America’s sports betting nightmare

This week we passed a popular milestone on the way to the summer’s Olympic Games in Paris: the 100 day countdown. The moment was marked with various events designed to catch the eye, including a synchronised swimming performance in a giant tank in London’s Covent Garden, and of course the lighting of the Olympic flame in Greece.

But aside from the usual issues on security, logistics and politics, there is one key question hanging over the biggest event in global sport: will the host nation actually enjoy it? Our Paris bureau chief, Leila Abboud has been gauging the mood on the ground, where as many as a third of local residents are planning to escape the city once the competition gets underway in July. While organisers race to set up grandstands, test digital tickets systems and build defences against cyber attacks, will they have the time and energy to lift Parisian spirits?

This week we’re looking at the latest betting scandal to rock US sport, plus we ask if the NFL is setting the field for the arrival of private equity players. Do read on — Josh Noble, sports editor

US sport suffers betting boom side effects

Former Toronto Raptors point guard Fred VanVleet adopted the catchphrase “bet on yourself” to describe his unlikely rise from an undrafted athlete to a National Basketball Association starter.

His teammate, Raptors power forward Jontay Porter, took that advice a bit too literally. This week, the NBA delivered its most severe punishment – a lifetime ban – to Porter, after a league investigation found that he had been wagering on basketball games this year, including limiting his own on-court performance to coincide with an acquaintance’s $80,000 wager on his stats.

The episode is effectively a nightmare scenario for US sports, which have rapidly changed tack from vehement, full-throated opposition to sports betting (in 2012, the Big Four leagues and the collegiate sports governing body sued the state of New Jersey to prevent it) to a delirious embrace of the more than $10bn industry. Now legal in 38 states and the District of Columbia, sports betting has spawned a fast-growing cottage industry of wagering apps, team and league sponsorships, and betting-specific simulcasts of NBA games, where viewers can watch hosts debate evolving odds in real time.

Already, there have been questions over how much adoption of gambling culture in US sport is too much. Last summer, Shams Charania, a prominent NBA reporter for The Athletic, swung betting lines ahead of the NBA Draft when he tweeted information suggesting the Charlotte Hornets would select one player over another, information that ultimately proved false. Complicating the matter was the fact that Charania is a paid endorser for FanDuel. (FanDuel has said the company is not privy to news Charania breaks before he does so.)

And in recent weeks, Major League Baseball has been adjacent to a gambling firestorm surrounding the face of the league, two-way star Shohei Ohtani, whose now-former translator Ippei Mizuhara has been charged with bank fraud for stealing $16mn from Ohtani to cover the translator’s own illegal wagering debts.

Which is to say, an active professional athlete who is allegedly in cahoots with major bettors — and willing to log fewer minutes in service of their punts — is the worst possible outcome for leagues today. Adam Silver, the NBA commissioner, said “there is nothing more important than protecting the integrity” of competition, which led to the ultimate punishment of Porter even with the league’s investigation still ongoing.

An agent for Porter did not respond to a request for comment.

Porter is not the first hooper to be hit with a ban for gambling, but he is the first to face the music since 2018, when the US federal prohibition of sports wagering was struck down. It’s a warning shot to all athletes: do not risk your millions in salary for five-figure punts.

Barring that, in case it needs to be said: if you’re going to bet on yourself, at the very least consider taking the over. 

NFL prepares to give private equity green light to invest

People familiar with the matter told Scoreboard that owners are contemplating introducing a rule requiring any private equity investment to come from an NFL-focused fund, as opposed to a general sports or other investment vehicle. As a result, at least two firms are quietly tapping investors to put together NFL-specific funds ahead of the league’s green light. 

As the world’s richest professional sports league, with generous revenue-sharing agreements between clubs and a $110bn domestic media rights contract, the NFL is the lone holdout among US pro sports to the investments of institutional capital. Each of the other Big Four leagues, as well as Major League Soccer and the National Women’s Soccer League, have amended bylaws since 2019 to allow for private capital stakes, hastened by a pandemic-induced liquidity crunch and skyrocketing valuations. 

But the cliquish cohort of gridiron football owners have bided their time, watching their counterparts test the private equity waters first. The result has been a drawn-out examination of purported best practices, helmed by a special committee of select owners including the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs’ Clark Hunt, Walmart chairman and Denver Broncos owner Greg Penner and the New England Patriots’ Bob Kraft, among others.

As a result, some of the league’s thinking is inspired by precedent in other sports, such as the fund established by Dyal HomeCourt Partners, a division of asset manager Blue Owl, specifically for NBA investments.

Roger Goodell, the NFL commissioner, has suggested the introduction of institutional capital investment is a matter of when, not if. (After the most recent owners meeting last month, he told reporters it could be “as early as May, probably closer to October”.)

Some of the people who spoke with Scoreboard said to expect deals to be executed with teams almost immediately after the league gives private equity the go ahead. In the meantime, everyone is getting their ducks in a row.

Interview: Nikki Doucet, the new chief of English women’s football

Women’s professional football in England must learn from the problems facing the men’s game as it prepares for life as a standalone commercial entity. That’s according to Nikki Doucet, the former investment banker handed the task of leading the top two tiers of women’s football in England into the future. It’s a critical time for the game, with audience numbers surging and commercial and investor interest picking up. Doucet says it is vital not to simply copy and paste structures and habits across from men’s football. Read the full interview here.

Transfer Market

• Creative Artists Agency appointed Alex McGuire to take the lead on its sports media representation activities in the UK and Europe, reporting to sports media chiefs Matt Kramer and Tom Young. McGuire, who joined from talent agency YMU Group last year, has been tasked with adding more sports broadcasters to CAA’s books.

Final Whistle

Human beings are marvelous creatures, with the ability to send ourselves to space, erect skyscrapers, develop nuanced works of art — but we are, ultimately, simple beings who delight profoundly with the offer of free food. Such is a common gambit at many NBA stadiums, wherein if a player on an opposing team misses two consecutive free throws, ticket holders can claim a promotional snack, gratis. On Sunday, the final day of the regular NBA season, the visiting Houston Rockets were up eight points in a meaningless game against the Los Angeles Clippers when centre Boban Marjanovic took the free throw line. You can probably guess what happened next, but the announcer call — and Marjanovic’s bond with the crowd — are the stuff of legend. Watch here.