The NBA is too all in on gambling.

[liam]

I am not a fan of all this gambling. I don't need to see the lines during the games. I don't need to hear about all the prop bets. All this focus on gambling calls into question the integrity of the game.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/killing-youth-america-calls-crackdown-110013186.html

[Kernewek]

I am not a fan of all this gambling. I don't need to see the lines during the games. I don't need to hear about all the prop bets. All this focus on gambling calls into question the integrity of the game.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/killing-youth-america-calls-crackdown-110013186.html

I agree with you, but the leagues love it because it encourages additional engagement (and beyond gambling sponsors tend to pay very well).

That said, some gambling can do some good - The National Lottery, for example, funds lots of very worthwhile things in the U.K. Charity raffles are also technically gambling as well.

I don't believe that any of the major sportsbooks do anything like that, though.

[86MaxwellSmart]

I am not a fan of all this gambling. I don't need to see the lines during the games. I don't need to hear about all the prop bets. All this focus on gambling calls into question the integrity of the game.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/killing-youth-america-calls-crackdown-110013186.html

I agree...Kind of sickening. All I hear is FanDuel this and FanDuel that....we went from "Gambling is Bad", to "EVERYONE start Betting-!!"

[Donoghus]

You sound like my dad.

He texted me pretty much the same things like 2 weeks ago.

[Celtics2021]

At some point I think it’s going to blow up in their face when there’s actual evidence of games being rigged.  In the mean time, there’s a lot of money in it.

And as for Kernewek’s comment on lotteries funding things — in some states, at least, the sportsbooks and casinos have had to pay some significant fees and taxes to enter the market.  I’m going to be curious how much tax revenue Mass. has made from it, because that was a major selling point of letting the sportsbooks in.

[liam]

You sound like my dad.

He texted me pretty much the same things like 2 weeks ago.

Your Dad sounds like a very wise man.

 

[Donoghus]

You sound like my dad.

He texted me pretty much the same things like 2 weeks ago.

Your Dad sounds like a very wise man.

 

I think so. I wouldn't be where I am without him.  That's for sure.

[Roy H.]

I agree.  I'm not against gambling, but seeing it during the broadcasts is too much.  The casinos are pushing it hard, and the NBA is all in.

Just wait...  in a few years there will be apps connected to the seats at games, where you can bet instantly on whether a guy will make a FT, etc.

[liam]

The Tim Donaghy debacle that took place from 1994 to 2007 and it's still fresh in my mind.

[BitterJim]

My biggest issue isn't even with the constant advertisements for it, although those really annoy me as well: it's the effect it's had on analysis. At this point broadcast companies have decided that it isn't important to have smart and thoughtful analysts, when it's cheaper and easier to just have someone young and cheap talk about the betting lines (offloading all of the actual analysis to the casinos/sportsbooks). Instead of hearing what knowledgeable people think will or should happen, you get people saying that they like the over or under with minimal actual analysis, or that the line changed because X. It's not a good replacement.

[blink]

I am not a fan of all this gambling. I don't need to see the lines during the games. I don't need to hear about all the prop bets. All this focus on gambling calls into question the integrity of the game.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/killing-youth-america-calls-crackdown-110013186.html

agree 100% liam.  the connection between gambling and the NBA needs to be diminished not increased.
imo it needs to be absolutely separated.

[Neurotic Guy]

I’m on a bit of a curmudgeonly roll - yes! I don’t care if people gamble but I don’t really want it in my face, especially during the games.  I can switch channels on tv or radio when they talk about betting lines, etc, but during games and flashed on the screen. Annoying.

[Surferdad]

I’m on a bit of a curmudgeonly roll - yes! I don’t care if people gamble but I don’t really want it in my face, especially during the games.  I can switch channels on tv or radio when they talk about betting lines, etc, but during games and flashed on the screen. Annoying.

I feel the same way too, but I suspect the sportsbooks who buy advertising during the game like it very much. 

[Kernewek]

My biggest issue isn't even with the constant advertisements for it, although those really annoy me as well: it's the effect it's had on analysis. At this point broadcast companies have decided that it isn't important to have smart and thoughtful analysts, when it's cheaper and easier to just have someone young and cheap talk about the betting lines (offloading all of the actual analysis to the casinos/sportsbooks). Instead of hearing what knowledgeable people think will or should happen, you get people saying that they like the over or under with minimal actual analysis, or that the line changed because X. It's not a good replacement.

100% and while this feels like the inevitable endpoint of wringing the absolute maximum blood out of the stone - which is why we live in a hellscape where Sports Illustrated is trialling paying third parties to use LLMs and other tools to 'generate' articles that essentially exist to say nothing as an alternative to paying writers and editors a living wage - an awful lot of it is driven by demand.

That is to say, every mainline sports media entity from the bait-iest of content farms to the most prestigious stuff has a decade-plus worth of metrics feeding into evaluating whether viewers want this (largely they do) and that viewers/readers/consumers/ are happy with this (largely they are). We live in a golden era of high-quality information, it just turns out a majority of people don't particularly rate that access.


In a way it's just another variation of a concept that's been given a name that the swear filter doesn't like ( essentially 'to become poo') but this concept has been bleeding into sports media - and other media, of course - for a long time.

edit: not to double dip on the defector train but if you like long and wordy blog posts on this exact topic one went up today and it's very fun:
https://defector.com/the-state-of-basketblogging

[liam]

My biggest issue isn't even with the constant advertisements for it, although those really annoy me as well: it's the effect it's had on analysis. At this point broadcast companies have decided that it isn't important to have smart and thoughtful analysts, when it's cheaper and easier to just have someone young and cheap talk about the betting lines (offloading all of the actual analysis to the casinos/sportsbooks). Instead of hearing what knowledgeable people think will or should happen, you get people saying that they like the over or under with minimal actual analysis, or that the line changed because X. It's not a good replacement.

Good point.