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Complaining about sports gambling in the year 2025 feels as pointless as yelling at a cloud. Shout, whine, fret all you want; it’s there, and you can’t move it.
But I’m here to say — yes, in the year 2025 — that legalized gambling has kind of ruined sports.
It wasn’t always this way. Legalized sports gambling at the state level was made possible via a landmark 2018 Supreme Court decision. Since then, the U.S. has been speedrunning its way through all the complications that come with the sudden advent of legal wagering.
That’s not to say I suddenly dislike sports. Ahead of Sunday’s Super Bowl, it’s worth noting that I’m more tapped into the NFL now than I have been at any other point in my adult life. I’m really looking forward to this rematch between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles. (Go Birds.) But legal gambling has shifted how we consume sports in ways both obvious and insidious, and I think it’s worth nothing the trickle-down effects that’s had on fans and fandom.
First things first: It is impossible to avoid gambling and its many tentacles. I wrote in 2023 how gambling ads had become the scourge of sports podcasts, and it’s only continued apace. The NFL (and pretty much ever other league) partners with sportsbooks, broadcasters have integrated gambling into their TV product, and the media covers gambling stories to no end.
“The proverbial ship has sailed,” former American Gaming Association (AGA) executive and sports betting consultant Sara Sloane told Sportico in a recent article. “There’s not much daylight (anymore) between gaming and the sports industry.”
Listen to a sports podcast, watch a sports talk show, read an article in the sports section — there is simply no avoiding gambling. Sorry, but that sucks. Sports should be fun, and gambling is not fun. Gambling is basically math by another name. I want to hear about why the Chiefs or Eagles will win the game, not why the Eagles at +1.5 is a reasonable bet. I care if an expert thinks Saquon Barkley will be able to dominate again, even though he’s Kansas City’s primary focus on defense. I’d rather experts use podcast minutes, column inches, or broadcast time to explain why they believe that than telling me whether they think betters should take the over on Barkley’s rushing yards.
This is a gross oversimplification, but the whole sports landscape has morphed into your annoying friend who won’t stop talking about his fantasy team — except it’s everyone talking about gambling. The numbers back it up. The AGA estimated Americans will wager about $1.39 billion with legal sportsbooks on the 2025 Super Bowl. Sportsbooks spent even more on NFL ads this year. And sportsbooks, in total, made more than $13 billion in gross revenue last year. That number is only going up.
Following the 2018 decision, gambling companies followed the tech playbook. Upon legalization, they flooded the market with ads and promos to acquire customers. Suddenly, gambling was cheap and everywhere, like Ubers back in the day. The customers followed, and now sports gambling has its own little ecosystem, especially online. Sports gambling influencers are everywhere, promising winning picks while making heaps of cash on affiliate partnerships and new customer sign-ups. Search something as asinine as “sports bet,” and you’ll see countless posts about “guaranteed winners” or a long winning streak. I’ve seen countless TikTok gambling trends, including one where folks try to “climb” a betting “ladder,” hitting numerous consecutive bets to turn a small initial wager into a huge payout. It’s shocking how sports gambling can feel so… seamless. Back in the day, you had to travel to Las Vegas to place a legal wager, or you had to find a bookie and risk it. But now you can see a post from some influencer, pull up an app, and wager your very real money — all in about 30 seconds. It feels no different than checking the weather.
If all that sounds dangerous, it’s because it is. Set everything else aside, and legalized gambling has already caused countless major scandals in the sports world. Ex-NBA player Jontay Porter pleaded guilty in a fraud case where he’d pull out of games to help co-conspirators win bets. NBA player Terry Rozier is under investigation as a part of the same probe. Numerous NFL players have been suspended for gambling violations. This week, MLB fired an umpire who shared a betting account with a friend who gambled on baseball. These are all black marks on the major leagues, but clearly the money they make from gambling carries more weight than any such issues.
And that’s not to gloss over the fact that regular folks are losing money gambling. Casinos don’t have a habit of losing money in the long-term. NBC News reported that calls to gambling addiction hotlines are up, with an influx of largely young, male callers reaching out about sports betting.
“We have every reason to believe the growth of online sports betting is a major contributing factor to the increase in gambling problems,” Keith Whyte, executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling, told NBC.
If you like sports and you’re of gambling age, you’ve almost certainly seen some old high school acquaintance posting their “winning picks” on Facebook. And we all know that once a trend hits FB, it’s so pervasive it’s stale.
I don’t want to seem like a total prude. I’ve (sparingly) gambled on sports since legalization. It can be fun, so long as it’s money you’re fine never seeing again. Nearly a decade ago, as a young reporter covering sports business, I found it stupid that sports gambling wasn’t legalized amid daily fantasy’s rise. But I didn’t foresee how much sport’s landscape would shift amid the sudden legalization and ensuing gold rush. I didn’t foresee how gambling would flow insidiously like trickling water into all parts of the sports world. I thought it would be a fun side street in the sports conversation, not the central highway. I should have known better: People have money on the line.
I know I’m in the minority. America has taken to sports gambling like fish to water. If people weren’t tuning in, reading, or listening to gambling content, then the product would change. If people weren’t betting, FanDuel and DraftKings would be out of business. That’s why this piece is part of Don’t @ Me series on unpopular opinions.
I may be yelling at a cloud, but I can’t help but try to let a little sunlight in.
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Since 2018, gambling has taken over the sports world. There are a lot of drawbacks to that fact.
