By Michael Stamatos
Rebecca Dennis, a 29-year-old living in Houston, Texas, isn’t confident of the integrity of professional sports in the United States.
“I think it’s all rigged,” Dennis said. “So it’s reality TV. You know, when they use reality TV, they try to change what actually happens a little bit so that it’s more interesting.”
The Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism at Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, in collaboration with the university’s Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement and the Washington Post, conducted a national poll of 1,032 adults. The online poll from December 4-7 gathered opinions about the growing influence of the sports gambling industry – and its impact on the outcome of the games.
Fifty-six percent of Americans are confident that professional sports in the U.S. are played competitively and that outcomes aren’t influenced by gambling, according to the poll.
Of 1,032 U.S. adults polled, only 11% said they were very confident. Forty-six percent said they were somewhat confident, while 32% said that they were “not too confident” and 12% reported that they weren’t at all confident.
People who watch sports more often were more confident that outcomes aren’t influenced by gambling. Sixty-three percent of people who reported that they watch sports monthly or more often were confident that outcomes weren’t influenced by gambling compared to 48% of people who said that they don’t watch sports monthly.
Adults aged 18-34 – the study’s most active gamblers, with 24% of respondents in that range reported having placed a bet in the past five years – were confident in the integrity of professional sports in the U.S..
Of all respondents, those 65 and older were most confident that professional sports in the U.S. involve outcomes not influenced by gambling. In that group, 67% said that they were very or somewhat confident in the integrity of professional sports.
Diane Davis, a retired Silicon Valley worker, said that she was around “50 percent” confident that the outcomes of professional sports in the U.S. aren’t influenced by gambling.
However, she was more confident in the belief that sports gambling’s rapid growth continuing will lead to more outcomes being influenced by gambling – especially with football players.
“The length of their careers is short,” Davis said. “I worked for 40 years. They’re not working for 40 years, which is reflected in the fact that they get paid a lot, because they’re not going to be able to do it forever, but it would again be another incentive for them to, you know, make money while they can.”
Prop bets or micro bets – different bet types that involve individual players or focus on specific events occurring during sporting contests – have been prominent in many recent sports betting scandals.
In Major League Baseball, two Cleveland Guardians pitchers – one a three-time All-Star – were suspended and indicted on federal charges having been accused of rigging individual pitches. Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, who has played ten years in the National Basketball Association, were arrested and charged in gambling cases involving alleged insider betting and rigged poker games.
Chris Yost, who is semi-retired and lives in Alabama who previously owned various businesses, stated that he doesn’t have a strong opinion on online sports betting in general, but is strongly against prop bets.
“It sets up the sport to be tampered with,” Yost said. “I feel like it does open the door to possibly get athletes to maybe affect the outcome of the game for money.”
National Collegiate Athletic Association President Charlie Baker has been outspoken against prop bets in college sports since his appointment in March 2023. Now 15 states ban prop bets with several others having restrictions.
Sixty percent of respondents in the Povich Center-CDCE-Washington Post poll believe that prop bets are likely to lead to sporting events being fixed or rigged. Older respondents were the group with the most consistent belief that prop bets will likely lead to fixed sporting events – 66% of respondents 65 or older put that it was either very likely or somewhat likely, compared to only 57% of respondents aged 18-34.
“I feel like the athletes probably would have less guilt,” Yost said regarding prop bets. “I’m concerned doing that – doing something on a single play, not affecting the overall outcome of the game or their season, or anything else – that’s why I’m against proposition betting.”