Not Always Smooth Sailing at BetLM

Not Always Smooth Sailing

Learn the rewards involved with bet­ting on sports and the scan­dals that have rocked it in the past.

Bet­ting on sports has been an age-old prac­tice for cen­turies. Since com­pe­ti­tion began to man­i­fest itself with low-range games from the sim­ple pickup game to the Olympiads, wagers have served to increase emo­tion, drive, and deter­mi­na­tion for either team to win. Although many may not require a $40 bet placed on George­town, bet­ting on sports pro­vides an added incen­tive for the die-hard fan or gam­bler to cheer.

Bet­ting on sports also allows for gen­er­ous returns. If play­ers con­sis­tently play the Yan­kees + money line, for exam­ple, they are assured of wins since Yan­kee records hover in the 97 win range year after year. One $100 wager can eas­ily turn to a $380 on a par­lay, although par­lays have achieved a rep­u­ta­tion in the indus­try as “sucker bets” because of the high level of dif­fi­culty involved in win­ning 4 or 5 bets at one time. Point spreads of –1 and +1 on col­lege foot­ball games also give bet­ting on sports the high octane rep­u­ta­tion it has achieved.

Unfor­tu­nately, bet­ting on sports has not always been an eth­i­cal age-old prac­tice. Many peo­ple are against bet­ting on sports because they feel that the out­come of a game can depend on it. There have been numer­ous scan­dals that involved pub­lic fig­ures. Before point spreads, it was hard for gam­blers to try to fix a game. Play­ers needed to be in cahoots, receiv­ing bribes for “throw­ing the game.” One infa­mous bet­ting on sports scan­dal hap­pened in 1919 when 8 mem­bers of the Chicago White Sox were bribed to lose the World Series to a lesser Cincin­nati Reds team. Many manip­u­la­tors also influ­ence bet­ting on sports by encour­ag­ing point shav­ing, or con­vinc­ing play­ers to win by less than the point spread.

When one thinks of “bet­ting on sports wrongs,” Pete Rose also comes to mind. A for­mer all star base­ball player turned man­ager, he was found to have made thou­sands of bets includ­ing those on his own team. As a result, he was banned from the game and Hall of Fame dis­cus­sions and a tar­nish rep­u­ta­tion con­tinue to this day. All in all, there have been numer­ous bet­ting on sports scan­dals that have pen­e­trated the sports hier­ar­chy from below.

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