How sports betting has changed the game for fans and athletes

If you’re a Seahawks fan, Sunday’s big game was glorious domination.

For the rest of the hundred-and-thirty-million plus viewers the defensive showcase was maybe a bit of a snooze.

But football fans had other ways to amp up the excitement:

Betting cold hard cash.

It’s impossible to avoid hearing about betting when you’re watching most sporting events in the US these days -- let alone the biggest game of the year.

According to the American Gambling Association, Americans were expected to wager $1.76 billion dollars on this year’s Super Bowl. That’s a near 27% increase over last year.

Now, sports betting is still illegal in Washington state outside of tribal casinos. 

But, as the mobile betting market has expanded legally into more and more states, alternative means for placing bets have become increasingly popular - even in states like Washington.

And according to my next guest, that market isn’t just shaping how we watch the game. It’s changing the game itself.

Guest:

• Danny Funt covers sports betting as a contributor at the Washington Post, and he’s the author of the new book “Everybody Loses: The Tumultuous Rise of American Sports Gambling”

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