What Are the Odds?

Since even before sports evolved into an organized profession, gambling existed. When reflecting on the history and characteristics associated with gambling, the chances of a positive characteristic being top-of-mind are unlikely. When focusing on the ties between gambling and sports, the chances that top-of-mind attitudes will reflect a negative outlook toward gambling are even more likely. Does the negative image modern society has of gambling and sports truly representative of the issue at hand, or is there a better take on this issue that society has been overlooking?

Just the thought of gambling brings to mind the image of crooked casino games and even perhaps mobsters in some people's mind. The tie between gambling and sports has been given a bad reputation from such occurrences that have taken place that have involved insider betting and the so-called 'throwing' of games. Some such examples that come to mind are the 1919 'Black Sox' scandal and Pete Rose as among the most famous that have been justified. This type of situation should not be taken lightly in the world of organized sports, and in fact, was not. As can be seen that the repercussions were quite severe for everything in the past that has been proven regarding these types of situations in professional sports.

However, the linkage between betting and sports does has a positive side that often seems to be overlooked by the majority of society. Most importantly, sports betting helps to increase the interest level of the public. By increasing ownership in the events, sporting events are able to increase the number of viewers. By doing so, they also increase the chances of acquiring money from advertisers and sponsors because of the increased number of audience members. Although I myself am not one who often participates in gambling activity, my friend has recently directed my attention towards a betting website that is completely paid for by advertisements. Centsports.com allots its members $0.10 to begin betting with on almost any sort of sport imaginable, and does not allow users to contribute their own funds. The entire website is funded by advertising...a truly novel idea and credit to the economic contributions betting can create for sports!

With the advancements of technology today, it is possible for nearly anyone in the United States, if not even the world, to bet on nearly any type of sporting event that takes place across the globe. I myself have recently set up an account with a betting website to see what they information they had to offer regarding upcoming sporting events which I am interested in. I will honestly say, that the website not only provided me with interesting information, statistics, and odds for the events I had interest in, but also redirected my interests to other events which I knew little about before becoming a member of the site. By setting lines and spreads for bettors, sports betting in a sense makes a game out of a game which people are actually able to become participants of. After browsing the lines and spreads for this past week's college football games, I found that I became more interested to seek out the outcomes of games that had not even crossed my mind before viewing the website. Even though I did not have any real investment with the site, the idea of being able to track statistical odds versus my own opinions was effective in capturing my attention.

On the basis of these arguments in favor of sports betting, it seems that by not allowing or promoting gambling activity, sports that prohibit gambling seem to be harming itself more than the actual betting. Although there is a risk of internal corruption within the sporting events being wagered on, potential money seems to be being declined from advertisers, sponsors, and those who wish to wager on specific sporting events. In reality, there is no way that gambling will cease to take place. This being the case, it would make sense that sports should take advantage of this opportunity and reap the potential benefits. Whether or not the rules and opinions regarding sports betting will change have no clear answer at this point. If, when, and how such rules may change in the future will still leave us with the looming question, "What are the odds?"

jm