In the words of Leo Tolstoy in one of the most influential novels of the past 200 years, “Happy families are all alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
If this is true, then the marriage between sports betting companies and major sports organizations around the world must be a unique union. We’re already seeing glimpses of what could happen in a dystopian future if the two groups become too entangled.
For instance, Major League Baseball (MLB) is currently dealing with its own sports betting scandal where Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz of the Cleveland Guardians are indicted on charges of taking bribes in exchange for throwing certain types of pitches.
Both athletes are facing charges of wire fraud conspiracy, honest services wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, and conspiracy to influence sporting contests by bribery. Receiving the top sentence for each of these charges could land them up to 65 years in prison.
Yikes. Even first-degree murder could plausibly deliver a lighter sentence.
The relative poverty of track and field relative to the major team sports might help protect it from these types of scandals for the time being, but where there’s money to be made, somebody will make it.
Steps need to be taken now to prevent the insidious encroachment of the sports gambling industry into track and field before it occurs on a mass scale, or else the future of the sport could look bleak.
A Humble but Vulnerable Sport
Track and field exists on the fringes of mainstream sporting events. It doesn’t have the viewership or funding of major team sports like football (pick your type) or basketball, but it’s also consistently one of the most-watched sports at the Olympics and Paralympics.
Outside of a handful of athletes on major sponsorship contracts, even most elite athletes are making less than the minimum wage in the top leagues of sports like American football or baseball.
This lack of funding makes it vulnerable to predatory events like the Enhanced Games—the unsanctioned event being held this May in Las Vegas that allows performance-enhancing drugs. Given that the cage-fighting style model the Enhanced Games seems to be following, it seems highly likely they’ll be leaning into the sportsbook angle. It doesn’t help that the event is being held at a casino and being propped up by several notable billionaires to make a quick buck pushing “Enhanced” testosterone.
Even Grand Slam Track was partnered with the sports betting company Sports Perform. It’s hard to blame them. All major sporting organizations in North America, as well as many worldwide, have connections to sports gambling companies. It seems increasingly likely that this will become the norm for track eventually as well.
The Financial Temptation
One of the most feared consequences of loosening sportsbook regulations is the potential loss of integrity in the sport itself, particularly if athletes or other individuals closely involved in the sport have conflicts of interest. This is especially true in a sport when many athletes, even at the top, feel like they’re not being compensated fairly.
The prize for winning Diamond League meetings is $10,000 US. Is there a world where somebody might be willing to take second for a $20,000 kickback?
Jumpers and throwers are given six attempts. Is there a world where they might burn one of these attempts for a prop bet?
If you’re motivated enough, you can find sportsbooks that allow you to bet on track and field, but outside of the Olympics, you’ll have to work hard to find them. The unfortunate truth is that once the money is on the table, you start to attract organized crime groups, extortion, and all types of activities that can hurt the integrity of sport.
Don’t forget, we’re three weeks removed from an FBI investigation into an illegal gambling ring that led to the arrests of NBA player Terry Rozier and Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups.
According to the BBC, Rozier allegedly told a friend he would leave the game early due to injury, which then led to his friend and associates betting more than $200,000 US.
A History of Corruption
It’s probably a universal truth that every major sporting organization will have to deal with corruption scandals if it grows large enough.
There’s no compelling evidence that track and field currently has a gambling problem, but there must be a plan in place to avoid one. We’ve already seen arrests made inside World Athletics for corruption and money laundering related to the Russian doping scandal.
The last thing the sport needs is a story to emerge of systematic fraud among the higher-ups in the organization linked to gambling kickbacks.
I want to point out that this worry is based on the economics of the situation and not targeted at any particular person involved with World Athletics.
Sports Betting and Sport: A Dystopian Future
I’ve read enough dystopian fiction to dislike the direction we’re heading in sport and more broadly in society. It’s even a topic I’ve tackled in a short story I published last year.
A friendly wager now and then or signing up for a fantasy sports league can make following sports more fun, but the global sports betting industry has inflated to a bloated $100.9 billion US in 2024 and is projected to nearly double over the next 5 years. As a society, we have a problem.
In a recent study led by a PhD candidate in economics from Stanford University, the research team found that the average participant loses 7.5 cents for every dollar wagered.
That works out to a loss of over $2 billion US for the 2025 NFL season alone.
No matter what your involvement is in athletics, it’s important to vehemently fight against the entanglement of sports betting in track and field so that we don’t end up in the same place as many other major sporting bodies.
To World Athletics’ credit, they don’t currently have any partnerships with sportsbook companies, but some of their media partners, like NBC, do. At this point, it’s almost impossible to avoid gambling companies entirely, but it’s still best to avoid interacting with them whenever reasonable.
