a gambling house inside their arena. There’s also now a 4,000-square-foot sportsbook conveniently located next to the center field gate at Nationals Park.
The greatest scorer in NBA history loaned his name and reputation to DraftKings, helping normalize betting to a viewing audience that can’t come close to matching his unconquerable bank account. (LeBron James will make $52.6 million next season. Chances are the couch potato he’s encouraging to make NFL bets will fall short of that.)
Announcers, paid by networks or by teams, introduce prop bets near the top of the broadcasts of live games. ESPN Bet has 5.3 million followers on X — more than the network’s feed for NFL news. Sports betting feels like the unoffensive and inconspicuous wallpaper plastered everywhere in an office; you can’t tell where it begins or ends. And pretty soon, it’ll just blend so well into the background, you’ll forget that it’s there.
Until, of course, an NBA free agent finds himself in the middle of a sports gambling investigation.
The irony is that Beasley was about to become a very rich man. According to reports, once this free agency season officially opened, the Pistons were prepared to offer Beasley an annual salary of roughly $14 million over the next three seasons. Money that, if stewarded wisely, should have cemented generational wealth. And it’s not as if Beasley was living paycheck to paycheck before all this; his career earnings were already north of $50 million. However, Beasley now faces a federal investigation, and he could lose out on cashing in this offseason. If the accusations are found to have merit, Beasley could forfeit his career. All for some silly prop bets and parlays.
The same pitfalls upended Jontay Porter’s NBA dream. And short-circuited Josh Shaw’s time in the NFL. And slapped a cold, hard period on Tucupita Marcano’s days in MLB. Still, how can anyone blame these players when there are sports betting kiosks located directly inside some of their workplaces? Or when the King himself — LeBron’s a living legend for an entire generation of athletes — is peddling same-game parlays every time they turn on the television?
What’s stopping an uber-competitive athlete from opening his or her phone and trying to win a wager here and there or from talking with friends about what might happen on a first pitch or in a first quarter? Clearly, the threat of getting caught hasn’t deterred every pro from trying to cash in. As sports betting has grown into this ubiquitous force, it’s almost naive to expect people who spend their lives around these games to abstain.
It’s easy to shame the athletes for participating in a culture enjoyed by millions of American sports fans. But their only real mistake is falling for a temptation that their own commissioners, leagues and teams have endorsed.