Another side of Sports betting you may not know about

[Davidvictorson]

Congress has long-recognized the potential harms posed by sports betting to the integrity of sporting contests and the public confidence in these events.

This topic stems from the suspension of Jameson Williams for 6 games because he violated the gambling policy. I dug a little and found out the reason for the policy. My understanding of this is that there are two sides to sports betting, the gambler's side and then sports contest games. But this is the first time I am reading that sports betting can affect the game negatively and results in reduced public confidence. Does this apply to the NFL only? What about soccer and other sports? Are they exempted? Let's talk about this.

1. https://www.espn.com/chalk/story/_/id/23501236/supreme-court-strikes-federal-law-prohibiting-sports-gambling

2. https://www.google.com/amp/s/syndication.bleacherreport.com/amp/10073237-lions-jameson-williams-among-nfl-players-suspended-for-violating-gambling-policy.amp.html

[bittraffic]

My guess is that they've affected the other teams moral and somehow lost thier appetite to win when they learned Jameson and the NFL gangs bet for the other team. They were like influencers that acted like a bookie who identifies which team could win.

I'm not sure if this is what the congress mean when they say potential harm posed sports betting. We all know there always is an underdog, the other team should just take it as challenge. Its sure the Congress means gambling addiction or kids exposure to gambling.

[qwertyup23]

My guess is that they've affected the other teams moral and somehow lost thier appetite to win when they learned Jameson and the NFL gangs bet for the other team. They were like influencers that acted like a bookie who identifies which team could win.

I'm not sure if this is what the congress mean when they say potential harm posed sports betting. We all know there always is an underdog, the other team should just take it as challenge. Its sure the Congress means gambling addiction or kids exposure to gambling.

I do think it is a factor when your team discovers that majority of the people betted against your team. Not only do you lose morale but you also have this urge to join the bet yourself, thereby losing games more for the sake of money. I guess this is what they call "game fixing" where players are also involved in the betting process and they intentionally lose or throw the game to win money on their gambling accounts.

This happens rarely but the potential of it from happening is possible. I remember, there was a basketball game hosted in the Philippines and you can see the players on one team throwing the game by missing all of the free shots and intentionally losing the game.

If you guys are interested in watching it, I will leave the link below:

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc9QCbO5Ph8&t=383s

[PX-Z]

I do think it is a factor when your team discovers that majority of the people betted against your team. Not only do you lose morale but you also have this urge to join the bet yourself, thereby losing games more for the sake of money. I guess this is what they call "game fixing" where players are also involved in the betting process and they intentionally lose or throw the game to win money on their gambling accounts.

Its becoming to be a rigged game not by someone huge to pay to certain player but an individual decision which is more scary than people think because its the player's decision and probably its a against their sport ethics, policy of its agency and by laws related to it.

[Rruchi man]

Congress has long-recognized the potential harms posed by sports betting to the integrity of sporting contests and the public confidence in these events.

These concerns are real, and it is not just singular to only football but any sporting contest that has a large audience of sport bettors. During the just concluded FIFA world cup, many people believed that the competition was manipulated and that big sports betting companies may have had an influence, although these were just mere talks that were not backed by any facts, it does not take away that possibility from the hearts and minds of people who will begin to question the integrity of this sporting contest and reduce people's confidence in it.

[Wexnident]

Congress has long-recognized the potential harms posed by sports betting to the integrity of sporting contests and the public confidence in these events.

This topic stems from the suspension of Jameson Williams for 6 games because he violated the gambling policy. I dug a little and found out the reason for the policy. My understanding of this is that there are two sides to sports betting, the gambler's side and then sports contest games. But this is the first time I am reading that sports betting can affect the game negatively and results in reduced public confidence. Does this apply to the NFL only? What about soccer and other sports? Are they exempted? Let's talk about this.

1. https://www.espn.com/chalk/story/_/id/23501236/supreme-court-strikes-federal-law-prohibiting-sports-gambling

2. https://www.google.com/amp/s/syndication.bleacherreport.com/amp/10073237-lions-jameson-williams-among-nfl-players-suspended-for-violating-gambling-policy.amp.html

Isn't it because betting in their own games are frowned upon, if not downright illegal? Afaik it is illegal though. Regardless of the stance if the player, whether they bet on their win or loss, the fact that they gambled on their own game kind of splashes them with cold water which cools down their passion for the match. It's just that bad imo.

Let's not even mention it becoming a rigged game due to that, that may be the worst case scenario, but that's what all people should always assume imo.

[alegotardo]

Congress has long-recognized the potential harms posed by sports betting to the integrity of sporting contests and the public confidence in these events.

This topic stems from the suspension of Jameson Williams for 6 games because he violated the gambling policy. I dug a little and found out the reason for the policy. My understanding of this is that there are two sides to sports betting, the gambler's side and then sports contest games. But this is the first time I am reading that sports betting can affect the game negatively and results in reduced public confidence. Does this apply to the NFL only? What about soccer and other sports? Are they exempted? Let's talk about this.

