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Notes -
The widespread legalization of sports betting, and to a lesser extent the ubiquity of fantasy sports, have largely ruined sports media coverage. You can’t watch ESPN or listen to a sports talk show or podcast without seeing or hearing numerous gambling ads. Most networks have at least one show dedicated to gambling. Even normal sports coverage (NFL Sunday and similar) is constantly scrolling lines and prop bets as they talk about each team.
It used to be that just some people would talk about it, and they always seemed insufferable. Now it’s a major topic of sports talk, to the point where the actual games and outcomes are largely considered secondary to the lines and the spread.
I have actually had multiple people - a neighbor and a coworker - try to talk me into making wagers on sporting events via apps. Not just telling me about their own, but actively trying to convince me to do it myself. It's the first time I can remember being peer-pressured as an adult.
To be fair to them, I think this is because they'd get some sort of referral bonus, not entirely because they want their decision validated by me.
The gambling thing is really bad in the US because gambling was so strictly prohibited and regulated for so long. In the UK where there’s been a sports betting store on every street corner (in some places literally) for a long time online gambling has come very well but has not led to the same cultural shift, in the US a lot of people don’t even seem to think it’s gambling™️.
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