There is an inescapable saturation happening in American sports — commercial after commercial, billboard after billboard — it’s the rapid growth of sports gambling.
In 2023, Americans bet $120 billion on sports, a 27.5% jump from 2022. Just one year later, bets hit a new record with nearly $150 billion, a 22.2% increase for 2024, according to the American Gaming Association. Revenue for the American sports betting industry is up as well, from just over $11 billion in 2023 to a record near $14 billion in 2024.
Danny Funt is a journalist covering the industry and examines this as one of the most consequential and least scrutinized shifts in modern American sports in his new book “Everybody Loses.” The book is claimed to be the “first major investigation into America’s sports gambling industry.”
Framed as a national gamble in its own right, the book questions what we stand to gain and what we are willing to lose when we transform a nation of sports fans into a nation of sports bettors.
Money is just a part of the story. Are wins and losses shaping identity? Are fans making riskier decisions as they get more embedded in gambling? How does our relationship with reality change when every moment can be monetized?
On this episode, we discuss Funt’s take on the sports betting industry. From harassment and threats to athletes, the way wagering can distort how fans experience the game and even a former sportsbook executive recognizing his “job was to basically slowly bleed someone dry” while speaking with Funt — how did we get here?
GUEST:
Danny Funt, journalist covering sports betting and online gambling, The Washington Post and The New Yorker; author, "Everybody Loses: The Tumultuous Rise of American Sports Gambling"
