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Should the NBA get rid of draft lotterys to address gambling?www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4RrHWCQh08
250 sats \ 2 comments \ @fishious 5h Stacker_Sports
Listened to Pablo Torres' interview with Haralabos "Bob" Voulgaris, who is a well-known sports gambler/professional poker player, to discuss issues with sports gambling now amid scandals.
Key points made:
  • Sports gambling should not be marketed in the manner it is now. Frictionless gambling is bad for society, especially with young men.
  • Rigging player prop bets is very easy to catch and should not be the focus of investigations.
  • NBA needs to address the incentive for teams to tank to increase their draft lottery odds. He argues you can't definitively say a team is losing on purpose for gambling reasons because tanking for the draft can also be a valid reason.
Essentially, he is saying that the NBA will struggle to address gambling issues in the league, unless there is absolutely no incentive to lose on purpose and that the only incentive to lose could only be for gambling purposes. So, he suggests getting rid of the draft and just let rookies sign as free agents.
Really interesting insights from prolific sports gambler, and I would be for getting rid of the draft.
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10 sats \ 1 reply \ @grayruby 4h
Interesting. I never thought of tanking from a gambling perspective. One would think the odds would accurately reflect a team's desire to lose but maybe not. Maybe they will rest veterans and play rookies more in game that the pre game odds can't capture.
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50 sats \ 0 replies \ @fishious OP 3h
I think one could argue that the odds are distorted due to having to take into account tanking behavior and this makes room for rigging opportunities. Also, a team's desire to tank is not always clear cut. In the case of Chauncey Billups, the Blazers didn't start out the season with the goal to tank, but towards the end of the season they may have decided to tank at some point. From the outsider's POV, we don't know when exactly the team decided to tank to increase their draft odds. But people closely affliated with the team, in this case the head coach, knows and can share this insider knowledge for gambling purposes.
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