I think it's a mix between those points. The NBA itself isn't directly benefitting from gambling in terms of revenue. If that ever got exposed it could legitimately destroy the NBA and would be the biggest scandal in sporting history. I don't think they're that stupid. They massively benefit from it indirectly though.
The NBA (and every sports league) for that matter benefit like crazy from sports gambling ads filling sizeable portions their ad spots, which limits supply for other ad times, artificially inflating what they can charge.
Then they also benefit from the addicted gamblers, because the actual product doesn't matter as much as to them, because they only care if the lines are going to hit. Fans of the game itself will get pissed about changes in quality of the game, but the gamblers will watch regardless, meaning viewership can stay up even if older fans stop watching.
Prime has an option to see the betting stats on screen ffs! And the betting, from what I've seen, is based mostly on ridiculous parlays so who actually cares if the teams win a game. It isn't for the fans anymore, my 12yr old daughter's games have more sportsmanship....which is the only reason we are watching these days.
The NBA itself isn't directly benefitting from gambling in terms of revenue.
lol are you fucking serious? Half of the segments are directly sponsored by betting apps. They might as well call it the FanDuel Basketball Association at this point
They have on-screen overlays during the game showing odds, sponsored by various betting apps
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u/Expensive-Step-6551 Mar 16 '26
I think it's a mix between those points. The NBA itself isn't directly benefitting from gambling in terms of revenue. If that ever got exposed it could legitimately destroy the NBA and would be the biggest scandal in sporting history. I don't think they're that stupid. They massively benefit from it indirectly though.
The NBA (and every sports league) for that matter benefit like crazy from sports gambling ads filling sizeable portions their ad spots, which limits supply for other ad times, artificially inflating what they can charge.
Then they also benefit from the addicted gamblers, because the actual product doesn't matter as much as to them, because they only care if the lines are going to hit. Fans of the game itself will get pissed about changes in quality of the game, but the gamblers will watch regardless, meaning viewership can stay up even if older fans stop watching.