The Complex Intersection of Sports Betting and Integrity

The NFL grapples with the dual challenge of embracing sports betting while safeguarding player integrity amid rising temptations.

### The Intersection of Sports, Gambling, and Integrity
* 🏈  The global sports betting market is estimated to be worth around **€1.4 trillion per year**, leading to increased concerns about **match-fixing and insider trading**.
* 🇺🇸  The legalization of sports betting in the US, following a 2018 Supreme Court decision, has rapidly transformed the industry, with the **NFL becoming a key player** in this new landscape.
* 🏟️  For leagues, gambling revenue offers a new income stream, but also poses **significant risks to their integrity**, with **strict rules in place** for players and personnel.
* 🛡️  The use of data, such as that provided by companies like Sportradar, is crucial in **monitoring and preventing match-fixing**, which remains a **significant concern in sports betting**.
* 🎲  The UK serves as a model for the future of legalized sports betting, with a **long history of regulated gambling** and a **thriving industry**.
* ⚖️  Despite the safeguards in place, concerns remain about the potential for **match-fixing scandals** in major sports leagues, which could have **long-lasting repercussions**.
* 🧠  Former and current players are increasingly aware of the **risks and temptations associated with sports betting**, with some seeing it as a **potential post-career opportunity**.
* 💬  The evolving landscape of sports gambling requires ongoing discussions about how to **protect the integrity of the game** while **maximizing revenue and fan engagement**.

Oh, this is fancy. We ready? There's always going to be a temptation to gamble on sports. More people need to understand what it's like from the player's perspective. Sportradar estimates the global betting market to be worth around €1.4 trillion per year. There's always going to be people who want to manipulate that. For ages, gambling on sports was illegal, but now a regulated global marketplace is providing a new, lucrative revenue stream into all parts of the sports industry. Everyone bets, everyone loves to bet. This about 20 million different betting companies. For leagues, it's a great opportunity and a big risk. We have suspended a number of players for betting on the NFL. The ultimate sin. Jontay Porter throwing games on purpose. I never bet on baseball or any other sports. Now you have these 2 worlds colliding together. People who are on the inside have a little bit of a leg up is definitely a temptation.

What do the sports leagues do when the athletes want to get in on the action? We’ll look at the insider trading in the sports industry and how data is being used to police match-fixing around the world. Pete Rose is out of baseball, suspended for life. Rose bet on baseball games. Gambling was always seen as a threat to the integrity of American sports. The US, until 2018, you basically, it was Nevada, was the only place where you have legal sports betting. We had this landmark Supreme Court decision open the way for other states to join in. The six years since then, it’s exploded. The NFL quickly established itself as the most popular sport for betting in the United States. We talked to three current and former NFL players, members of the Pro Athlete Community, to hear their take on the realities of the new gambling-friendly NFL. Terron Armstead, Left Tackle for the Miami Dolphins. Since I came to the NFL 12 years ago.

pre-game shows used to be five guys talking about the upcoming matches, but now you see money lines. Play the Texans. I'll lay the points. It's been fluctuating minus two, minus one and a half. To see who to take over to under the evolution of it has been incredible and rapid as well. For the leagues, this is a revenue stream at a key time for them because we're seeing that media rights, there's a lot of tumult, a lot of disruption, especially at the team level. So I think bringing in the gambling money to supplement that has been something that they've really leaned on. It has added a new dimension to our game, people that is not necessarily a fan of your team or player you're watching because you have an investment on the line, which is super cool. My name is River Cracraft, play for the Miami Dolphins. I'm a wide receiver taking myself out of a player role,

If I was a fan, it's something I'd be super into because I have players' knowledge. You know, I think I would. I think I would do well. My name is Julius Thomas. I'm an NFL Pro Bowler that played seven years in the NFL. Currently, a six-year doctoral student in clinical health psychology. I think that sports betting is a massive temptation for all young people, especially adolescent and young males, who are going to be the ones most drawn to sports betting. You're going to have a lot of young, especially male athletes, that gamble. We know the risk, and protecting the integrity is number one. The NFL and other leagues have had to implement strict gambling rules for its players and personnel to erase any blurred lines. We have mandatory meetings twice a year about what not to do around sports betting. They have it posted up in the locker room. It's a lot of don'ts. We're not allowed to bet in an NFL facility.

On an NFL plane. You can bet on other sports; you just can't bet on the NFL and especially not your own team. My personal relationship with betting is honestly pretty distant. I'm not just saying that, so I always spin it as an active player. I just stay away from it completely. My approach with the young guys, I try to keep everything short and simple, sports betting, stay away from it. Feel like it was bound to happen. And then in March of 2022, it finally did happen. Calvin Ridley has been suspended for an entire season for betting on NFL games. Calvin Ridley, a star wide receiver for the Atlanta Falcons, was caught using his phone to place bets on the NFL, including his own team. Getting news on Calvin Ridley and his one-year suspension was a shock. Shocked right through the locker room, a wave of surprise to the NFL. Like I say, Calvin Ridley is a great player.

