It's Been a Minute
Get rich or die trying: how sports betting is changing our love of the game
Mon, 19 May 2025
It's been seven years since the Supreme Court legalized sports betting outside of Nevada. For some, it's a hobby that spices up a game, but for others it's become a side hustle or investing strategy. And in a time where 60% of U.S. households don't earn enough to afford basic costs of living... that can be a problem.This... is Money Troubles. And for the next few weeks, we're looking into the ways everyday people are trying to make ends meet... and what it says about how our culture views labor, basic needs, or even our favorite pastimes.Today on the show, writer Manny Fidel and journalist Danny Funt join Brittany to get into how sports betting is changing the way we watch sports, and what that means for the love of the game.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Chapter 1: How has sports betting changed our culture?
Hello, hello. I'm Brittany Luce, and you're listening to It's Been a Minute from NPR, a show about what's going on in culture and why it doesn't happen by accident. As you all know, I was obsessed with the 2025 Papal Conclave. There were TikTok edits about all the potential candidates, a Twitter account called Club Conclave, dedicating to following the updates.
And before Pope Leo XIV was chosen to lead the Catholic Church, the media was in a full speculative frenzy. But there was just one aspect of the process that I did not expect. People betting on the outcome of the conclave. Similar to the 2024 presidential election, the conclave became a type of sport to follow. And where there's sports, there's sports betting.
Chapter 2: What are the demographics of sports bettors?
It's only been seven years since the Supreme Court decision opened the floodgates for legal betting outside Nevada. In that time, Americans have wagered nearly half a trillion dollars.
That is Danny Funt. He covers sports betting for The Washington Post and is currently working on a book about the sports betting boom. He's been following how sports betting is changing sports and attracting new groups to the possibility of winning big.
In other forms of gambling, like slots or playing the lottery, a lot of women traditionally play that. The gender divide is so stark in sports betting, like perhaps 80-20 men who like this sort of adrenaline rush of... high-risk, high-reward games, sports betting is pretty appealing to them.
A whopping 48% of men 18 to 49 have an account with at least one of the online sportsbooks. Now, if the term sportsbook sounds unfamiliar to you, don't worry. You probably know these ones. DraftKings. Now, I know Super Bowl and all, but everyone gets a free bet?
Chapter 3: What is the impact of mobile betting platforms?
I love betting on the NBA with FanDuel, especially when I've got the world's greatest basketball mind on my side.
Platforms like FanDuel and DraftKings give potential bettors access to all types of odds, wagers and bets just with a swipe of their finger.
You don't physically have to go to the casino. That is like rundown and seedy looking like it's just on your phone.
That is Manny Fidel, a writer and producer who sometimes bets on sports himself.
Chapter 4: Is sports betting becoming an investment strategy?
You might feel more comfortable betting on Aaron Rodgers to throw a touchdown than you would be on the 50-50 chance of getting a red versus a black in roulette, for example.
He wrote an article in GQ about his sports betting experience and how he's opting out of participating in sports betting's biggest and most enticing moneymaker.
Specifically, I've had this beef with the same game parlay. It's lottery-esque, right? It's like you can bet $10 and win $1,000.
While it can be a fun way to spice up a game, sports betting has become so ubiquitous that it almost feels separate from gambling entirely. And for me, that raised some alarm bells.
People think of it as a side hustle or even in like an investing strategy. 80% of American adults who bet on sports think they can make money doing it.
Now more than ever, finances are at the top of everyone's mind. And young people are feeling that pressure especially hard. But sports betting seems to be hitting a cultural nerve that has some young men in a bind.
There's also just a kind of financial desperation that seems to be at play. Turning sports betting into more of a lottery type than a little for the chance at winning a lot is so appealing. Just like crypto where you're sort of saying, I know I'm probably going to lose money, but if this is a way that I could win a ton of money, I'm so desperate, I'll take that shot. This is Money Troubles.
And for the next few weeks, we're looking into the ways everyday people are trying to make ends meet and what that says about how our culture views labor, basic needs, or even our favorite pastimes. Today, Manny and Danny join me to get into how sports betting has gone from pastime to potential side hustle, even changing the way we watch sports.
And I want to know, what does the rise in sports betting mean for the love of the game? Okay, first off, how has sports betting gotten this kind of brand makeover or change in framing that's been so appealing to young guys?
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Chapter 5: What are the risks associated with same game parlays?
A company like DraftKings that's number two nationally behind FanDuel, their executives have told me like, we never anticipated just how much this would catch on, that this would be our biggest moneymaker. The margin is so much higher on those bets. The odds are basically cranked up in the house's favor that you're going to long-term lose like 20 to 30% of your money on same game parlays.
