WSJ: 'America Made a Huge Bet On Sports Gambling. The Backlash Is Here'

In 2018 the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the outlawing of sports betting in America.

But the Wall Street Journal reports that since then all the major professional sports bodies 'now realize just how much they have to lose as the new era unfolds.'

'All it takes is for a reasonable fan to go, 'Am I just watching theater, or is this actually sport?' for the credibility of a sport to start crumbling,'' said Declan Hill, an expert on match fixing at the University of New Haven.

Since the prohibition on sports gambling was lifted, leagues that had once viewed betting as an existential threat to their integrity scrambled to partner with gambling companies and brought them into the tent.... The NBA itself also announced a new feature designed to mesh the betting experience with live action: Fans watching games on League Pass, the flagship streaming platform, would be able to opt in to view betting odds on the app's interface and click through to place wagers... Cleveland Cavaliers head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said that gambling had 'gone too far... I personally have had my own instances with some of the sports gamblers,' he added, 'where they got my telephone number, were sending me crazy messages about where I live, and my kids and all that stuff.'

NBA spokesman Mike Bass said that instances of reported harassment related to sports betting are investigated. Then, just days after Haliburton and Bickerstaff's complaints, the NBA found itself grappling with a new case... The league is investigating suspicious activity around [Toronto Raptors forward Jontay] Porter, after app users placed sizable wagers that his totals for points, rebounds and assists in a pair of games would all come in under the lines set by oddsmakers. When Porter's numbers fell below those marks and the bets paid out, it raised a red flag signaling possible irregularities....

The NCAA has turned to state legislatures to impose regulations that would take single players out of gamblers' crosshairs. The group is lobbying to ban player-specific proposition bets that aren't directly related to the final score of the game — the exact kind of wagers at the center of the Porter situation in the NBA
After noticing 'the gambling-related negativity taking over his social-media feeds,' pro basketball player Tyrese Haliburton gave the Journal his own assessment of how it's affecting the fan base.

'To half the world, I'm just helping them make money on DraftKings.'

Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader schwit1 for sharing the article.

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