This certainly applies to all sports.
In the past, we only saw this happen in boxing, because from the beginning it was a sport that attracted a lot of bets on who would win or win, until today we have plenty of examples of movies that portray this type of crime.

As sports betting has been taking the digital media and expanding to other sports, we have seen that the corruption of players and athletes is reaching the most diverse sports.
In higher level championships where players win "absurdly well" it is more difficult to see this occur, as the risk of manipulating a result is not worth it when you have a reputation to protect on the field, and losing that reputation will cost a lot. more expensive than the reward for manipulating the outcome of the game.

Anyway, this is indeed a dark side of gambling, which unfortunately has no turning back, but it is still a minority among many sports games that we have.

[Darker45]

Of course, this isn't a concern exclusive to NFL. This is a challenge to all sports including ESports.

A month or two ago, I shared that a neighbor was involved in game fixing. He's a professional DOTA II player who's already climbed through the ranks and was playing on the international stage. The talk is that a huge bet is involved and that they're all paid. They were found guilty and was banned by Valve.

Just very recently also, an investigation was started on game fixing allegations involving certain players of the largest basketball league here and a Singaporean businessman. The same businessman is also accused of the same in a basketball league in Thailand. Again, sports betting is also involved.

These are examples why public confidence of these leagues or contests is lost. The integrity of these games is lost. While many are still watching these games, it is undeniable that many also believe that there could be arrangements or negotiations behind.

[Mr.right85]

Congress has long-recognized the potential harms posed by sports betting to the integrity of sporting contests and the public confidence in these events.

This topic stems from the suspension of Jameson Williams for 6 games because he violated the gambling policy. I dug a little and found out the reason for the policy. My understanding of this is that there are two sides to sports betting, the gambler's side and then sports contest games. But this is the first time I am reading that sports betting can affect the game negatively and results in reduced public confidence. Does this apply to the NFL only? What about soccer and other sports? Are they exempted? Let's talk about this.

1. https://www.espn.com/chalk/story/_/id/23501236/supreme-court-strikes-federal-law-prohibiting-sports-gambling

2. https://www.google.com/amp/s/syndication.bleacherreport.com/amp/10073237-lions-jameson-williams-among-nfl-players-suspended-for-violating-gambling-policy.amp.html

It's not always a very smiled at act for participants of any sport, especially when there team is amongst the match fixtures to place bets either in favour or against a team.
It introduces bias as, these participants can go extra and unimaginable length to ensure there bets play out as predicted.
You can have a team putting in efforts to lose, scoring own goals or even taking hard drugs to increase performance in a game. These are just a list of possibilities and that's the part where the public won't be aware of and it would to a large extent hinder fair play. It's why it remains a frown at act and a practice that can't be allowed to linger in the sporting system.

[Yogee]

[.....]But this is the first time I am reading that sports betting can affect the game negatively and results in reduced public confidence.

This is old news to me. I'm not bragging or anything but I've read quite enough cases of rigged games or match-fixing and all of them stems from sportsbetting. I'm pretty sure a lot of bettors are familiar with this as well. It's a huge business that's why I'm not surprised with court rulings that legalizes betting despite the potential impact on the integrity of the sports.

[danherbias07]

Quoting part of the shared link.

Rapoport noted Williams and Berryhill's suspensions stemmed from betting on college games while they were at the Lions' team facilities; Moore, Cephus and Toney are believed to have bet on NFL games.

It is against the rule of most popular sports for the players to bet on games especially if it's in their specialty. In this case, American Football. Some bet on college games and others made a bet for the sport they are playing which violates their contract.
Regarding the question if this applies to other sports, yes and no.
In small leagues or local leagues, I don't think they have a contract clause about betting for the team. But when it comes to national leagues, I am sure it is added to their contract to prevent point shaving or other illegal things a quarterback will do or a team themselves.
Boxing, UFC, and other contact sports also have the same regulation about players and fighters betting for themselves or their opponents.

[davis196]

Congress has long-recognized the potential harms posed by sports betting to the integrity of sporting contests and the public confidence in these events.

This topic stems from the suspension of Jameson Williams for 6 games because he violated the gambling policy. I dug a little and found out the reason for the policy. My understanding of this is that there are two sides to sports betting, the gambler's side and then sports contest games. But this is the first time I am reading that sports betting can affect the game negatively and results in reduced public confidence. Does this apply to the NFL only? What about soccer and other sports? Are they exempted? Let's talk about this.

