Gambling has taken over the sports world to an extent that it’s hard to imagine what life was like before the proliferation of advertisements and props. But an ESPN post about Victor Wembanyama drew the ire of United States Senator Chris Murphy.
The Democratic senator from Connecticut has been outspoken about a number of issues regarding the integrity of sports, from betting to private equity in youth sports. The tidal wave of gambling has led to multiple high-profile scandals in major sports, from Jontay Porter and Terry Rozier to Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz, to several in college sports. The effect on the culture has also been profound, with impacts not just financially, but on mental health and athlete abuse.
But regardless, the leagues and the media companies that cover them continue pushing forward with betting stories now front and center of everyday life. And that’s where Murphy is trying to shine a light on how this normalization has degraded the culture of sports.
ESPN Bet and SportsCenter shared a post talking about Game 6 of the Spurs-Thunder series. But instead of highlighting the Spurs’ dominant victory and forcing a Game 7, their post focused on Victor Wembanyama failing to hit the over for his 28.5 points prop because he sat on the bench for the final nine minutes with the game out of reach for the Thunder.
Murphy shared the post on his social media account, calling it a “heartbreaking” example of how sports fandom has gone from being about loyalty and joy to monetization and commodification.
“The transition of sports fandom from loyalty and joy and community to monetization and commodification is a little heartbreaking to me. A signal of the broader commercialization of everything not nailed down in America,” Murphy said.
This isn’t an imagined phenomenon that Murphy is talking about. Fans are now locked in to prop bets and same game parlays just as much as they are whether their team wins a championship or not. The growing discontent with the effects of sports betting is bipartisan. Outgoing Republican Ohio governor Mike DeWine has even called the legalization of sports betting his biggest mistake in office.
The players know it and feel it as well. Just 34% of NBA players viewed sports betting partnerships favorably in a survey earlier this year. But it’s far from just betting. It’s soaring television rights and streaming proliferation, absurd ticket prices, and unpopular moves made for the bottom line instead of fan welfare. The sports world is getting more expensive and harder to connect with for fans of all ages and experiences because of the crushing pressure to monetize everything to the max.
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