The Ethics of Sports Betting
Social media’s goal is to hack your attention for profit. It quickly learns who you are via data collection and feeds you curated content designed to elicit a reaction and induce a constant dopamine release. Once you’re caught in your own personalized content riptide, advertisers start throwing the kitchen sink at you. They know you’re hooked on Instagram and they were listening to you describe the new jacket you want to buy. When you log onto IG and see an ad for that very jacket you realize… you’ve been programmed by the almighty algorithm.
This past week I attended a sports betting conference in New Jersey. There were a number of expert panels discussing the many aspects of the sports betting industry, but one topic had a particularly profound effect on me: the future of in-play betting.
Sports betting companies have recently put an emphasis on in-play betting as it has proven to be wildly popular in mature betting markets like Europe. With in-play accounting for a rapidly growing percentage of total handle (amount wagered), sportsbooks and sportsbook suppliers are leaning into the trend. These companies are pouring resources into improving their in-play products in the name of differentiation and, ultimately, profit. The rhetoric surrounding in-play innovations was concerning to me.
By now you may realize where I’m going with this and why I started this piece with a paragraph about the calculated evils of social media. In short, some sports betting companies are adopting the same “grow at all costs” mindset as the social media companies. During the conference I heard sports betting executives giddily explain their plans to turn sporting events into “slot machines” and aggressively pursue the “TikTok-ification” of the sports betting UX. Those two terms were said multiple times verbatim. They also discussed data collection and bet suggestions, which would be pushed to bettors via notifications at specific times.
These goals can only be achieved through low-latency in-play betting, specifically play-by-play betting: each pitch in baseball, each possession in basketball, each play in football. Will this pitch be a ball or strike? Which player will score next? How many yards will be gained on this play? These markets will populate on a bettor’s screen every few seconds, providing the punter the opportunity to hover over the “place bet” button (with a preset wager amount) and mindlessly throw his/her money into the void, winning at a clip just high enough to slowly erode a player’s bankroll at the rate of the vigorish.
If a customer doesn’t have his/her app open, sportsbooks will dig into their vast data stores and identify when they want to pounce. Thanks to data collection, these companies will quickly get to know your favorite teams, players, and wagers. As a result, they’ll be able to send you notifications along the lines of “Tom Brady just got the ball back! Swipe to bet on this drive”. One swipe right and a split-second of facial recognition and you’ve got $20 on the length of Tom Brady’s next completion. You, my friend, just had your own brain weaponized against you.
I think it’s important to note that my issue doesn’t lie with the financial aspect of these products. Sportsbooks have never cared about bettors losing money, nor should they — it’s their source of revenue. A sports bettor assumes risk whenever he/she places a wager, and losing is just part of the game. Where I do see an ethical issue, though, is in the intentionality of hacking into users’ brains with products designed to trigger dopamine responses. I also found it slightly disturbing that the rhetoric used by those in charge didn’t try to hide it. The terms “slot machines”, “TikTok-ification”, and “dopamine response” make it crystal clear what these companies are trying to do. It’s concerning. It’s amoral.
When in-play sports betting products inevitably get shoved in your face over the next few years, just be aware of what you’re getting into and what the sportsbook is trying to do. Stay safe out there and bet responsibly, friends.
