The bet that's ruining sports

Summary

Podcast Summary: Today, Explained – "The bet that's ruining sports"

Date: November 13, 2025
Host: Estee Herndon (Vox)
Guest: Danny Funt, author of "Everybody: The Tumultuous Rise of American Sports Gambling"

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Overview

This episode of Today, Explained explores the explosive rise of legal online sports betting in the United States and the serious consequences now impacting both athletes and fans. Host Estee Herndon and guest Danny Funt dig into headline-making betting scandals, how in-game "prop bets" are reshaping sports fandom, and whether the close alliance between leagues and gambling companies is compromising the integrity and future of sports.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

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1. The Rise in Betting Scandals (02:04 – 04:05)

• The episode opens with recent examples of major betting scandals, including two Cleveland Guardians players indicted for allegedly rigging pitches to benefit coordinated prop bets.
• Quote [03:01] (Court Indictment Narrator):
  "After receiving advance information from the defendant, Emmanuel Classe de la Cruz... bettors won approximately $58,000 on betting platform 2... between 2023 and 2025, the bettors won at least $400,000 from the betting platforms on pitches thrown by the defendant."

In-Game Prop Bets: The Scandal Engine (04:05 – 05:39)

• Scandals are increasingly possible because prop bets let anyone wager on minuscule in-game outcomes, often communicated in real time.
• Danny Funt:
  "Now, more than 90% of bets are placed online legally. A lot of these are smartphone apps, which enables betting during games... thousands of prop bets available for many major sports, every game. Absolutely did not exist just several years ago." [04:49]

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2. The Money and Addictiveness of Prop Bets (05:39 – 07:02)

• Americans wager about $150 billion legally each year; 30% is on props/parlay bets, making up most sportsbook revenue.
• Micro-betting encourages frequent, sometimes compulsive behavior.
• Danny Funt:
  "You might bet 30 bucks pregame, but you might bet 10 bucks five or ten times on these micro bets. Suddenly you’ve bet way more... That’s why it’s a phenomenal business for them." [06:19]
• Addiction Concern:
  "The more frenzied and relentless the betting, the easier it is to feed that kind of compulsive instinct." [06:45]

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3. Why Risky Betting Appeals Even to Rich Athletes (07:02 – 07:54)

• Contrary to league assumptions, high pay doesn’t prevent athletes from involvement in betting scandals.
• Estee Herndon:
  "Too wealthy to be corrupted. What a phrase." [07:31]
• Danny Funt:
  "Being rich doesn’t immunize you from being greedy or being foolish... this idea that, oh, you make...millions of dollars, you’re not gonna make a bad decision is really falling apart." [07:34]

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4. The Fan Experience: From Fandom to Frustration (07:54 – 09:45)

• Sports viewing has been transformed with fan rooting interests shifting from teams to narrow statistical results crucial for their bets.
• In-stadium reactions are often linked to prop bet results instead of team success.
• Estee Herndon:
  "You can be places, and it will often seem as if folks rooting interests are more closely aligned with, will there be a turnover?...than whether a team is even winning or losing?" [07:54]

Increased Harassment & Threats

• Micro-betting has fostered a toxic environment where athletes report death threats over lost bets.
• Estee Herndon:
  "I get people telling me to kill myself every week...it was the other day somebody told me, get cancer and die." [09:45]
• Danny Funt:
  "There have been stories of people being stalked at their team hotel or at their home. So this is something that I think is going to reach a boiling point." [10:07]

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5. Efforts to Curb the Chaos (10:17 – 11:43)

• The NCAA is calling for states to ban individual player props, especially for college sports.
• Some states have implemented such bans; MLB has restricted bets on individual pitches to $200.
• Danny Funt:
  "When you hone in on specific players, not only does it open the door for all sorts of manipulation and the temptation for them to gamble, but it heightens...ugly harassment." [10:25]

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6. The Deep Roots and Legalization of Sports Gambling (14:10 – 17:54)

• U.S. sports gambling culture is centuries old; the 1919 Black Sox scandal framed gambling as an existential threat.
• The 1992 federal law forbidding sports betting (except in Nevada) was overturned by the Supreme Court in 2018, unleashing a wave of state-level legalization.
• Danny Funt:
  "The floods gates opened, and several dozen states very quickly passed laws legalizing this." [17:19]
• Sports leagues secretly negotiated with gambling firms even while publicly opposing legalization.

