this post was submitted on 04 Jun 2024
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I don’t disagree with anything you’re saying. I think officials are throwing games. For example, the NFL is a “sports entertainment league”. They LOVE getting the third team involved when a game isn’t going their way.
Sure my example is niche, and only looking at one part of the problem, but isn’t that what we are talking about, players gambling? And I think athletes gambling on games (any games) in general is an issue, but I don’t believe a league has a right to say “you can’t gamble on anything, ever”.
I understand your point about who fans focus on also. I make this same argument all the time when someone says “athlete X makes too much money”. The league as an entity will always push blame to the players, the same way any business will throw an employee under the bus. That’s just normal capitalist power dynamics.
Ultimately there’s no perfect solution while betting exists. The only real actionable steps a league can take is to say that a player can’t bet within their league, and I really see nothing wrong with that.
Honestly, betting probably isn't the main reason games get fixed.
If not a single legal or illicit bet was made on a game, there's still a huge reason for games to be fixed:
League profit sharing.
A lot of teams make their money from the league share. So it's in every owners best interest for the season and especially playoffs/championships for there to be a good story every season.
More important than any single team winning, they want people watching on TV for that ad revenue sharing.