I would assume that this is peak time for sports betting, being in the latter half of the NFL season. It might be a completely fine thing to do, but I've got to think that there are a lot of people that get themselves into a lot of trouble with it. How many people are way in debt now because of their betting? 10,000? But keep betting because you can get a big win and everything will be fine. At least that is probably their logic.
But lets segue to sports tanking. That is having your team lose on purpose so you can get a high college draft pick for next season. Its especially common in basketball. I guess that is probably because there are only 5 players on the court at a time. And unlike baseball, where you have a specific batting order, a basketball player could shoot the ball every time. down the court if he wanted to. Sadly, teams have made that work.
Here is the contradiction. Players get removed from their sport for life for betting on games. Why? You might bet on your team to lose, then play in such a way that your team could lose. The obvious problem is, as they say, it affects "the integrity of the game". You don't know if your team is doing its best. The Spurs, my beloved Trailblazers, the Jazz have all employed the try to lose strategy. See the contradiction here?
Possible solution for basketball? There are teams that seem to tank year after year if their draft choices don't work out. After, say, three years, you don't get into what they call the lottery, no matter what your record is. You might still be bad, but that is your problem. It would keep their fans from feeling like not only might we never have a good team again. We might never even try to have a good team again.
It all comes down to - Are sports commissioners ok with the idea of teams losing on purpose?
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