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7. The Black Market Persists (19:52 – 22:00)

• Despite legalization, black market betting still thrives—especially in states that haven’t legalized—due to anonymity, higher limits, and use of crypto.
• The promise that regulation would kill illegal gambling has not been realized.

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8. Is There a Tipping Point? Public Trust and Potential Tragedies (22:00 – 25:21)

• So far, leagues and the public haven’t demanded sweeping change, even amid scandals.
• Potential "wake-up call" events (per an NFL security official):
  • A national crisis in gambling addiction (including suicides)
  • Major championship or superstar fixing scandal
  • An assassination or attack resulting from betting-linked threats
• Danny Funt:
  "If someone was ever assassinated because of that, that could make people say, enough is enough." [23:33]

Growing Distrust in Sports Integrity

• 65% of Americans now believe athletes alter how they play to benefit gamblers—an outcome formerly considered unthinkable.
• Danny Funt:
  "A majority of Americans, that is a massive change... maybe one of the worst outcomes of making gambling so pervasive." [25:08]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Estee Herndon, [07:31]: "Too wealthy to be corrupted. What a phrase."
• Danny Funt, [07:34]: "Being rich doesn’t immunize you from being greedy or being foolish."
• Estee Herndon, [09:45]: "That's why you see so many players fucking getting death threats, right, like in their inboxes because people mad because they didn't hit they prop bets and shit like that..."
• Danny Funt, [23:33]: "If someone was ever assassinated because of that, that could make people say enough is enough."
• Danny Funt, [25:08]: "65% of Americans believe professional athletes alter how they play to help gamblers win money. A majority of Americans, that is a massive change."

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 02:04: Scandal in Major League Baseball: Cleveland Guardians pitchers indicted
• 04:05: Prop bets allow real-time manipulation
• 05:39: Economics and addictiveness of prop bets
• 07:02: Why even multimillionaire athletes gamble
• 09:45: Fans harass and threaten players over lost bets
• 10:17: NCAA, MLB, and state responses
• 14:36: History of sports betting in America
• 17:19: Supreme Court enables state-level legalization
• 19:52: The continuing black market
• 22:43: Potential tipping points and worst-case scenarios
• 25:08: Loss of trust in the integrity of professional sports

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Conclusion

This episode lays bare how legalized, real-time sports betting—driven by prop bets—has upended not just sporting integrity but also fan experience and athlete safety. While leagues chase revenue and regulators consider modest reforms, the risks (addiction, scandal, violence, and a loss of faith in competition) loom large. Without decisive action, the "bet that's ruining sports" might truly do just that.

Transcript

[Estee Herndon]

So I love sports, but I would only call myself a low level sports bettor. I've wagered small amounts, $20 here, $30 there, maybe 50 if I'm feeling crazy. Increasingly, though, more and more sports fans are wagering a lot more than $50 and betting on every play within a game. And that's led us to the age of the betting scandal. Rozier's accused of purposely leaving a game with a phantom so that he and his co conspirators, including his childhood friend, could make tens of thousands of dollars. The NCAA has banned six men's basketball.

[Danny Funt]

Players at three different Division 1 schools for allegedly rigging games. These two baseball players are in trouble for rigging pitches for betters.

[Estee Herndon]

Has sports betting gone too far? I'm Esteed Herndon and that's coming up on today. Explained from Vox.

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[Estee Herndon]

Danny Funt is the author of Everybody the Tumultuous Rise of American Sports Gambling. So, Danny, we've seen an uptick in sports betting scandals recently, but what's happened this week?

[Danny Funt]

So this past season, two relief pitchers on the Cleveland Guardians were flagged for what the industry calls suspicious betting activity. Emmanuel Classe, one of the top relief pitchers in baseball, and his teammate Luis Ortiz. Federal prosecutors in New York indicted both of them for a host of charges charged with fraud, conspiracy and rigging pitches.

