Leigh Steinberg has represented Troy Aikman, Manny Ramirez, and Patrick Mahomes, and took to a major publication to raise a red flag on one of the fastest growing industries in the U.S.
With any new wave of innovation and success, there will always be naysayers shouting about the downsides. Legal sports betting has enjoyed exceptional growth since the Supreme Court’s 2018 PASPA ruling opened the door to a whole new world of fun, entertainment, and financial gain for everyone involved in sports - fans, players, teams, venues, and even governments alike.
The State of Play
Thirty-eight states plus Washington, D.C. have live, legal sports betting, meaning more than half of all American adults can now place a legal wager across the country. Revenue is pouring in for operators and state governments. Sponsorships, promotions, and partnerships are firing on all cylinders. Legal sports betting is everywhere and doesn’t seem to be slowing down.
Yet, 2024 hasn’t been too kind to the industry’s public image. The list of sports betting scandals has grown, with high-profile cases in the NBA and MLB dominating headlines in recent months.
Steinberg has been a high-powered sports agent for five decades, and he penned an opinion piece in The New York Times calling for stricter regulations to protect what he called “an impregnable wall between professional sports and the world of gambling” that used to be more prominent.
“That wall is not just crumbling, it’s evaporating,” Steinberg lamented.
He cited Jontay Porter’s lifetime ban for gambling improprieties, and he also called out the federal investigation into Shohei Ohtani’s former interpreter for stealing millions to pay off gambling debts. Ohtani’s former teammate David Fletcher just got caught up in his own gambling investigation.
Changing course
There is a little bit of a “back in my day” kind of vibe to his piece.
“When I started as an agent a half-century ago, the major leagues all considered it so crucial to maintain distance between the worlds of gambling and athletics that they agreed that Las Vegas – then the only place where sports gambling was legal – should not have professional franchises,” Steinberg wrote.
Clearly, times have changed. Vegas has the Raiders in the NFL and hosted a Super Bowl this year, and the NHL’s Golden Knights won the 2023 Stanley Cup. The A’s are en route to Sin City, too. Steinberg even pointed out that Robert Kraft and Jerry Jones both bought a small piece of DraftKings.
Bottom line
While he raised genuine concerns over how things are going, Steinberg made sure to emphasize his ultimate stance.
“Let me be clear: I am not against all sports betting. Millions of people do it for enjoyment and potential profit, and let’s face it, humans started gambling long before organized sports existed.”
He understands that we’re not going back to the pre-PASPA days, so he just wants the industry to take some extra precautions to safeguard the integrity of competition, especially for the players’ sake. He especially wants to see player prop bets reigned in since he thinks they're an obvious target for manipulation.
“Leagues must install stricter guidelines and stronger oversight to protect players. They must work to closely monitor betting abnormalities (as in the case of Mr. Porter) then act quickly when such abnormalities occur," he wrote. "And they should negotiate with companies like FanDuel and DraftKings to discourage the lucrative but dangerous prop bets on the performance of an individual player.”
He suggested that the Jontay Porter incident is a cautionary tale, and that the current environment puts players in positions that make it easier to slip up.
“Leagues must start by acknowledging that athletes are human. They have failings. They make missteps," said Steinberg. "The NBA, MLB, and other leagues have facilitated a situation that makes it all too easy for players to falter. If more of those players do, they will bring down the edifice of professional sports.”
