Haralabos Voulgaris made a lot of money betting on basketball. But he thinks the NBA’s new focus on gambling could be disastrous.
Voulgaris worked as the Dallas Mavericks’ director of quantitative research and development from 2018-21 after a prolific career as a sports bettor. He describes his approach as being ahead of its time when he started 25 years ago, employing math prodigies and spending five years building a predictive model.
He parlayed that success into millions of dollars and a long relationship with the Mavericks. But he sees the league’s current foray into gambling as dangerous for its brand, especially after the news that the NBA is adding live betting to League Pass.
Voulgaris argues that the environment of two decades ago actually discouraged people from losing money gambling, since it was difficult to find bookmakers and place bets.
“[Gamblers] weren’t walking around carrying a casino in their pocket,” Voulgaris wrote. “They weren’t listening to their favorite podcasters shilling same game parlays.”
He’s concerned with how easy it is to gamble from a phone or on a broadcast, but also how much the league and its broadcast partners are seemingly pushing fans into wagering. One partner, ESPN, even has its own sports book.
Beyond the financial danger to fans, especially young people, leagues may be confronted by the issues with how much access there is to gambling. While it’s still unclear what actually happened, major league baseball can’t be happy that Shohei Ohtani is embroiled in a scandal that allegedly involves millions in gambling debts.
The NBA has embraced the lucrative gambling industry. But it could be dangerous if its fans also embrace betting on basketball.
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