1. https://www.espn.com/chalk/story/_/id/23501236/supreme-court-strikes-federal-law-prohibiting-sports-gambling

2. https://www.google.com/amp/s/syndication.bleacherreport.com/amp/10073237-lions-jameson-williams-among-nfl-players-suspended-for-violating-gambling-policy.amp.html

Sports betting could negatively impact sports contests? Who would've thought of that earlier? I could never see this coming.
I guess that you've never heard of rigged/fixed soccer games(replace soccer with any other popular sport).
My opinions is that sports betting slowly ruins almost all sports. In my country's soccer league all teams have sports betting companies as the main sponsors. This is quite suspicious, especially when certain games end with a weird result.
I don't know anything about the "Jameson Williams" court case and I don't care about American football, but I know that money and greed could ruin every sport.

[swogerino]

Every sport is affected.Soccer even more and let me tell you a funny story of a fixed game here in the country where I reside,there was a team who needed to win the Championship here (now they have been banned 10 years from all competitions,international ones I mean) and that team came in the game against one team that needed critically the points to be safe from relegation.In this team that relegated only a few players were playing at maximum power and most of the players already knew or they were told by the team president to let this game and relegate,so those players were funny as they tried hard but they didn't know anything about the upper level management and this is a joke we fans keep telling from now and then every time our team loses a game.

Since gambling started in 1998 I have said several other times the number of surprise results in a league has increased in a really enormous way.

[ralle14]

The same thing should be applied for the other sports, it's not just the NFL. The reason why we're not hearing much about the others is because they're good at enforcing their rules or no one is getting caught doing it. I'm surprised that the article mentioned he wasn't punished because of what he did but specifically about where he did it. The place shouldn't matter when it's going to harm the NFL as a whole knowing there are other players than him possibly betting on their team and players.

[FatFork]

It's definitely not just an issue in the NFL. Match-fixing scandals have rocked the soccer world in recent years, and it's a huge problem in many other sports too. The problem is that the money involved in professional sports is huge, and some people will do whatever it takes to make a buck. When players, coaches, or referees are involved in betting, it can easily lead to biased decisions and even outright cheating. And if the public loses faith in the fairness of the game, it can have serious consequences for the sport's reputation. It's hard to say how prevalent this problem is in the professional sports, but it certainly seems like there are more stories about match-fixing than there used to be.

[Crypt0Gore]

 So till today this person is working free how can someone who did something like this work for you without facing the law or any punishment this is not fair this is why I have different set of feelings about gambling platforms you can never know if they are cheating or not and for the fact that gambling can be easily rigged by influencers or bad actors is why I dont always feel ease gambling with so much money

The best way to gamble safely is by using the exact amount of money that you are willing to lose for the time being and do not try to gamble again thinking that you will win because it is always the house that benefits not the gamblers.

imagine this type of situation that op is talking about, I am sure that some people must have used a big amount of money to place the bet and they will be shocked afterward if they know what really happen, some people can go any lent to win a game illegally all in the name of money.

[deepblue01]

Every sport is affected.Soccer even more and let me tell you a funny story of a fixed game here in the country where I reside,there was a team who needed to win the Championship here (now they have been banned 10 years from all competitions,international ones I mean) and that team came in the game against one team that needed critically the points to be safe from relegation.In this team that relegated only a few players were playing at maximum power and most of the players already knew or they were told by the team president to let this game and relegate,so those players were funny as they tried hard but they didn't know anything about the upper level management and this is a joke we fans keep telling from now and then every time our team loses a game.

Since gambling started in 1998 I have said several other times the number of surprise results in a league has increased in a really enormous way.

I used to be an athlete before, i knew there is another side and it's not a good story. At that time they offered me some money if I lost the game.
so i give up on purpose and i choose money over fame.

[Lucius]

As others have already written, it is nothing new for athletes to turn to the "dark side", whether it is individual sports or team sports. This is especially pronounced in the lower leagues, where the players' incomes are lower, but even top sports are not immune to it, because some who earn a real fortune want even more and then accept bribes to influence the game.

Sometimes it's not just about money, but these people are blackmailed in such a way that they are threatened with revealing some secrets, or their family members are threatened. Sport has become a big business for a long time, and criminals want their share of the pie - that's why I think the laws should be much stricter, because punishing someone with not playing a few matches is not something that will discourage others from doing the same.

[ChuckBuck]

But this is the first time I am reading that sports betting can affect the game negatively and results in reduced public confidence.

You may not think about it, but it is certainly a fact that no sport can avoid. For big matches, this is even more serious. You may think that the big matches will be fairer, but that is not necessarily true, if the betting size is large enough, the bookies can completely have enough money to manipulate it, even for sports betting e-sports.

Also, we can see a few conspiracy theories about the underground forces that control everything, you may not believe it, but who knows, this world is inherently operating under the control of the forces?

[Plaguedeath]

This is very bad, NFL seems to be a big league for Americans and this kind dirty activity happen.

But it's nothing new anymore there's a fixed match in sports, it's either the player, team, or even organizations behind this matter. Sadly, he's one of many players which get busted, there's should be an another player or team still involved in fixed match and not get caught until now.