A Lousy Bet

Sportsbooks, leagues, and networks: the new unholy alliance to promote legal gambling.

- WILL LEITCH

IF YOU HAPPEN TO DROP A KID OFF AT COLlege this fall, you may be surprised to encounter representatives from assorted sportsbooks handing out free branded swag to returning students. Then again, you may not be the least bit surprised: In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark 2018 decision that opened the door for states to legalize sports betting, even the most casual fan is aware of the growing ubiquity of sports betting messages. One recent study determined they now occupy about 21% of broadcast time.

Students love free stuff-who doesn't?--but the baiting tactics being deployed by the gambling industry are straight out of the drug dealer's playbook: the free taste. The plan has two parts. One involves funneling people to gambling apps that feature all the psychologically addictive gaming tricks that digital companies have been perfecting over the past couple decades. These are the stratagems that keep my own 12-year-old son and all of his pals glued to their phones.

The second part involves normalizing gambling as part of the sports experience through telecasts, where bet-friendly stats are presented like the smart, quant-advanced analytics that shaped the sabermetrics generation. Just as Bill James created a dividing line (largely generational) between fans who embraced "wins above replacement" and those who scratched their heads over the newfangled stats, sports betting is now separating those who understand a prop bet or a boost from those who still don't fully grasp the implications of a point spread. A decade ago, fans used such stats to manage their fantasy sports teams; now they use them to put real money down on a cross-sport parlay.