No sport does a worse job at marketing their sport than baseball does. For a sport that has been revered as America’s past time, baseball is starting to fall behind. What I’m about to tell you represents one of just hundreds of examples that show that baseball just doesn’t get it. Major League Baseball tried to ban gambling on Spring Training games. The Nevada Gaming Control Board declined their request.
The following is from ESPN:
“The league had recently submitted a written request to the NGCB asking that spring training games be taken off the board at the state’s regulated sportsbooks.
In declining MLB’s request, the NGCB wrote, “Based on our history and experience in regulating sports wagering, we are not inclined to prohibit our licensed sports books from taking wagers on MLB Spring Training games. We have a common goal to combat sports bribery and maintain the integrity of your sport, and are available to discuss ways we can work together in this effort.”
I like to gamble from time to time. March Madness I’m in on. If I feel confident in an MMA fight, I’ll throw some cash on it. You have to be a real degenerate to bet on regular season baseball games. You have to have a serious issue to bet on spring training games. Those are the people that baseball needs though. You should be trying to attract eyeballs any way possible. Banning gambling only decreases the number of viewers. Adam Silver has embraced it. Rob Manfred has not. Hows’ the NBA doing recently?
Baseball had a typical response to the NGCB’s statement:
“Spring Training games are exhibition contests in which the primary focus of Clubs and players is to prepare for the coming season rather than to win games or perform at maximum effort on every single play. These games are not conducive to betting and carry heightened integrity risks, and states should not permit bookmakers to offer bets on them,” the league said in a statement. “Limited and historically in-person betting on Spring Training in one state did not pose nearly the same integrity risks that widespread betting on Spring Training in multiple states will pose.”
The people that are running baseball are just so stupid. The people that are gambling on spring training games give zero f*cks whether the game is an
