Annoyed w/Betting Focused Coverage

I 1000% agree with you.

I find myself not giving a crap about who wins in NFL games, but instead
on how well my fantasy players perform...
And the gambling has made that worse... a LOT worse.

Today, I don't think any of my friends have a 'favorite team', but they can list the
stats of dozens of players.

I TRIED a few picks with Draft Kings - I stuck just $25 in an account a year ago - and today I think I have
maybe $8 left - I bet some of the .25 and .50 picks, only a couple of the $1 picks, and
I've won maybe $5-6 total, but I opened this account to prove to myself how much I
suck at gambling, and so far I've been proven correct.... and it's reiterated to me to NOT gamble.

HOWEVER, Keno I'm good at.... go figure.

 

I think that the increased availability of sports betting is on its way to destroying pro sports as we know it completely. Eventually it may consume (major) college sports as well. Sorry to be so negative, but that's the impression I've gotten.

 

I believe otherwise. I don't know much about how American culture ties with sports but I heard that betting on soccer games is prominent almost everywhere people are interested in the sport, despite that it is still going strong. It does have a reputation for being rather something unreasonable people tend to partake in at least where I live but betting alone doesn't stop it from being the most popular sport around the globe.

 

I totally agree.
Look at me: I don't care who wins a game anymore, all I care about is how many points my fantasy players get.
It wasn't like that 15 years ago.

The difference is, if you are in Europe, all you know is soccer, it's all you grew up with, along with MAYBE cricket and some motorsports.
Only recently they added basketball.
If I am wrong - over the last 50-60 years, let me know.

In the USA, you grew up with boxing, football, baseball, basketball, hockey, drag racing - all forms of racing, golf, tennis, volleyball,
we get flooded with everything - amateur, college, semi-pro, and pro.

 

Betting and fantasy has ruined pro football. People don't care about teams anymore.

 

One of the reasons I don't care about teams anymore is they never stay intact.

I'm used to watching MOST of the guys stay with one team for 10-12 years, but it
seems today all they do is stay for one contract, then move on, suck, then retire.
(and I do realize sometimes it isn't 'money' - teams may want to simply go in a different direction)

I'm not mad at guys holding out for more money, but I AM mad as hell at ownership ALWAYS giving in to them. ALWAYS.
JUST ONCE I'd love to see an owner say 'we already have a contract with you,
your choices are to play under your current contract, or sit and get paid nothing'.
JUST ONCE.

None of these guys - in any sport - is irreplaceable.

And NOW, it's even worse in college basketball - there are guys that have 'transferred' FOUR TIMES!
and I believe there are two guys that have transferred five times.

When I turn on a game, I expect to see certain players playing, not me questioning 'wait - I thought he played for xyz?'

 

The focus has definitely shifted from just enjoying the game to constantly talking about the betting lines and fantasy stats.

 

On the newsstand there are far more magazines about Fantasy Football than there are about just Football!

 

LOL, I'm in 17 (yes, 17) Fantasy Leagues. ALL are freebies - no money.

There are NO Fantasy magazines or TV shows worth a ****, period.

Why not?

Because those idiots - ALL of them - expend too much oxygen on arguing about who to take -
Mahomes or Josh Allen.
Jefferson, Hill or Chase
McCaffrey, Hall or Bijan
Kelce or LaPorta

See a pattern there?

These clowns forget most leagues are 10 or 12 teams, what people need to know is who
the 2nd and 3rd tier players are once you get past the 2nd round of a fantasy draft.

Goff, Tua, Kyler, Stafford?
Walker III, Cook, Conner, N Harris, Jones?
Shakir, Palmer, Cooks, Sutton, Metcalf?
Goedert, McBride, Kincaid, Freiermuth?

These are the guys they should be talking about, but the pundits are totally clueless....

 

Twitter show scores…and betting lines.

weird

Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

I also find the assault of betting-focused “NextGen” stats to be a total distraction that adds nothing to the enjoyment of the games.

Week 2 of the NFL: all the “analysts” talked about was how important it was for an 0-1 team to not fall to 0-2. Because, of course, only 5% of teams that start 0-2 make the playoffs. Really? Like I need the “powered by AWS” tech to tell me that crappy teams don’t make the playoffs?

 

I was going to say betting and fantasy. Never done either. I’m just here to enjoy simulated war with the gladiators from my metropolitan area against the mercenaries from your metropolitan area.

 

You left out the bad calls referees make - or don't make.

Take it from me - you don't want to do either, especially fantasy football.

Because it DESTROYS the ability to just sit, crack a beer, watch a game, and root for a team.

Because NOW all you want to know is how many fantasy points YOUR players are getting,
and you no longer give a crap about any actual teams or if they win or lose, all you care about is PLAYERS.
And it sucks...

 

Sports betting … slippery slope and won’t be surprised if it ushers in a terrible new era for USA sports. We will be old guys by then and nobody young will know what it used to be like. Or care.
The Dallas Cowgals will be worth $25B with grandkid Jones in charge.

 

One thing I don't like is, well, I understand the gambling aspect, I am too smart to get suckered
into it but sooo many people are not, they have NO idea what they are REALLY doing, and I feel
sad that companies have to resort to tellling 'honest lies' to sucker people in.

All I need to do is look at my record in fantasy football, fantasy 'pick the winners', and that's a
pretty good indication I suck at it. If you suck at 'free' games what makes you think you will win
when you play for money???

 

I just tune out the betting stuff and focus on the race itself. Annoying how much airtime it gets now, but I guess it's a sign of the times.

 

It's funny we now see ads on radio and TV telling people not to take their
gambling losses out on the athletes (they bet and lost) on.

Didn't these idiots KNOW that was going to happen? I did.

We have now gone down the slippery slope with NIL, the transfer portal AND gambling
all at the same time, and we will never recover.
And we ALL saw it coming, didn't we?

 

I’ve stopped watching race broadcasts live and just catch up with highlights or replays later—it’s way less annoying without all the betting chatter. Also found this cool page for a side referral project I’ve been messing around with: https://yeetblog.com/yeet-referral-program/. Might be worth checking out if you're into low-key ways to rack up some extras without betting shoved in your face.

 

A negative side of the increase in betting is the apparent increased number of physical threats against athletes (and probably coaches and officials also) from frustrated bettors who blame the athletes for their monetary losses. This needs to be stopped, but how and by whom?