By: Kayden Williams
Sports betting has exploded so fast across the country that it’s now hard to tell whether fans are cheering for their favorite teams or for their parlays. As gambling becomes part of everyday sports culture, its impact on the games themselves is becoming impossible to ignore.
Since the Supreme Court legalized sports betting in 2018, more than 40 states have launched legal wagering. Every major league- NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, MLS- now has official partnerships with sports books. With billions of dollars flowing into the industry each year, sports gambling has changed how fans watch, talk about, and even emotionally connect to games. It’s hard to tell if fans are rooting for their teams or for their parlays to hit.
But an important question remains: Is sports betting ultimately good for sports, or is it doing more harm than we realize?
Here is a graphic that represents the amount of sports betting from fans from the years 2018-2023. Notice the amount there was in 2018 compared to 2023. This graphic really shows how much betting has an affect on games.
Data: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/visualizing-the-growth-of-u-s-sports-betting/
“As for gambling I think it poses many long-term problems in sports.” Said Professor Nabors of the FSC business department. Over the past few years we have seen multiple instances in sports where players have been caught rigging games for bettors. This is not good because it ruins the integrity of the games we know and love. How do we as fans know, if a player is cheating or not?
Sports betting is also having a pretty big effect on college sports as well, not just professional. I asked Professor Nugent in the FSC Business department for his thoughts on sports betting and he said “I don’t mind it in professional sports but I have a problem with it in college sports.”. “If a kicker for a college team misses a game winning field goal, a 20 year old kid is receiving death threats for it, and that isn’t fair.”Professor Nabors also touched a little bit on betting with college sports saying “I’m glad the NCAA’s rule permitting college athletes to bet on pro sports was rescinded recently—so many potential issues there.”
One example of a professional athlete getting caught for betting, is Jontay Porter in 2024. The NBA banned Porter for life after an investigation found he disclosed confidential information to bettors, limited his participation in games for betting purposes, and bet on NBA games, including betting on the Raptors to lose. Jontay Porter was really the first athlete to be accused of something like this. He would bet on his own team the Raptors too lose games that he knew they would lose.
For the NFL there have been multiple different instances of players getting suspended due to betting. The NFL has at least suspended 15 players for gambling violations since 2019. As for the MLB, this past season Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz were both suspended from the league. There is still an ongoing investigation going on with them after they were found purposely rigging pitches for bettors from their home country.
This poses the question again is sports betting even good for sports, or is it hurting it more than we realize? Professional sports are supposed to be entertaining for fans, not something they just watch to hope they can make money from it. Sports betting most likely isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, but it is ruining the integrity of the games for the fans and the players. Sports betting isn’t great for all parties related to sports, for fans it takes less of the fan experience away from them. For the Players it makes them interested in rigging games and betting which is not good for sports.