Josh Imhof | staff writer

In 2009, Delaware Gov. Jack Markell proposed the expansion of sports betting in America’s first state.

At this time, gambling on sports was largely outlawed throughout the country thanks to the Professional Amateur Sports Protection Act, a federal law passed in 1992. This law barred almost all states from legalizing sports betting, with Delaware being one of four states excluded.

Still, residents were allowed to create parlay style tickets that required them to bet on one or more games, something Markell wanted to change.

In protest of this redesign, the United States’ four major sports leagues and the NCAA filed a joint lawsuit against Markell, condemning his ideas and arguing that they did not want their games as “bait” for gambling.

In a separate declaration, National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell wrote that sports betting would cause a lack of perceived integrity in the game and that “State sponsorship of sports gambling also trades unfairly on the property and goodwill of the NFL.”

Years later, the NFL is now holding Super Bowls in Las Vegas and allows their logo to be used in sports betting commercials and advertisements. So much for those unfair trades using the “goodwill of the NFL.”

So, what changed?

Did Goodell hit a 13 leg parlay and suddenly realize that sports betting was as fun as people said it was? Did fans decide that these alleged risks to the sports’ integrity were overblown, writing letters to the league in an outpouring of support for gambling? Does a bet a day keep the doctor away?

No. What happened was these leagues, except for the NCAA, saw an opportunity to utilize a combination of celebrity athletes, aggressive in-game advertising and a vast network of sports media platforms to exploit fans using a rigged system built on greed, hypocrisy and dishonesty.

Each professional sports league has similar goals and deals with similar issues: A desire for increased global expansion, TV rating fluctuations and declines, drops in ticket sales and decreasing viewer attention spans.

Sports betting gave them all an opportunity to accelerate their ambitions and mitigate their worries.

The integration of sports betting gives way to higher ratings and increased viewer retention. Games that viewers normally turn off after a first half blowout retain appeal since you can still bet on point totals, player props and the margin of victory.

This logic also applies to games that have no real implication to either team, such as ones that happen after playoff seeding has already been decided.

Sportsbooks are aggressively marketed throughout these competitions, with commercials running constantly and digital advertisements appearing on billboards in stadiums.

Leagues have also exploited the celebrity of their players to promote these sportsbooks, with athletes like LeBron James, Tom Brady, Connor McDavid, Peyton and Eli Manning, Wayne Gretzky and more appearing in commercials and marketing material.

Not only does this help promote the sportsbooks, but also the athletes themselves, which eventually translates to more revenue for the league in jersey sales, ticket sales and more.

Institutions once considered sacred in the sports-sphere have seen the revenue sportsbooks generate for the leagues and now utilize their own far-reaching audiences to squeeze every dollar they can from viewers.

ESPN has been one of the leaders in the sports entertainment world for years. Programs like SportsCenter have remained cornerstones of the company, providing highlights, analysis and interviews with athletes. The network also has broadcast deals with the four major sports leagues, most recently hosting two NFL playoff games.

Until recently, ESPN has been parent company Disney’s cash-cow, out-profiting the combined earnings of Disney’s streaming services, TV networks and movie studios by $800 million in 2022, according to filings released by the company.

As they have become more desperate to stay relevant, the company has used its established credibility to manipulate audiences and promote their own sports betting app, ESPN Bet.

Personality driven shows like “First Take” with Stephen A. Smith and “The Pat McAfee Show” have replaced the reruns of SportsCenter, making these personalities as much of a commodity as the athletes they cover.

ESPN then uses this celebrity to prod audiences to participate in sports betting, regularly featuring betting odds on screen in addition to using their likenesses on the ESPN Bet app.

By indiscriminately featuring sports gambling material, ESPN and companies like it not only target audiences who are of age, but also younger viewers. Teenagers’ and adolescents’ brains have not yet fully developed, especially areas like the frontal lobe, associated with impulse control and risk taking, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Even if these age groups cannot legally bet themselves, repeat exposure causes desensitization and familiarity, creating a pipeline for them to be primed to bet by their 21st birthday.

The most obvious solution to this problem is to remove betting segments and odds from TV programming and social media. Another possible and more likely solution is limiting betting segments to late-night programming.

These solutions would undoubtedly decrease the popularity of sportsbooks, but how much money do they really need?

Americans spent $120 billion on sports betting in 2023, generating $10.9 billion in gross gaming revenue, according to the American Gambling Association.

A poll conducted by the Siena College Research Institute in New York found that 39% of Americans have placed a sports bet. This study also found that almost 40% of men between the ages of 18 and 50 had their own sports betting account.

Gambling companies already have a decent hold on Americans, and they are not going to stop until regulations are passed. They know this heyday of gambling will eventually end at the hands of government regulations. Until then, they will continue pouring money into aggressive marketing tactics, hoping to capture as much attention as possible until open season ends.

Support is growing for regulation, with organizations like the NCAA opposing sports betting and banning all of their collegiate athletes from participating in the practice.

Other groups like Canada’s Ban Ads for Gambling advocate for the banning of sports betting advertisements altogether. In 2024, they helped push for legislation that now prevents athletes from appearing in Canadian gambling ads.

People can only be pushed so far. Opposition to sportsbooks and their current business model will continue to grow and negatively impact lives until public support for regulation outpaces the incessant push by betting companies.