Hate it or Love It: Legalized Sports Betting Is Fueling Fan Engagement
Photo courtesy of Miller, Ethan. “With legalized sports betting spreading, the NFL powers say deal us in.” Boston Globe, Boston Globe Media Partners, 8 Sep. 2021, https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/09/08/sports/with-legalized-sports-betting-spreading-nfl-powers-say-deal-us/.
In 2018, the Supreme Court decided Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association, thereby allowing states to legalize sports gambling as their legislatures see fit.[1] Since the decision, nearly two-thirds of states have approved legislation that makes such betting lawful within their borders.[2] Texas, our country’s second-most populous state, is lining up to be the next in row.[3]
Legalization proponents argue that the policy change reflects the opinion of US citizens, who have voted in favor of legalized sports betting in a number of ballot initiatives. Proponents also emphasize the lucrative revenue opportunity that legalization may confer on state budgets. On the other side of the aisle, legalization opponents stress the worry that people will lose more than they can afford and the potential for match-fixing and other fraudulent practices.
Whether betting on sports engenders corruption in the games is a debate that has lasted for centuries, without a clear answer to support either side. Opponents of legalization cite the paradigmatic “Black Sox” case, which concerned allegations that Chicago White Sox players took money from the mafia in exchange for throwing the 1919 World Series.[4] Just last November, the UFC got into hot water after a flood of last-minute bets placed on an unlikely outcome ended up paying out big.[5] These cases lend credence to the argument that broad authorization of sports betting may substantially affect the integrity of our games by creating financial incentives for players to act unethically.
On the other hand, proponents of legalization emphasize how the above cases, though undesirable in theory, were the exceptions to the rule. Britain has allowed legal sports betting for decades without any resulting allegations of substantial corruption in European football matches. Getting this practice out of the underground and into the public eye may allow for improved monitoring of patterns in betting behavior, and thus improved methods of enforcing against unlawful acts. Indeed, if the data was not available for inspection, the issue alleged in the UFC case would never have been spotted by regulators in the first place.[6]
The question of who is right—or, put a bit differently, who will win—in this debate is one that will surely persist in the near-future. But what seems less debatable right now is how the policy change has fueled fan engagement with sports as a product.
Take the NFL as an example. With the ability to have a literal claim in almost every facet of every game, every second of football becomes of interest. Fans now tune in to watch games they otherwise would have no stake in, knowing that with a few scrolls of the phone they may have something very tangible to root for. Fantasy football started this trend; legalized sports betting has merely honed it to perfection. In 2022, 82 of the 100 most watched TV events in America were NFL games.[7] To be clear, that means that 81 NFL games that were not the Super Bowl gained a larger amount of viewers than [pick your favorite TV show premier]. Researchers believe that a huge factor behind this statistic is the platform that the NFL has created on mobile devices.[8] Viewers not only can watch the game in high definition from anywhere, but also place bets with just a few more taps of the fingers.
Some believe the rise in engagement with the NFL, and sports more broadly, is due to unique social aspects linked to the covid-19 pandemic. The view here is that bored people stuck at home had nothing else to do other than watch TV, and stimulus checks gave them “free money” with which to gamble.[9] While these factors may partly explain the NFL’s dominance of TV ratings in 2022, we should not ignore the contribution that legalized sports betting has made.
[1] Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association, 584 US _ (2018)
[2] “Legislative Tracker: Sports Betting.” Legal Sports Report, Legal Sports Report, 10 Jan. 2023, https://www.legalsportsreport.com/sportsbetting-bill-tracker/
[3] Id.
[4] Lamb, William F. “The Black Sox Scandal.” Society for American Baseball Research, Cronkite School at ASU, Spring 2014, https://sabr.org/journal/article/the-black-sox-scandal/
[5] Raimondi, Mark. “UFC tightens gambling rules, hires integrity firm amid probe.” ESPN, The Walt Disney Company, 19 Jan. 2023, https://www.espn.com/mma/story/_/id/35481449/ufc-tightens-gambling-rules-hires-integrity-firm-amid-probe
[6] Raimondi, supra.
[7] Adgate, Brad. “The Audience Disparity of NFL Games And Everything Else Widens.” Forbes, Integrated Whale Media Investments, 12 Jan. 2023, https://www.forbes.com/sites/bradadgate/2023/01/12/the-audience-disparity-of-nfl-games-and-everything-else-widens/?sh=3bf1de24113a
[8] Id.
[9]Lewis, Leo. “All bets are off on Japan’s sports gambling craze.” Financial Times, Nikkei Inc, 21 Jan. 2023, https://www.ft.com/content/f67c0771-1114-4c6f-9887-083d1b4d8e7f