Putting Sports Betting Into Proper Perspective

Sports Betting Controversies and Integrity Monitoring

I woke up this morning not rested and getting increasingly fatigued while reading the handwringing around the perils of gambling — and sports betting in particular — after the NBA and UFC betting controversies over the past week or so.

The latest news there – UFC president Dana White says he has met with FBI officials over suspicious betting activity at UFC Vegas 110 this past weekend. In that event, featherweight Isaac Dulgarian, who was heavily favored to beat Yadier del Valle, lost by submission in the first round.

Betting integrity company IC360 alerted the UFC and sportsbooks about abnormalities in betting around del Valle winning in Round 1, noting that the betting line had moved dramatically prefight.

The UFC released Dulgarian after the match, and his camp is denying everything. Meanwhile, the investigation goes on.

While both scandals could prove harmful, I prefer to look at the positives in the NBA and UFC situations: catching the alleged perpetrators while shining a spotlight on an often-unseen underbelly of sports betting.

In fact, I see a need for more of what IC360 does, monitoring wagering at licensed sportsbooks, alerting those sportsbooks about betting abnormalities, thus doing an amazing job for their clients. That’s what happened in the UFC situation last weekend. And the UFC acted.

Give people like those at IC360 more resources and create more agencies like that.

Throw the Book at Those Who Cheat

There are likely more players in pro sports who are gambling on games — even games they are participating in. And that means, there will be more stories that come out. When that happens, the difference maker will be the size of the hammer the sports’ governing bodies will wield and their willingness to swing it.

If this situation involving Dulgarian turns out to be true, and he did in fact manipulate his performance Saturday night to score on a betting payout, Dulgarian needs to be busted all the way back to teaching grade schoolers at the local club. He shouldn’t be allowed to play fight a junior high school wrestler.

If any of these NBAers and former NBAers are proven to be guilty of manipulating their performances in games, they need to be busted all the way back to the neighbourhood public street ball court. They can make all the side bets and scratch that gambling itch all they want, there.

Regulation Is the Answer

Sports betting and online gaming are here. Period. What’s more, they’re not going away. Ever. There’s too much tax revenue involved. And it’s only going to grow.

So, let adults be adults, and let’s have more regulation and dedication to constantly tweaking and improving that regulation.

You can try to regulate sports betting advertising all you want, like what we are about to see in Canada. The minority Liberal national government, unless it gets taken down in a no-confidence vote, isn’t going anywhere, and that anti-sports betting advertising legislation flowing through the Senate now will likely get passed.

So soon, there will be new controls on how sports betting is advertised in this country.

Gambling has been here since the dawn of time, and it’s now a permanent part of our landscape. But there’s better policing out there than was the case when Ontario’s regulated market went live in 2022. From what I have seen, licensed sportsbooks are doing a far better job spotlighting gamblers who are getting ahead of their skis while they are gambling, proactively getting messages out to them to take a second look at how much they are putting down.

Threats to Isiah Kiner-Falefa

As I said the other day, cretins will always cretin. I got angry reading about what happened to Blue Jays infielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa Saturday night.

Kiner-Falefa was just minutes past being a central participant in probably the most gut-wrenching loss a professional ballplayer can ever experience, dealing with the emotion of losing Game 7 of a World Series in extra innings on a play at home plate called in the other team’s favor — literally by a toe – and he was getting abuse on his mobile device, including a threat that someone was going to break his legs.

I am with Red Sox pitcher Lucas Giolito, who also experienced digital abuse from faceless keyboard tough guys — tech companies need to be doing a better job of nailing the people who make such threats, like the degenerate who threatened Kiner Falefa, and boot them off of these platforms. There’s no proof that the degenerate was a pissed off gambler. He might have been, or just as likely, he may have been a disgruntled fan who was off their meds.

Either way, there needs to be serious consequences attached to sending out missives like that.

Digital Abuse and the Reality of Betting

I’m a guy who loves sports, but who gambles on them infrequently. I am the dumb ass who almost lost out on a $1,500 payout off a $40 Blue Jays World Series bet I made in June because the payout in September was triple what I put down.

I was thinking Bo Bichette was hurt, and I didn’t like their bullpen, so let’s take the cash in hand now. Then look what happens. The Blue Jays came within a mouse hair of winning the whole thing, and I was this close to having to explain to my buddies why I am such a sap.

But that process was still a blast. That was the bottom line for me. And it was only a $40 risk. By far, most people are in that grouping, I believe. Sports betting for me, and for legions of others, has only added a layer of fun to watching sports.

Boosting Pro Sport’s Watchability

In some cases, it’s an actual boost.

Has anybody watched the NHL’s Maple Leafs lately? Watching the Maple Leafs is like watching three hours of the House of Commons channel. Uninspired, middling, mind-numblingly boring, multimillionaire, country-club members only building on their six-decades-old legacy of not winning anything of substance.

Sports betting has helped make those guys watchable. Put a bet down on a Leafs-Pittsburgh Penguins parlay. and it gives you a reason to sit through an otherwise meaningless game.

The Blue Jays just gave us a month of true sporting opera, galvanizing an entire country, and now they’re gone. The golf clubs are back in the storage locker. And we Canadians have four months of grinding winter staring us in the face.

Thank God for licensed sports betting.