[Estee Herndon]

Beds are coming in hot.

[Danny Funt]

They're facing up to 65 years in.

[Estee Herndon]

Federal prison if convicted on all charges.

[Danny Funt]

Prosecutors said in the indictment that Klasse and Ortiz threw specific pitches for balls so bettors could place prop bets to arrange prop bets so that certain prop.

[Estee Herndon]

Bets on those pitches would would pay off.

[Danny Funt]

Class say this All Star closing pitcher is accused of texting saying heads up. You know, in his case it was betting on whether a certain pitch he threw would be a ball or a strike.

[Court Indictment Narrator]

Indictment United States District Court, Eastern District of New York after receiving advance information from the defendant, Emmanuel Classe de la Cruz, about a specific pitch that Classe intended to throw. Bettor won. And several of the betters. Won approximately $58,000 on betting platform 2 by placing multiple bets that a pitch thrown by class A would both be a ball and would be slower than 94.95 miles per hour. Won approximately $27,000 on betting platform 2. Won approximately 38,000, 10,000, $15,000. Overall, between 2023 and 2025, the bettors won at least $400,000 from the betting platforms on pitches thrown by the defendant, Emmanuel Classe de la Cruz.

[Estee Herndon]

And an important part of at least this major league baseball betting scandal seems to be that they were betting on individual pitches, individual balls and strikes, and they were communicating about it in real time.

[Danny Funt]

Yeah, which is interesting because it's one of the defining traits of this legal online sports betting era. One player can very easily influence the outcome of one of these prop bets. It's literally about the play of a specific person, sometimes on a specific play. With the speed of the next pitch, will the runner on first try to steal second? Will this inning generate a run? The idea is just every second you're watching and inevitably watching while on your phone. Let's give you something to bet on.

[Estee Herndon]

How unique is this to this moment? We've had sports betting scandals before, but it seems as if you're saying this is unique to this time and this legalized sports betting industry.

[Danny Funt]

Yeah, particularly legal online sports betting. So in the past, even if betting, you know, has always existed in Nevada or through your neighborhood bookie or whatever, typically that was done in person often before games started. Now, more than 90% of bets are placed online legally. A lot of these are smartphone apps, which enables betting during games. On these kind of real time bets. It creates so much opportunity for manipulation. And this volume of betting where there are literally thousands of prop bets available for many major sports, every game absolutely did not exist just several years ago. You could not bet tens of thousands of dollars on a fringe bench player to get a certain number of rebounds. That's. That's something new.

[Estee Herndon]

How much of betting is happening on these prop bets during an individual game?

[Danny Funt]

So Americans wager about $150 billion legally every year. And about 30% of the money wagered, 30% of that 150 billion is on props or combinations of props that form parlays that generate 60% of the revenue. More than half of the money generated is coming from this type of betting. So when we think about, okay, this opens the Door for all sorts of corruption. Will the sportsbooks be inclined to rein it in? To put it succinctly, I doubt it, because it's their biggest moneymaker these days. The thing that's so enticing to these companies about offering thousands and thousands of live micro bets during the game is you might bet 30 bucks pre game, but you might bet 10 bucks five or ten times on these micro bets. Suddenly you've bet way more than you would have if you were just doing it beforehand. So that's why it's a phenomenal business for them. It's also, people say, especially addictive because the more frenzied and relentless the betting, the easier it is to feed that kind of compulsive instinct. Because if I'm betting every 10 seconds versus every two hours, it's a very different experience.

[Estee Herndon]

You know, this might be an obvious question, but why exactly are these athletes, particularly active athletes, getting involved in these bets? We're talking about multimillionaires. It seems a little ridiculous.

[Danny Funt]

It does. And that was literally one of the arguments that the leagues and their gambling operator partners assured the public when they were pushing for legalization was, don't worry about Today's athletes are too wealthy to be corrupted. They wouldn't throw it all away to gamble.

[Estee Herndon]

Too wealthy to be corrupted. What a phrase.

