Director Randall Batinkoff’s Inside Game, a film about the NBA betting scandal involving referee Tim Donaghy, isn’t a sports movie. It isn’t even a sports betting movie. It’s a heist movie.
That’s not to say sports fans or sports bettors won’t enjoy it, but the overall feel of the film takes on the qualities and high-stakes tensions of the heist genre. And with Donaghy providing winners at an 80-percent clip, it’s fair to say that the scandal was more stealing than gambling.
Instead of a highly-skilled team of dashing and charismatic leading men (as seen in heist favorites like Ocean’s 11), the audience follows three tragically-flawed figures at the center of the 2007 betting scandal, one that rocked professional sports and, in many ways, paved the road for the burgeoning legal sport betting landscape taking hold a dozen years later.
Donaghy (Eric Mabius), Tommy (Scott Wolf), and BaBa (Will Sasso) are far from the trio of characters played by Clooney, Pitt, and Damon, succumbing to their own personal demons as the betting scheme unfolds – with greed as the gasoline on the fire - until those individual vices eventually become the downfall of the entire group. Beyond some sweet but brief moments with their families, they aren’t likable characters and Batinkoff doesn’t try to sell them as such or glorify the scandal in any way.
Donaghy, in particular, is portrayed as a bitter man, who resents his job as a referee and feels constantly judged by his father, wife and family. He has a personal vendetta towards the NBA and is envious of the money and attention the players receive, which seems to fuel him through the scandal.
For sports bettors and those who followed the Donaghy scandal, the film does a good job staying close to what’s been reported, give or take some clichéd montages and sensationalizing of the rise and fall of those involved - or maybe not, if you've read some of the wild stories that have come out of the scandal.
It also does a solid job shining light on a shadowy side of the sports betting industry when it comes to “movers” or bet brokers: those who place wagers for big bettors or groups across various betting markets or “outs” – legal and illegal. Those savvy to the offshore betting industry will get a giggle from some of the altered sportsbook names, like “Provada” and “WebBookie”.
The film accurately demonstrates the basics behind line movement and how brokers and syndicates can manipulate a number by betting the opposite side of their opinion, then coming back bigger on the other side once the line adjusts to where they want it. Given sports betting’s history of misrepresentation in many Hollywood flicks, Inside Game is one of the more authentic approaches.
Perhaps the most important takeaway, and one that Batinkoff hints at during the final wrap up of the film, is that in the wake of the repeal of PASPA and the drastic shift in how sports betting is viewed by the mainstream and the leagues, Inside Game is a dark reminder of why a legalized, regulated and monitored sports betting industry is necessary to detect and prevent these types of “heists”.
But as we've seen, there are plenty of Ocean's 11 sequeals and there will be plenty more betting scandals. Hopefully, for the good of the sports betting industry, none as deep rooted as Donaghy.
