NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said he talked to the commissioners at the other three major pro team sports leagues after coming out in November and saying sports betting should be legal and noted he received a “range of reactions” from his colleagues. Silver, appearing on WFAN-AM’s “Boomer & Carton” yesterday, said, “Some were, ‘What are you doing?’ Others were, ‘Let’s study it. Seems like an interesting idea.’” Silver: “The latest estimate is there’s somewhere between $300-400 million a year being bet on sports in this country. I read that more people fill out an NCAA bracket than voted in the last presidential election. It’s mainstream in this country right now.” He acknowledged the most important issue for sports leagues is “how do we protect our integrity?” Silver: “All this betting’s going on anyway, is there a way to monitor?’” He noted betting is legal in England on soccer matches, and said, “It’s like tracking insider trading on the New York Stock Exchange -- if there’s a blip, if there’s unusual activity, they know to investigate.” Silver: “If all this betting’s going on anyway, we should be able to monitor it. Number two, if all this betting activity is going to go on anyway, make it legal. It’s good for business. I don’t want to hide from that. Putting aside whether or not we’re actively involved in any of the betting, it creates more engagement. We all know as fans, if you have a gentleman’s bet or even a $5 bet with your friend on a game, all of a sudden you’re a lot more interested” (“Boomer & Carton,” WFAN-AM, 4/20).
STANDING OUT: In Louisville, Tim Sullivan writes though Silver's stance is “in stark contrast to the staunch opposition college and professional leagues have historically shown sports betting." His comments amount to an "acknowledgement that society's attitudes about gambling are evolving and that there's serious money to be made by going with that flow.” Change is “slow, but the drumbeat for sports betting remains steady and, of late, has been producing more decibels.” Given the NBA's “unhappy history in this area … it seems strange” that someone in Silver's position “would be a leading advocate for liberalizing sports betting law.” Maybe Silver is “more forward-thinking than are his peers” or maybe he is “simply resigned to the impossibility of regulating an enterprise that thrives underground” (Louisville COURIER-JOURNAL, 4/21).
PLAYING CHARADES: FS1’s Clay Travis said it is a "charade and it’s a sham to pretend that sports gambling isn’t going on" currently. Travis: "If the NFL is going to take money from lotteries and allow their team names to be licensed on scratch-off lottery tickets, if the NBA is going to have partnerships with FanDuel or all this daily fantasy business, there are billions and billions of dollars that should be taxed that are happening under the table. Go ahead and legalize it.” FS1’s Bill Reiter said, "That’s why Adam Silver is on this because you and fans all over the country would learn to love basketball if they were actually gambling on it. That’s the avenue to growing that sport” (“Fox Sports Live Countdown,” FS1, 4/20).
