Sports Betting Is Blurring the Lines Between Gaming, Gambling and Investing
Legalization unleashed explosive growth in US sports betting. In Everybody Loses, Danny Funt argues that it’s made watching (and playing) worse.
Illustration: Ard Su for Bloomberg
Is there any better time of year to be a sports fan in the US? January and February are a veritable orgy of athletics: football playoffs, NBA games that kinda sorta start to matter, college men’s and women’s basketball teams barreling toward the NCAA tournaments. There is also hockey and — this year — 16 days of glorious Olympic pageantry.
Where there is sports, there’s also betting — always has been. But the transformation in the US over the five years since the Supreme Court allowed states to license online operators like DraftKings and FanDuel is truly staggering. As the legal restrictions fell away, digital sports books removed what was left of the friction that might have restrained a bettor, like the need to drive to a casino or a bar, place your bet at a window or with a bookie, and settle up when it’s over. On the apps it’s just a swipe and a tap — over and over again, without leaving the couch.