Of all the dumb shit a pro athelete can get involved with, betting has to be right at the top of the list.
Addiction is a nasty thing. I’ve been in the gambling game for awhile now, and I’ve seen so many lives ruined.
I’ve heard some rumblings through the years about pro athletes using friends to place bets, and know for a fact there was a guard in the mid 2000’s for a SoCal D-1 team who tanked multiple games for a guy he owed money to. Addiction and debts can make you do dumb stuff. If any of this stuff being reported on Twitter about poor performances tied to games he bet is even partially true, you can kiss his career goodbye, and rightfully so. Betting on yourself and your team is one thing, but betting against yourself and your team is a line that simply can never be crossed.
And I’ve been saying it for the last couple years on threads on HF, something like this is going to be inevitable with the ease of access to betting and the mass promotion by the leagues and their broadcast partners. Almost overnight it went from a taboo subject, to live betting odds being broadcasted on widgets during game-play. The leagues and ESPN and the other broadcast partners should have accepted gambling is a reality and not completely shunned it, but also should not have pushed it down everyone’s throat non-stop.
Gambling advertising and promotion should have been handled the same way it was for tobacco.