Gone for a year. Not anything injury-related, not anything health-related. It's a shock. There has been pretty solid consensus, actually from the NFL community of people understanding that the NFL was going to come down hard, that they were going to try to nip it in the bud. In spite of the one-year suspension handed down to Ridley, headlines continue to emerge of NFL players violating the gambling rules. It has struck fear into me to gamble on any sites. I'm the type of guy who I do like to sit down at the blackjack table. I do like to do that type of gambling. But when it comes to sports betting, I'm not willing to jeopardize the previous eight years or previous 20 years of football that I've played to get suspended. Another area for concern for sports leagues is the disclosure of inside information, which could influence bettors and the betting market. There are some written rules and some unwritten rules.

about keeping what's in the building inside the building. You could say something in passing. You can just be talking ball with your family. They come in town for the game. Is such and such back? Is he playing? Is he healthy? You know? Yeah. yeah. Tua will be back. He's feeling great. He's looking great in practice. All that not knowing. I just gave him some inside information. So far, at least, the NFL has managed to avoid the worst-case scenario that the leagues dread the most. Huge breaking news from the NBA. NBA has leveled a lifetime ban on the Toronto Raptors' Jontay Porter for his involvement in gambling. He effed around and he found out. He's now banned for life. Jontay Porter, it came to light that he was helping sports bettors tip games. Basically saying, I'm sick and getting himself out of the lineup in games where bettors were betting the under on him, on prop bets on him.

So saying he would not perform very well. He would not rack up a lot of rebounds or points. This was part of a conspiracy. Someone putting an $80,000 bet on the under for a prop bet for Jontay Porter is strange, right? And that raises alarm bells. And then the investigation follows from there. DraftKings reported the suspicious activity to the International Betting Integrity Association. No one wants to see these headlines. The operators don't want that, the sports don't want that. The league certainly doesn't as well. This was an example of the system working really well. So suspicious wagering took place with regulated books. It was reported to their integrity monitors, it’s reviewed. Reports were then sent to the relevant leagues and also law enforcement as well. And the outcome is actually a bad actor is now out of the game for good. And there's an ongoing criminal case involving his coconspirators as well.

I think the pertinent question to ask at that point: had this activity occurred with offshore regulated books, would we have seen the same outcome? Almost certainly not. That kind of thing is the biggest fear for the leagues; match-fixing is never going to go away. To get a glimpse into what the future holds for legalized sports betting in America, one just has to look at the booming industry in England, where legalized gambling culture has existed for much longer. In the UK, sports betting came out of the shadows in the sixties with the high street shops; you know, on every corner you had these little betting parlors. A lot of it was betting the horses, but you had sports betting too, and that grew over time. You look at the UK and around the UK; it's really the hub of the global gambling world. I think that comes from just the history of it. They've been doing this for longer than the US and also the fact

that it's a convenient place, both for the Asian markets where betting is huge, and the US where it's big and growing, and they sit at that nexus. And then they have a huge sport culture. So right now, I’ve got England, three nil, Harry Kane goal, Trippier yellow card, 80 to 1. I put a 10 on it. Harry Kane’s already scored, we’re halfway there. Soccer is by far the most heavily bet on sport in the world, and not coincidentally, is the most often associated with corruption and match fixing. The temptation is there to bet on every game, you got corruption plays betting as well. They’ve all come out now, you’ve got Tonali for Newcastle bet on lower leagues and himself. Paqueta, he bet on himself for a yellow card. Much like what happened to Jontay Porter. Athletes around the world are getting caught in the crosshairs of the regulated industry.

Perception of match-fixing activities that it's detected through on-field actions, but actually the data is the most powerful tool and most proven tool to indicate wrongdoing in sports betting. The data is essential. You can't have betting markets, especially the way that they are now, where it's instant and on your phone without data. I can't imagine an industry that has greater revenue potential. The sports data gold rush got the attention of investors like Michael Jordan, who invested in a Swiss-based company called Sportradar. Sportradar is a sports technology and sports data company. Sportradar works with NHL, MLB, UEFA, FIFA. Companies like Sportradar, they buy the data directly from the league. So the leagues have people sitting at every game tabulating touchdowns, goals, assists, whatever it may be. And that instantaneously then goes to these data partners who then package it and sell it to the sportsbooks who use it to make the bets that you do on your phone and to create odds and so forth.

At the same time, these companies, Sportradar and others, offer what they call integrity services, where they are then watching the movement of betting in hundreds of markets through lots of books all around the world to look for unusual activity. This is looking at the Live Asian handicap market. It trades very much in line for the first 60 minutes. And then we begin to see this big deviation here. These grey odds here at the bookmaker odds. More money is being wagered on it than expected. So from what I’m seeing here, this is a fixed match? - Yep. In 2023, we at Sportradar Integrity Services identified over 1300 sporting matches that were assessed to be manipulated for betting purposes. That's roughly four fixed matches a day across the world, which is a 47% increase from two years prior. But it's usually not the prime time sporting events featuring highly paid athletes.