[Danny Funt]

I know. Now, obviously, you could look in sports, you could look on Wall street, whatever. Being rich doesn't immunize you from being greedy or being foolish. This idea that, like, oh, you make, you know, however many millions of dollars, you're not gonna make a bad decision is really falling apart as we see these scandals unfold.

[Estee Herndon]

You know, for me, as a sports lover, as someone who enjoys the community of sports, it definitely feels as if betting, and particularly live betting, has changed the fan experience. You can be places, and it will often seem as if folks rooting interests are more closely aligned with, will there be a turnover? Will the next pitch be more or less than 90 miles an hour Than whether a team is even winning or losing? Is there any concern that the leagues have had about the ways that their close marriage to the sports betting industry has changed the viewing experience, the. Or change the fan experience?

[Danny Funt]

No doubt, so much of the fallout of legalization, you know, you could act as though this is a surprise, like, who could have seen this coming? The commissioners of major sports warned decade after decade that all this stuff would happen. And then the people in power more, you know, currently saw the dollar signs and changed their stance. But one of the things they really Banged the drum on. Was that a fixation on betting cheapens or degrades your relationship with sports? You know, it's one thing if you're a die hard Chicago Bulls fan.

[Estee Herndon]

Hey, yes, play it to the audience.

[Danny Funt]

It's another thing if you go to a game and you're just waiting for, you know, someone to get two steals. And sometimes nowadays, like you were saying, you can feel this in an arena or a stadium. You'll hear like a groan or a cheer go out when someone grabs a rebound and it's like, what's the big deal? What was that all about? It's because they covered their, you know, their prop betting line. So that stuff is interesting in how it's changing the nature of fandom. It also has a really ugly side where of course, sports fans can be overly intense and get crazed about the teams they're rooting for. But we're seeing a level of harassment and threats sent toward athletes that crosses a line.

[Estee Herndon]

That's why you see so many players fucking getting death threats, right, like in their inboxes because people mad because they didn't hit they prop bets and shit like that, or smoke the layup. And I get people telling me to kill myself every week and you know, because I'll hit a kick that loses them money, I'll miss a kick and lose them money. It was the other day somebody told me, get cancer and die.

[Danny Funt]

There have been stories of people being stalked at their team hotel or at their home. So this is something that I think is going to reach a boiling point considering all this.

[Estee Herndon]

What are people trying to do about prop betting? Are there any pushes to change the law or to roll back any of this?

[Danny Funt]

So one of the leading forces on that is the ncaa. They really dragged their feet to come around on legalization. They were often the most adamant that this would be bad for sports. And for a while now they've been saying that states should ban bets on individual player props. When you hone in on specific players, not only does it open the door for all sorts of manipulation and the temptation for them to gamble, but it heightens that, you know, that microscope that they're under and leads to a lot of really ugly harassment that we were just talking about. So some states have gone ahead and banned individual player props on college sports. The NCAA is pushing for all states to do that. Major League Baseball, in response to these arrests, reached an agreement with a bunch of sportsbooks that they won't take bets exceeding $200 on individual pitches. Now we were talking about how addictive that sort of betting can be. So definitely, if you're betting 200 bucks, a pitch, that can get out of hand pretty quickly. But at least from a fixing standpoint, it doesn't make it as easy to make a boatload of money if you're fixing certain pitches.

[Estee Herndon]

Coming up How Everything Came Undone Support.

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[Estee Herndon]

Now a Spot announcement.

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[Estee Herndon]

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[Estee Herndon]

Explained okay, Danny, I wanted to talk about where the story of sports betting begins for you because you lay out the issues that it has caused now, particularly these prop bets that have challenged the leagues and have really shown the potential dangers of legalized sports betting. But as you mentioned, this is an industry that's super ingrained in the country. So where should we start this story to to even understand if there's a possibility that these laws change, literally, since.

[Danny Funt]

The very first organized baseball games in, like, the 1850s in New York, there were people in the stands or I guess in the field, you know, beyond where they were playing, exchanging money on different betting outcomes. So this is deeply rooted in American sports culture. But really, after the 1919 World Series, when the Chicago White Sox colluded with gamblers to rig the outcome of baseball's championship and became the Black Sox, of course, in history, the leagues have been emphatic that this was in the most stern terms possible, that this was an existential threat to sports. They called it an evil again and again, and it was only until barely a decade ago that they changed their tune on that in the most dramatic way possible.

