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Not long ago, sports leagues avoided any direct ties to gambling. But since the 2018 Supreme Court ruling opened the door for legal betting<\/a>, everything has changed. Now, sports leagues and gaming are intrinsically connected, and we\u2019re bombarded with ads from these companies<\/a> during almost every major sporting event.<\/p>\n Everybody Loses: The Tumultuous Rise of American Sports Gambling<\/em><\/a> by Danny Funt<\/a> takes an investigative look at America\u2019s sports gambling industry. We spoke with him about his book and its impact on American sports.<\/p>\n Note:<\/strong> This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n Awful Announcing: What inspired you to write a book about gambling?<\/b><\/p>\n Danny Funt:<\/strong> \u201cI had been covering the sports betting boom for a few years for the Washington Post<\/a>. I felt like I was scratching the surface in two main ways. The first was just getting to the bottom of why the leagues did this profound 180 on gambling. I still felt like their answers weren\u2019t satisfying, and me and other reporters hadn\u2019t fully probed what changed their minds. The other thing I really wanted to understand was what it\u2019s like inside these companies, what it\u2019s like to work there, but also how they think about customers, how they think about their business and their competitors, and where they see the industry going.\u201d<\/p>\n Is money the simple reason they did a 180?<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cYeah, but the more complicated answer is the money they would get from their TV rights. I learned that, in these meetings before the Supreme Court struck down the federal ban on bookmaking in 2018, they were still fighting New Jersey in court to preserve that law. But privately, they met with representatives of the gambling industry and learned how gamblers watch more than twice as many games as the average fan. They watch until the end of blowouts to see how a bet plays out. That was very persuasive because the leagues were worried long-term about whether young people would lose interest in sitting through a three- or four-hour game. Would people cancel cable subscriptions? Would the audience continue aging? This was a way to reverse those trends.\u201d<\/p>\n One more clip from my interview with @chucktodd<\/a> about EVERYBODY LOSES. At the end, he could only shake his head in dismay \u2026 pic.twitter.com\/tMSBCXJ8hV<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Danny Funt (@dannyfunt) February 17, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Could you give an example of the money at stake?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cFor the NFL, in these meetings, they were presented with a study that projected that if you combine the direct revenue the league would get from partnerships with sportsbooks, but more importantly, the indirect revenue it would get from fans being so much more engaged thanks to gambling, legalization would make the NFL about 2.3 billion dollars every year. And that was hard to turn down.\u201d<\/p>\n How did leagues defend changing their stance on gambling?<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cThe other thing that goes beyond just money is that it was explained to them that they could spin embracing gambling as a way of enhancing the integrity of games, which sounds nice and was convincing to a lot of lawmakers. The argument was that by legalizing this, we\u2019ll be able to monitor betting trends and investigate if there\u2019s a suspicious change in the odds or if an unusual bet is placed. That argument had been used in the English Premier League and elsewhere in Europe. And I think they knew better. They knew that you were inviting an unprecedented level of corruption by making it so easy to bet on so many things you could never bet on previously. Also, you\u2019re not going to run the black market out of business. There are still going to be people who bet illegally.\u201d<\/p>\n Why should someone buy your book?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cIt has stories and insights that have never been published about how the industry works, how customers are targeted and at times exploited, why people inside sports are so concerned about what\u2019s happening with gambling, particularly the risks that it\u2019ll corrupt sports. And also, getting to the bottom, as I said, of why all of this happened, not just the leagues embracing gambling, but why states were persuaded so quickly to pass bills that the industry had drafted that got this off the ground in such a favorable way for the gambling business.\u201d<\/p>\n Incredible to go on one of my favorite podcasts, @righttimebomani<\/a>, and get this endorsement for EVERYBODY LOSES. Thank you, @bomani_jones<\/a>. (Full episode dropped yesterday.) pic.twitter.com\/ntXGS7riKa<\/a><\/p>\n\n
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