Almost every sports league, team and organization (including, ahem, media outlets) wants to generate revenue from sports betting. Sponsorship. Partnership. Advertising. After all, it's legal.
Perhaps these are direct payments. Perhaps it's the advertising money generated by the increased viewership that comes from ever-larger broadcast deals. Whatever the source, sports are awash with gambling money.
Nothing comes for free, however, and the NBA had to foot the bill Thursday.
Every other league can only watch and know that if there was ever a sure-fire bet, it won't be the last time a parade of FBI and Justice Department figures hold a press conference to detail a slew of allegations of questionable behavior surrounding sports betting.
More than 30 people were arrested, including such important figures as Mr. Big Shot, Hall of Fame player and current Portland Trail Blazer coach Chauncey Billups. Meanwhile, officials continued to cite the clear involvement of Cosa Nostra and New York crime families, including the Gambinos and Genoveses.
It's like being in a “Hollywood movie,” said Ricky Patel of Homeland Securities Investigations.
Try the veal, it's the best in town.
Gambling scandals are nothing new in sports, from the Black Sox to Tim Donaghy. However, the spread of legalized sports betting, putting everyone in front of everyone's face if not their phone, almost certainly makes gaming more vulnerable.
The indictments provided fascinating, high-tech details of underground poker games using X-ray card readers that helped organized crime rig the operations. And there were the alleged actions of Damon Jones, a former player and assistant coach who the feds said warned others about injuries the public didn't yet know about.
One example: an unnamed Los Angeles Lakers star will sit out the Feb. 9, 2023 game against Milwaukee.
“Bet big on Milwaukee tonight before the word gets out!” [Player 3] will be released this evening,” Jones wrote to a co-conspirator, the indictment alleges. “I'm betting enough so Jones can eat so [sic] Now!!!”
The Laker who stayed out that night to rest his sore left ankle? LeBron James. A source close to James told ESPN on Thursday that the star was unaware of the leak about his status. The Bucks won by nine, covering a -7.5 spread. DJones has apparently eaten.
“This is an NBA insider trading scandal,” FBI Director Cash Patel said.
This. And it's fair for fans to wonder what exactly they're watching. The accusation mainly relates to players deliberately withdrawing from games due to injury to ensure they do not live up to individual bets, but this still corrupts the competition.
The rise of legalized sports betting allows criminal elements to place numerous small bets on information (and hopefully not raise suspicion) and make a profit.
The fact that players and coaches with multimillion-dollar contracts could be vulnerable (Rozier played on a four-year deal worth $96.2 million) only adds to the concern. Good luck to college sports, where the NCAA is investigating 13 men's basketball players at six schools for a betting scheme.
Now on Wednesday, the NCAA allowed all of its athletes to legally bet on professional sports.
Hey, what bad could happen?
Sports betting can be a boon for profits, but it comes with increased suspicion of everything. This includes, quite unfairly, athletes who simply perform poorly or get injured and thus lose money to the players. Online harassment is through the roof.
As far as Billups' presence goes, he's a shining star who commands attention. In one indictment, the defendant, referred to as “Conspirator 8,” allegedly told a bettor that the Trail Blazers would fail and some of their best players would not play in a game against the Chicago Bulls on March 24, 2023.
Co-Conspirator 8 is not named in the indictment, but the description of his playing and coaching career matches Billups.
Another indictment accuses Billups of running illegal poker games run by New York organized crime. He was the famous “face card” used to attract unsuspecting fools who came to games with X-ray tables that could read cards face down and cameras on poker chip trays that could do the same.
The information will be sent to a remote location and then transmitted back to the “defender” in the game, who will then tell the rest of the participants which hand is most likely to win. The “fish,” as they were called, never stood a chance. One guy lost $1.8 million, the feds say.
It will be interesting to learn how and why someone of Billups' stature and financial wealth ($100 million in player earnings) got involved in this. However, the Trail Blazers looked set to fail anyway. And the fact that an illegal poker game in New York or Miami might be less than reputable doesn't seem like much of a surprise (buyer beware), let alone a threat to the general public.
So as bad as it was, it could have been a lot worse.
But that's the point. If every athlete, coach, official, trainer, etc. doesn't heed the FBI's warnings to stay away from such things, then the next scandal is sure to happen. Not only could it be worse, there is a decent chance it will be.
Legal sports betting is definitely good money.
It's just not cheap.
