7 Great Articles on Sports Betting
A few of my favorites
There’s a lot of media coverage about gambling and sports betting these days. Sometimes it’s not great. Here are seven articles that I think are really good, and make for informative and engaging reads if you’re interested in sports betting or gambling more generally.
Online Gambling is Changing Sports for the Worse
Jay Caspian Kang, The New Yorker
Gamblers sometimes forget how many people, including children, still watch the games for something other than parlays and prop bets, or that teams, such as the Yankees, the Cowboys, and the Crimson Tide, really do represent more than their business concerns. When every game gets presented as a point spread, and when every shot becomes merely an input in a degenerate’s parlay math, the game feels cheapened. For someone who wants to watch the best athletes in the world compete against one another, it can be alienating to listen to the announcer read stilted ad copy about the upcoming slate of same-game parlays.
A Psychiatrist Tried to Quit Gambling. Betting Apps Kept Her Hooked.
Katherine Sayre, The Wall Street Journal
Gamblers are assigned VIP hosts based on how much they are wagering. The personal attention pays off. At PointsBet—acquired in 2023 by Fanatics, a sports-merchandise company—VIP sports bettors representing 0.5% of the customer base generated more than 70% of the company’s revenue in 2019 and 2020, according to internal company documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
After a customer said a promo was deceptive, BetMGM offered him $12,000
Danny Funt, The Washington Post
He also brought his dispute to the Virginia Lottery, which oversees sports betting in the state, but an investigator concluded that BetMGM did nothing wrong and closed the case with little explanation. State officials encouraged the man to take it up with BetMGM. “It is baffling,” he replied, “that the Virginia Lottery cannot explain the basis for its finding and, instead, would rather broker an agreement to buy my silence.”
The Virginia Lottery declined to comment on this specific dispute or regulatory enforcement in general. “The Lottery takes player complaints seriously and diligently looks into them,” a spokesperson said.
David Hill, The Ringer
During a panel titled “Pioneering Spirit,” the CEOs of a number of new operators, including Joe Asher, the CEO of William Hill’s U.S. operations, talked about their vision for the future of the industry in the United States. Jon Kaplowitz, the head of interactive for Penn National Gaming, which is partnered with William Hill, was asked about their risk management strategy. He joked that his strategy was, “Joe [Asher] with a baseball bat running the sharps out of our casino.”
During the Q&A, Spanky takes to the microphone, and Asher immediately drops his head as if he knows what is coming. Spanky asks, “Jon, you mentioned Joe has a baseball bat trying to kick out sharps from the casino. I myself have personally been kicked out of all of your sportsbooks, as well as several of my colleagues, for the action being quote-unquote too sharp. And I was wondering if there was a possibility that you guys were going to practice effective risk management and instead of kicking out customers, to welcome all customers and having people, if they win, they’re still able to bet in your sportsbooks.”
The Maestro: the man who built the biggest match-fixing ring in tennis
Kevin Sieff, The Washington Post
He bought diamond rings for players’ wives. He paid for flights. He handed out cellphones and the keys to an empty Brussels apartment. Players spoke of his charm, his seemingly endless supply of cash, his ability to shift among five languages. It was as if he strolled out of a European country club and was suddenly a fixture at professional tennis matches.
“Everyone in the tennis world knows that Maestro does match-fixing,” Mick Lescure, a former French pro who collaborated with Sargsyan, told French police in 2019, according to a transcript of the interrogation. “He could make it so that two opponents playing each other are both working for him.”
How America’s Favorite Sports Betting Expert Turned A Sucker’s Game Into An Industry
Ryan Goldberg, Deadspin
But the lies about winning picks, I came to realize, are merely the short con in advance of the long game: hush-hush arrangements with sportsbooks in which pick-sellers earn a significant cut of the losses of their referred clients.
Today’s touts get you on both ends. They sell you “winners,” and then collect when you lose. It’s a sucker’s game, same as it ever was.
I placed my first wager when I was 10. I’ve gambled more than $1 million since.
Noah Vineberg, Maclean's
Of course, I was being naive. Bookies, casinos and gambling sites never tell bettors to stop. Instead, they prey on the vulnerable, their most reliable clients. I knew that if I continued gambling, I would lose my family, my house, everything. I contemplated suicide, thinking it was the only way to stop my gambling and that the life-insurance payout would support my family down the line. But I couldn’t cause so much trouble for them. Julie noticed a change in my behaviour. I was going to the bar three, four times a week. I was angry. I had no patience with my kids, lost interest in stuff I would usually enjoy, like playing men’s league hockey.
That’s when I made a big mistake—or maybe it was a cry for help. One day, in 2018, I was texting Julie and my bookie at the same time, dealing with multiple chats, when I accidentally texted Julie a list of my bets for that day. She wrote back angrily, asking what was happening. At first, I got defensive and proclaimed my innocence. But I knew the jig was up when she asked to come to my therapist appointment shortly after. I decided to come clean.