The lower levels of sport, including college athletics, have historically been ripe for corruption. It’s probably wrongly perceived that this is reserved for upper echelons and elite competition. Federations understand the risks with lower levels of their competition. Tom Harding brings a law enforcement background to Sportradar, investigating match-fixing rings run by organized crime. Match fixers often deployed someone to a game to communicate with the players. So, a lot of match-fixing now occurring in the live betting markets. They need something to be that coordination between the players and the live betting also provides an opportunity to make payment to the players, but also provide threats and intimidation. We deploy intelligence photographers to matches that we consider to be high risk of manipulation, looking to capture individuals in the crowd. Probably the sports where it's most vulnerable tend to be individual sports, sports like tennis. Tennis, you've got hundreds of players who are not necessarily wealthy, right.

Who can probably make more money with match-fixing, maybe than they can with just playing the matches. It's a global sport going on 24-7 all around the world. And the nature of that is that there are lots of betting markets open on those matches. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean you have match-fixing, but it's an incredibly popular betting proposition for operators. Novak Djokovic said he was once offered $200,000 to lose a first-round match. I was approached through people that were working with me at that time. They were in my team. Threw it away right away. I mean, it didn't even get to me. BuzzFeed had in 2016 the fixer files, they put out a huge cache of data that showed potential corruption at the very high reaches even of tennis. And then you have the case of the Armenian Grigor Sargsyan, who was known as The Maestro.

Right? Had a network of over 100 tennis players he had influenced. We worked very closely with the Belgian police who had led an investigation into Grigor Sargsyan and who was heading up a Belgian Armenian crime syndicate who were fixing matches. And it led to a number of sanctions involving a number of tennis players. So in spite of the safeguards that the regulated gambling industry offers, Will we start to see more match-fixing in sports due to increased access for all? How much do I worry about match-fixing coming to the NFL? It's very hard for me to imagine enough players being willing to do something like that. But I do know enough about human behavior to say, can it happen? Will it happen at some point? Sure. I mean, you give it enough trials, something that we don't want to happen will happen. I think what keeps the league commissioners up at night is the possibility of a truly big scandal.

I mean, Jontay Porter was pretty small. He didn't influence the NBA Finals or something like that. But if you get a scandal at that level where a major star turns out to have been match-fixing, the World Series wasn't legit, or the Super Bowl. That is actually something that could harm leagues in a serious way for a very long time. I think it continues to evolve the trajectory that it’s been on. I see it continue to progress more and more wagers being created where they might find a way to include other positions, offensive lineman as well, you know, sacks allowed or penalties or anything like that. So I just see it becoming more and more evolved. But it's here to stay. You know, post-career when things are wrapped up on the playing end, I do feel like I would have a leg up maybe on some other people. I think this is such a delicate and challenging issue.

and we do have to continue talking about it, and we do have to continue figuring out how do we protect the game, how do we protect the player? And then how do we drive attention, revenue, and excitement to our sports?

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The Impact of Sports Betting on the Industry

The global sports betting market is worth around €1.

4 trillion per year, creating a lucrative revenue stream for the sports industry.

The legalization of sports betting in the US since 2018 has led to its rapid expansion, with the NFL becoming the most popular sport for betting.

Current and former NFL players have noted the significant impact of gambling on the league, with the potential to disrupt team dynamics and attract new fans.

Julius Thomas, a former NFL Pro Bowler, emphasizes the temptation of sports betting for young athletes and the league's strict gambling rules.

The suspension of Calvin Ridley for a year due to betting on NFL games, including his own team, shocked the league and highlighted the ongoing issue of players violating gambling rules.

Thomas advocates for staying away from sports betting, citing the potential risks and the importance of protecting the integrity of the game.

Inside information shared casually can have serious consequences, as seen with Jontay Porter's lifetime ban from the NBA for his involvement in gambling and tipping games.

The suspicious betting activity was reported to the International Betting Integrity Association, leading to a thorough investigation and the removal of the bad actor from the league.

The UK's long history of legalized sports betting provides a glimpse into the future of the industry in America, raising concerns about match-fixing and the potential for similar outcomes.

The Intersection of Sports Betting and Corruption

The sports betting industry is thriving at the nexus of Asian and US markets, with soccer being the most heavily bet on sport and often associated with corruption.

Athletes are increasingly getting caught in match-fixing scandals, with data playing a crucial role in detecting wrongdoing.

Companies like Sportradar are at the forefront, providing sports data and integrity services, and have identified over 1300 manipulated sporting matches for betting purposes in 2023, marking a 47% increase from two years prior.

Lower-level sports, including college athletics, are often associated with corruption, challenging the perception that it only occurs in elite competitions.

Match-fixing is prevalent in live betting markets, with organizers using individuals to communicate with players and coordinate payments.

Tennis is particularly vulnerable to match-fixing due to its global nature, open betting markets, and the financial struggles of many players, leading to a network of influence and corruption.

The Impact of Scandals and Evolving Wagers in Sports

Scandals involving major stars, such as match-fixing, can seriously harm sports leagues for a long time.

The trend of creating more wagers is likely to continue, potentially including other positions and game aspects.

The issue of balancing player protection, game integrity, and driving revenue and excitement in sports is delicate and requires ongoing discussion.