Whereas if you're just betting on the Lakers to win, or the Lakers to go over a certain point total, the more conventional types of betting, on those you're going to lose like $5 or $10 for every $100 you wager. So way more easy to burn through your money doing same-game parlays.
I don't know. For a long time, gambling was sort of seen – as like this seedy thing, right? And now you can see, you know, your favorite sports analyst giving bets or Kevin Hart commercials for DraftKings. I wonder, like, has sports betting rebranded gambling more broadly?
Yeah, the celebrity advertisers has such a big impact. I'm always a little hesitant to make the tobacco analogy for sports betting, just because it's such an inflammatory one, you want to be careful there. But
If you were to draw a comparison, the way that A-list celebrities marketed cigarettes in the 1950s and made it seem cool to young people is totally reminiscent of the way that Kevin Hart and Jamie Foxx and LeBron James and all these icons now advertise sports betting. But just the way that it normalizes it among young people especially is such a big part of this story. Coming up.
Honestly, the way people talk about sports sometimes is the way that like owners of teams are criticized of these guys are just chips on a board for them. And it's, you know, who's making me money? What have you done for me lately? How sports betting has changed the meaning of sports.
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Chapter 6: How do media partnerships influence sports betting?
I wonder about the ways in which we're seeing young men think about sports betting as a side hustle or as a smart financial move and how that kind of fits in with the way that they have gravitated toward other types of financial risks like day trading or cryptocurrency.
Not even just talking about the money-making aspect, but there's a bro culture around those things that to me feels very similar to sports betting. Is that something that y'all are observing as well? And if you are, I'd love to hear what you think about it.
There's been a lot of discourse about the male loneliness epidemic. And in that sense, I see... all of these like new kind of micro communities and group chats being formed. And I feel like a weird sense of warmth that like men are talking to each other about something every day and creating these different avenues for communication. Obviously I'm someone who's like, all right, there's a limit.
Like, You've got to be able to engage in this activity responsibly. Just so my friends don't yell at me after they hear this, I do think sports betting can be fun if you're doing it responsibly and not using it to get rich quick.
Yeah, there is that like bro-y hustle culture that you're describing that seems bigger than this. There's also just a kind of financial desperation that seems to be at play.
Like when we're talking about the appeal of same game parlays, you know, why turning sports betting into more of a lottery type bet a little for the chance at winning a lot is so appealing, just like crypto, you know, investing in crypto or other types of retail investing where you're
you're sort of saying, I know I'm probably going to lose money, but if this is a way that I could win a ton of money, I'm so desperate, I'll take that shot. And it's the easiest way to spise up a night when you're sitting at home and watching mid-season basketball or week seven NFL football.
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Chapter 7: What does the future hold for sports betting?
And the ability to just swipe your finger and it's suddenly the most intense game you've ever watched because you've got a lot of money on the line is irresistible to a lot of people. It's
Yeah, and that desperation layer to it resonates so much because even on social media, you see people who have placed bets tagging actual athletes in their posts, screaming at them for not making the last layup or whatever at the end of the game. You've seen people have real-life interactions with athletes.
That to me speaks to the most poisonous aspects of sports betting where you would bring yourself to go outside of the app and confront an athlete about their performance on your bet. And so that's definitely scary as a mental concern.
How has sports betting changed how we engage with sports?
Yeah, I mean, the cynics say it's made sports more transactional, where you used to, in an ideal world, have a very sentimental bond with your home team or your favorite player. And there are ideals that draw you to sports of determination, discipline, teamwork. It sounds sappy, but honestly, we waste a lot of time watching sports. It's usually for those sorts of aspirational reasons. But
Honestly, the way people talk about sports sometimes is the way that like owners of teams are criticized of these guys are just chips on a board for them. And it's, you know, who's making me money? What have you done for me lately? I don't have that emotional bond to this game. It's just numbers on a page as I'm trying to, you know, get wealthy. So that to me is honestly depressing.
I feel like sports is one of the few like arenas in society or culture more broadly that Where a lot of it, when you get down to it, is really about the joy of hard work. And the joy of hard work is also appreciated in the fandom, right?
There's a real simplicity in what the spectacle is, which is seeing people do these incredible things with their bodies that they have been, through a combination of heredity and luck and a lot of hard work, they've been able to achieve. Like WNBA, World Cup, I'm a different person, okay? I'm like sports is the universal language, baby. And there's something really beautiful about that.
At the end of the day, when you get down to it, that's to me what I've always felt like sports is for. But with this uptick in online sports betting, what is sports about now?
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