[Estee Herndon]

When the pushes for sports betting legalization started, did it begin at a national or a state level? What was the process to them getting this done?

[Danny Funt]

So in 1992, at the behest of the professional sports leagues, Congress banned states from legalizing sports betting, excepting Nevada, which had been offering sports betting since the 1950s. They had two senators in Congress who weren't going to stand for a ban. So Nevada was exempted, but the rest of the country wasn't allowed to authorize bookmaking. If sports betting spreads, more and more fans will question every coaching decision and every official's call. All of this puts undue pressure on players and coaches and officials, and state sponsored sports betting could change forever the relationship between the players and the game and between the game and the fans. New Jersey had a lot of problems happening with Atlantic City casinos going out of business. Racetracks were suffering. They thought bringing in sports betting would jumpstart that gambling economy. So they pushed to overturn this ban in federal court. It went 0 for 6 in lower appellate courts, but got an audience before the Supreme Court in 2018. Oh, yay. Oh, yay. We'll hear argument first this morning in case 1614, Christie vs NCAA, and the consolidated case 164 77, the New Jersey Thoroughbred Horsemen's association vs NCAA. At that point, remember, all of the leagues were still fiercely fighting it in court, and yet New Jersey prevailed, and the floodgates opened, and several dozen states very quickly passed laws legalizing this. Currently, eight states have legal wagering, but expect more to come in 2019. With over 20 states working towards legalization.

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[Danny Funt]

Here in Massachusetts.

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It'll be the topic of discussion among state lawmakers today.

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[Danny Funt]

I do think it's worth pointing out that people remember that as the court saying the federal government cannot ban sports betting, they actually went out of their way to say congress could ban or regulate sports betting at a national level. Just that 1992 bill had gone about it the wrong way.

[Estee Herndon]

You said that the floodgates opened. How did the industry make that happen? And what was the lobbying effort like to actually go about changing the laws?

[Danny Funt]

The way it was presented was this decision came down, and the court said, okay, legalization is now a fact of life. I guess we should get on board.

[Estee Herndon]

For the federal government, for.

[Danny Funt]

For casinos and people who take bets and for sports leagues.

[Estee Herndon]

While the future is uncertain, I think.

[Danny Funt]

There'S a fair amount of opportunity if it's done right.

[Estee Herndon]

We did not make the decision. Ultimately, the decision was a decision by the supreme court. They legalized sports betting. We have to adapt.

[Danny Funt]

In reality, while the leagues were fighting New Jersey in federal court, they were meeting secretly with representatives of the gambling industry. Sometimes they actually met at, like, cafes in Manhattan because they didn't want to welcome those people into their league office buildings. It was that taboo to meet with a gambling company. But they were being presented how dramatically gambling could benefit their business, both in a direct way, with all the partnerships that they could form, and then indirectly, with how expansively it would grow their TV audience. So publicly, they're fighting gambling. Privately, they're coming around on it. And then very quickly, once that decision came down, they partnered with the gambling company's main lobbying firm. A lot of These companies, like FanDuel and DraftKings, had been running into issues at the state level because they had the same lobbying firm. They said NBA, mlb, lawmakers love meeting with you guys. Who doesn't like, you know, seeing a representative from their home team or getting to tour a stadium or an arena. Let's have you be the face of the push for legalization. Meanwhile, what you're pushing is model legislation drafted by these gambling companies. So in a lot of ways, they got everything they wanted. All their every item on their wish list checked off.

[Estee Herndon]

How did the legalized sports betting market affect the black market of gambling. I mean, you mentioned previously about how there were the bookies and the kind of way betting worked historically. What's happened to that since legalization?

