Professional sports are in a crisis; the sports ecosystem has been hijacked by the parasite that is sports betting. For years, sports betting was a taboo subject. It was illegal to promote on TV, a stark contrast to the culture today where sports betting ads featuring massive celebrities like Kevin Hart and Lebron James are commonplace on any broadcast.On May 14, 2018, the supreme court ruled 6-3 in favor of striking down the PASPA act of 1992, allowing individual states to have the authorization to determine if sports betting is legal. Before this ruling, people would have to travel to casinos if they wanted to bet on sports. Even then, wagers were limited to simple things like predicting who wins. Today, “prop bets” on apps like DraftKings and FanDuel offer users the ability to place hundreds of bets on things like Gatorade color, certain words being said on a broadcast, and pitch velocity during baseball games, all from tapping a few buttons.
Multiple players from major sports leagues have received lifetime bans for fixing bets, all of the cases involving prop bets. Just last season in MLB, Cleveland Guardians all-star Emannuel Clase and teammate Luis Ortiz both received lifetime bans for fixing bets. Both pitchers were arrested on wire fraud charges and conspiracy to influence sporting contests by bribery. Clase and Ortiz were found to have placed bets on games they appeared in, betting on whether certain pitches were going to be a ball or a strike. Just a year before, Padres infielder Tucupita Marcano received a lifetime ban for betting on games he appeared in. Marcano was the first active player in over a century to receive a lifetime ban for betting related reasons. We’ve seen stories like this in almost every major sports league in the U.S., and understandably this has led to fans questioning the authenticity of what they watch. Massive corporations win, and the fans lose.
One of the key marketing approaches taken by these apps is the idea that placing wagers makes the game more “exciting”. What this really means is an increase in domestic violence, and death threats being sent to players. According to a study conducted by researchers Kyutaro Matsuzawa and Emily Arnesen within the Department of Economics, domestic violence has increased in cities when the home team loses by over 10% compared to rates before legalization in 2018. In 2025, Astros pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. reported death threats related to sports betting in a social media post.
Major sports betting app “DraftKings” faced multiple lawsuits over deceptive payout systems and false advertising to lure new users onto the app. DraftKings ran a promotion to new users, promising “risk free” bets, a deal where new users were promised a certain amount of “risk free” bets when using the app for the first time. However, payouts can only be withdrawn if users wager a certain amount of money on other bets. It’s important to remember this: If users were making money off these betting apps, they wouldn’t be in business. It’s in the best interest of these companies for consumers to lose. Whether that’s monetary, or mentally.
