The sports betting craze is really interesting to me. I'm from upstate NY and I remember when it got legalized I didn't think much about it. Let people do what they want. I won't play because I don't gamble.<p>Then when I was hope for the holidays and every man I knew from my home town that was near my age was doing it. They'd watch a basketball game only to see if their 8 leg parlay would hit. Whatever app they were using even listed your all time wins/loses (probably legally required) and _all_ of them had all time loses over $500 and it had only been legalized a few months prior.<p>It's just a drain on the average person, the same was cigarettes are. I struggle with the freedom for personal choice to do what you want vs the collective better situation we get to form for ourselves as a society by banning these things, but I think I'm just leaning more towards the latter now. On the other hand, I think weed and alcohol should be legal, despite it affecting people's lives in negative ways, but the majority if their users are completely normal people.<p>This is such a tricky subject to me and I guess I'll just stop rambling now, but I am interested in what other people thing about societal restriction for a better group vs personal freedoms.
I was never into fantasy sports betting, especially after the FanDuel/DraftKings insider trading scandal it was pretty obvious there were a LOT of people playing both sides in order to make huge money. The entire industry (AFAIK) is still completely unregulated, so this kind of "insider trading" is perfectly legal.<p>This story about DraftKings bonus play just confirms they're tilting the table in their favor more than a few percentage points to gain an advantage. They're looking for addicts or suckers to hand over large sums of money with little or no chance of winning anything.<p>In case anybody is interested:
<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/report-fantasy-sports-employees-used-insider-info-to-bet/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.cbsnews.com/news/report-fantasy-sports-employees...</a><p><i>An employee with one of the companies, DraftKings, admitted last week to inadvertently releasing data before the start of the third week of N.F.L. games. The midlevel content manager later won $350,000 at rival site FanDuel that same week, the Times reported.</i>
Esports betting is the wild west frontier, targetting kids. It's one of the trifecta of biggest stains on professional Counter-Strike, along with Saudi and UAE money and weapon skins gambling.
<a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JT17l53Fkj0&pp=ygUWaG91bmdvdW5nYWduZSBnYW1ibGluZw%3D%3D" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JT17l53Fkj0&pp=ygUWaG91bmdvdW5...</a>.<p>Edit: Vast majority of CS tournaments are structured into two phases, "groups" and playoffs. Losing a match in groups means falling through into the "lower bracket", one Major tournament (ESL Pro League) even has three brackets. This leads to many "upsets" as the top teams play the opening matches against much lower-ranked opponents half-asleep, and then march through to (semi-)finals through the lower/lowest bracket. This effect was clearly demonstrated in a recent tournament with no second chances (Gamers8), where every underdog got eliminated in the first round. i don't bet on CS because of the unpredictability enabled by bracketing, but anyone could have made a shit ton of money by betting on the higher-ranked teams in the first round of Gamers8. I'm convinced the bracketing is a result of collusion between tournament organizers and bookmakers, their major sponsors.
Echoing another comment, one huge problem with the current sports betting market is banning/limiting winners.<p>I started prop-odds.com to help the more mathematically inclined gamblers take advantage of mispriced odds or let them build and backtest their own models. So while it's actually not too difficult to beat the book, the challenge comes from evading their detection and getting banned.
Tangential: one of Romania's main investigative journals, part of the Swiss Ringier group had just fired its main editors and around 20% of their staff last week, over their reluctance to stop investigating and writing about the local betting industry. The explanation was cost-cutting as the printed edition is no longer profitable, but the journalists claim otherwise, having written extensively about the gambling industry which is a potential advertising partner.
This makes me so happy. To see sports betting corrupt ESPN in real time is so sad. Advertising of sports betting should be as legal as advertising of cigarettes.
Sports betting and poker are the only financial type bet that are not influenced by politics or other people in general.<p>On the stock/bond/commodities/real estate market you need to not only predict what will happen but also predict when and if other people will realize what is about to happen and when/if they'd trade accordingly.<p>In sports betting you only have to study the starting pitcher and the relief vs the other team hitters, or the matchups in a NFL game. Horse races are all about the horses and their health and conditioning etc.<p>It's liberating for somebody who wants to make a financial bet to just think about those things as opposed to trying to predict the behavior of billions of people that move the prices of stocks.
Sports betting is a black eye on one of the few "wholesome" parts of society left. We are tribal animals and at least sports lets us exercise some of that with a relative level of "don't kill each other" civility.<p>I'm particularly annoyed at the superimposed ads on hockey boards. They are hugely distracting and make it difficult to watch the game. A game entirely dependent on following a small moving item onscreen. You're going to tell me that flashing / animated graphics don't make it hard to follow the action / puck? You know THE ENTIRE REASON PEOPLE ARE WATCHING?!<p>Ads on jerseys and helmets is a slippery slope. It's been nice to see the NFL resist this pressure but the NHL sweaters and lids with logos are starting to look like european leagues.<p>The incessent drumbeat of sports betting along with content about the game is disgusting. Gambling used to be a vice now it's just part of everyday life. It's another situation where the UX of the activity is hugely degraded, and the people doing it just. don't. give. a. fuck.<p>I cannot have any compassion for the people that drive the enshittification of our lives.
I'm glad this is getting looked at; it's a common and annoying scam for companies to claim large "free money" sums that are not actually US dollar equivalents (exchangeable for off-platform goods).<p>I honestly don't even necessarily mind <i>some</i> loopholes, but it's gone too far. DraftKings should settle, apologize, and adjust/eliminate such promotions. After all, these promos are not in their business' critical path, so just come up with some other thing.
The issue isnt a single gamble.<p>The issue is that gambling companies were able to use their tricks to create addiction.<p>Sad stuff, no idea the solution. Might be worth teaching people in 10th grade health class brain science on addictions.
ft link and archive.is link doesn't work for me but I found this:<p><a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3wkgg/the-lawyer-who-took-on-big-tobacco-is-now-fighting-an-online-sports-betting-giant" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3wkgg/the-lawyer-who-took-o...</a><p>It's a bit click bait since they are targeting draftkings not 'sports betting'
Those who have not watched the Wendover Productions video on Sports Betting in America definitely should: <a href="https://youtu.be/Pm5bTZRhncY?si=rh-7RO8_nqPT5_PH" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://youtu.be/Pm5bTZRhncY?si=rh-7RO8_nqPT5_PH</a>
If they do as well as they did with Big Tobacco it will be a massive failure other than giving themselves a huge paycheck.<p>$50 BILLION in tobacco product sales and 46% profit margin last year (Coca-Cola has 26% profit margin in comparison)<p>And all those payouts to the states that were supposed to help people, all those extra taxes to discourage smoking? Well all that money went to other pet projects because no law was ever made how it should be used.
It amazes me that sports betting is allowed to persist as is. It’s an addictive hobby with similar detriments to addictive substances, yet advertising to children is ok.<p>If you go to Europe, you’re probably familiar with betting parlors. They shittify any town they take over, filling up with lonely men losing their money.<p>Online just hides it a little better.
TL;DR for clickbait title:<p>> The lawsuit outlined how DraftKings advertised a bonus for first-time users of “up to $1,000” through a range of social media, third party, TV and radio promotions. But in order to ever receive $1,000 in additional bets, customers had to make a $5,000 initial deposit, risk $25,000 in real money within 90 days and bet on events with odds steeper than 1-3, according to the lawsuit. The bonus would also be paid out only in non-withdrawable credit.<p>The case has not yet gone to trial.
oo. Bad move. Tobacco companies killed people in a theoretical, impersonal, non-contact manner.<p>Some of the folks in the gambling industry have direct experience with impediment elimination.