On the latest Sporticast episode, hosts Scott Soshnick and Eben Novy-Williams discuss some of the biggest sports business stories of the week, including the run of gambling scandals in major U.S. sports. In the past few days there have been updates in the Shohei Ohtani saga, the NBA‘s Jontay Porter affair, and a handful of MLB players disciplined for violating the league’s betting rules.
The hosts discuss some of why this is happening. It’s not true that this is directly due to increased legalization across the U.S., nor is it true that all this was happening at the same scale before the Supreme Court’s hallmark 2018 ruling lifting the national ban. The truth, they say, is somewhere in the middle.
Sports betting is definitely more omnipresent, with a new air of legitimacy, and advancements in live betting markets have likely lowered the stakes in the eyes of some players. Micro markets like the result of the next pitch, for example, can give the appearance of opportunities to gamble without impacting actual results.
Next they talk about the WNBA. A hard foul against Caitlin Clark earlier this week sparked a debate about her stardom and perception vs. that of the rest of the league. That conversation quickly spread into debates about race, gender and how the traditional sports media has been covering the WNBA this season. The hosts break down a few of those arguments, and try to have a rational conversation about the reckoning happening across the league.
Lastly, they touch on a few other big recent news items. Manchester City is reportedly taking legal action against the Premier League in a fight that could reshape pay and team values; and Carmelo Anthony is taking ownership in a future National Basketball League expansion franchise.
(You can subscribe to Sporticast through Apple, Google, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever else you get your podcasts.)
