We Have Been Warning About This...
- SSTN Admin
- Oct 24, 2025
- 2 min read
SSTN Admin
October 24, 2025
***
Writers Ed Botti, Andy Singer, and Paul Semendinger, among others, have been warning, often, that the ties between professional sports and gambling are going to lead to all sorts of troubles that are going to jeopardize, that ultimately, could (and probably will) end professional sports as we know them.
Once fans do not trust the outcome of games, the excitment and thrill of watching sports is gone - forever. We watch sports because we believe that what we are watching is real competition. We don't tune in to watch games that have predetermined outcomes.
The allure of sports is watching athletes competing at their best to see who can prevail. We don't sports watch to see a script followed. (We watch movies to see a story told. Professional sports isn't a movie - or shouldn't be.)
This is all obvious on it face. This is also why baseball was so harsh with the Black Sox scandal in 1919. The closeness of gambling and sports working together threatens the very integirity of the game.
We share the following NBA story that broke yesterday:
This is certainly not the first instance of a major sport in recent years having a gambling scandal. This is just the latest. Baseball has had a few ties to gambling with players of their own within (as can be seen in the link below).
It is time that Major League Baseball rethinks its close ties to professional gambling. It's time for the leaders of the sport to step up and do the right thing before fans stop believing in the outcomes of pitches, plays, and the games themselves.
We will close with a sobering list of the gambling occurances that have already taken place in professional sports since 2018:
The most pernicious type of gambling scandal is throwing games or shaving points or anything a player does to alter the course of a game to benefit gamblers. However, it bears noting that the current NBA scandal is not about that. It's really about trading on non-public, insider information -- like a CEO selling his stock just before a dismal earnings announcement.
Here, the criminal conduct did not threaten the integrity of the game; rather it threatens the integrity of gambling on the game. If one hates sports wagering, this is actually one of the best results one could hope for! If the public sees that they are patsies for crooks with inside information, the public will refrain from patronizi…
I'm surprised only Clase and Ortiz have been sited in MLB. I'm surprised no umpire has. Betting is the reason why the official lineups are out long before batting practice. Only a pregame injury can change it without issues.
So predictable!