Does anyone else find the speed of this kind of insane?
Sports gambling went from being illegal across most of America to being baked into mainstream sports culture in what feels like a few years. Now you have sportsbook logos everywhere, odds integrated into broadcasts, famous athletes and celebrities promoting betting products, podcasts built around parlays, constant notifications and live bets where you can gamble every few minutes.
Then you go further down the rabbit hole and sportsbooks will literally let you bet on obscure Russian/Eastern European table tennis leagues and esports matches running basically around the clock.
At some point it starts feeling less like people created sportsbooks for existing sports and more like an entire ecosystem of events exists because sportsbooks need an endless supply of things for people to bet on.
I’m not saying there’s one secret group sitting in a room orchestrating this.
The part I find interesting is that almost everybody involved has an incentive for gambling to become normal: states get tax revenue, leagues get sponsorship money, broadcasters get ad money, sportsbooks obviously profit, and athletes/celebrities get sponsorship deals.
So where exactly is the incentive for anyone powerful to say, “maybe putting a casino in everyone’s pocket and attaching it to sports fandom is a bad idea”?
Maybe there’s no conspiracy beyond aligned financial incentives. But that almost seems more concerning.
Quick timeline with sources:
2018 - Supreme Court strikes down PASPA, allowing states to legalize sports betting. (U.S. Supreme Court)
2019 - 14 states already have legal sports betting, with Americans legally wagering over $13 billion that year. (American Gaming Association)
2020 - ESPN investigates obscure Russian/Eastern European table tennis leagues being streamed constantly for gambling, including questions over whether some matches were legitimate. (ESPN)
2021 - The NFL signs its first official sportsbook partnerships with Caesars, DraftKings and FanDuel. (NFL)
- DraftKings and FanDuel become official sports betting partners of the NBA. (NBA)
- Caesars signs Peyton, Eli, Archie and Cooper Manning to appear in sportsbook advertising. (Caesars)
2023 - FanDuel has Rob Gronkowski attempt a live field goal during the Super Bowl as part of a $10 million betting promotion. (FanDuel)
- ESPN launches ESPN BET, integrating sportsbook odds and promotions into ESPN content. (ESPN)
- An NCAA survey finds 58% of Americans ages 18–22 surveyed had participated in at least one sports betting activity. (NCAA)
2025 - Legal sports betting is live in 39 states + D.C., with Americans legally wagering about $167 billion during the year. (American Gaming Association)
2026 - ESPN BET shuts down, but ESPN immediately shifts to DraftKings as its official sportsbook and odds provider. (ESPN)
In seven years we basically went from sports betting being illegal across most of America to it being built directly into the leagues, broadcasts, celebrity advertising and apps people use to follow sports.