The Takeaway: Maybe We Just Have To Live With Negative Reporting On Sports Betting
Dumping on legal sports betting has become the cause célèbre of the media of late. It’s partly click-bait, partly journalism genuinely meant to be in the public interest.
But for the most part, it feels like piling on that lacks balance. Little effort is being made to tell the side of the legal gambling industry. And the negative pieces are making out regulated sports betting to be the bogeyman while tons of forms of online gambling are easily accessible to the average American, in shades of white, gray and black.
Legal sports betting undoubtedly still has a PR problem a year later, one that has arguably gotten worse rather than better. People continue to parachute in to cover the industry and tell a one-sided story.
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But right now, maybe we have to throw our hands up and hunker down through this wave of negative coverage. Why?
Well, for starters, they can’t all continue to write the same story over and over. “This too shall pass” is an apt adage. While the negative coverage is popular right this second — and again off and on for the past year — there will be a law of diminishing returns for outlets that keep covering sports betting in this way. It’s worth noting that many of the same outlets that run negative coverage are also running content offering sports betting odds and picks that also drive clicks and sportsbook sign-ups.
Some people still don’t love the industry, but I feel like the vibes aren’t nearly as bad as when 60 Minutes and Saturday Night Live were taking potshots at sports betting last year. The silent majority is made up are plenty of people who like to gamble on sports or at least are fine with its legality, even if they may not like every last thing about it.
What is it important to do in the meantime?
Keep fighting the good fight and telling a positive story — taxes that benefit states, bringing offshore and unregulated activity onshore and into the regulated space, etc. Americans wagered nearly $150 billion legally in 2024, generrating about $3 billion in taxes. There’s not much we can do about outlets pooh-poohing billions in tax revenue to states from legal sports betting like The Atlantic and Vox have done, but that revenue is not nothing.
Relate that the volume of sports betting commercials that many take issue with continues to decline over time.
Highlight that good things are being done about responsible gambling! As always, more needs to be done both in policies and funding, and the industry should lean into that idea.
Avoid providing ammunition to politicians from new scandals and policies. The last thing the industry needs is to provide momentum for possible federal intervention.
US gambling roundup for Jan. 2
Minnesota sports betting continues to be a possibility as the legislative season starts.
There’s a sports betting bill in Oklahoma, but potential roadblocks remain.
Here’s the latest lawsuit in the ongoing battle between tribes and cardrooms in California on banked card games.
The ongoing spat over a VIP executive that left DraftKings for Fanatics is mercifully over.
Betting is a piddling issue next to the tragedy in New Orleans and the postponement of the Sugar Bowl, but it’s been a lesson for some on the house rules of sportsbooks.
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