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He hadn't appeared in a game this season, recovering from a knee injury.
And it doesn't mention what teams, but dude made a lot of bets, so I cant believe it was a shady deal like the NBA had where he only bet on his teams games and tried to influence it.
And dude placed all the bets legally.
I really think with the legalization of gambling they need to revisit these blanket bans. If you're not betting on your team, let them bet.
Pro Athletes should NOT be betting on their own sport. With all the other modern issues affecting these leagues, adding an ability to gamble is a terrible idea. There is ZERO legitimacy if they can bet on their sport.
What's to stop a player from asking a friend on another team to strike out in 3 ABs, betting on that, then splitting that money?
If people were rigging games, it would be by officials, not players.
If you think that's not already happening, and hasn't been for the existence of pro sports...
What’s to stop a player from asking a friend on another team to strike out in 3 ABs, betting on that, then splitting that money?
Why is that only a problem when the person who placed the best plays the same sport?
I mean, just think for a second, the situation "player has someone ask them to throw a game" is the issue.
Why are you just worried about if the person asking is also a player?
This is why the leagues focus on it, when it's a player making the bet, there's an emotional reaction by fans.
But you ever notice why across all sports we keep hearing about players that bet, and never someone else betting and paying officials/players to fix the game?
It's not that it doesn't happen, it's just happening as intended.
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.
Players betting is bad... but lifetime ban bad? Idk, I'm conflicted
It's a stupid timeline where there are betting advertisements plastered everywhere and you boot someone for doing it.