[Danny Funt]

That's a great question because that was again, one of the top arguments for legalization. It was literally presented to the Supreme Court was billions and billions of dollars. Sometimes I think their estimates were drastically inflated to help make their point. But a ton of money is being wagered under the table through these illegal operators. Let's bring it above board so we can tax it and generate revenue from it that way and also install consumer protections. The idea was that legalization would largely drive the black market out of business. In reality, the black market is robust and vibrant despite legalization. Part of that is that gambling is everywhere. You can't turn on a game and not see relentless appeals to gamble.

[Estee Herndon]

Check in on tonight's DraftKings King of the Court. DraftKings, number one sportsbook for live betting.

[Danny Funt]

To get in on the action. The NBA playoffs are here and I'm betting rebound.

[Estee Herndon]

Props on FanDuel.

[Danny Funt]

This episode of the Dan Lebatard show is presented by DraftKings.

[Estee Herndon]

DraftKings. The Crown is yours. This is the ringer gambling show presented by FanDuel.

[Danny Funt]

So if you're in a state like California or Texas that hasn't legalized sports betting, you might search how can I bet? And be directed to one of these illegal offshore sites and start betting that way. So the argument was it's going to drive out their business. And in a respect, I think a lot of people who wouldn't have been gambling anyway have now been inspired to want to find a way to gamble. And they've gone through those illegal operators. There's also some inherent advantages they have, like if you want to bet anonymously, if you want to bet with crypto, if you want to bet a ton more than certain regulated sportsbooks will take, you might want to bet through an illegal bookie. So they're always going to have a leg up in some respects. And this idea that legalization would run them out of town just hasn't happened at all.

[Estee Herndon]

I think things have changed rather quickly. If you would have told me a couple of years ago that active MLB players would be getting arrested for coordinating prop bets, I would think that that amounts to a full blown scandal for these leagues. If you were to tell me about the kind of federal interest that we're seeing right here, I would have thought that this would kind of like lead to a kind of hair on fire moment. It doesn't really seem like it though. And in some ways it seems that the leagues are continuing on. Considering to your point, just how ingrained these sports betting communities are, is there a tipping point here or like, what would it take for you think there to be a genuine conversation about maybe this has gone too far?

[Danny Funt]

Yeah. I spoke with one of the heads of security for the NFL and then does some consulting for some NFL teams. And as part of that job, he was responsible for monitoring gambling. He laid out three possibilities that could be that sort of wake up moment for the country, and they're all pretty disturbing. One was a explosion of gambling addictions and maybe even the suicide that often comes with that form of addiction causing just a crisis on a public health level. The other was a colossal corruption scandal even beyond what we're talking about where a superstar or a championship game is fixed. And that just really undermines the integrity of sports. And the third was I mentioned how there's this rash of harassment and violent threats directed at players.

[Estee Herndon]

Yeah.

[Danny Funt]

If someone was ever assassinated because of that, that could make people say enough is enough. So those are all pretty horrifying to contemplate. But this person said that's those are all possible and that's that might be what it takes to get people to wake up to this.

[Estee Herndon]

One of the things you mentioned there is the honesty of competition. You know, that is something that I think people bring up when it comes to this sports betting conversation, saying, you know, maybe they'll get to a point where the information such that you kind of don't believe your eyes when it comes to the competition that, you know, it seems a little more WWE scripted than genuine uncertainty. Is there any risk that the leagues here are kind of blind to a reputational loss that affects how people view the sport?

[Danny Funt]

Absolutely. And that's one of the main things that the commissioners of sports used to say was part of this existential threat of gambling is it would undermine the integrity of games. And if you just search rigged on social media during basically any game, you'll see post after post saying, aha, you know, this game is rigged. Can you believe that call? Can you believe that play? But that's kind of anecdotal. And then just in the past couple of weeks, YouGov released survey results that found that 65% of Americans believe professional athletes alter how they play to help gamblers win money. A majority of Americans, that is a massive change. People were saying, like, this is maybe one of the worst outcomes of making gambling so pervasive. And we're seeing the effects already.

[Estee Herndon]

Danny Funt is a reporter who covers sports betting. Today's show was produced by Peter Balin and Rosen and Danielle Hewitt, edited by Aminah Al Saadi, engineered by Patrick Boye and fact checked by Laura Buller. I'm a Stead Herndon and this is Today Explained.

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