If it weren't for gambling,would there be alot of interest in sports?

[BrentCrude]

I always laugh when major sports leaugues including the NCAA act as though gambling doesn't exist and they believe people that go to the games and watch at home really are fans that care about the school or teams.God forbid a state that gave the team owner hundreds of millions of tax payer dollars for a new stadium or arena taint pro sports by selling parlay cards through the lottery in the state.

I will agree that the athletes are better than ever and you see gem plays in every game and the games are competitive because there aren't many bad teams anymore or teams that create alot of errors or mistakes.

All that said,what moron really cares about these womanizing,steroid using,ego driven jerk asshole athletes?These guys typically were the kind of air headed jocks that you despised when you were in high school.Who the hell cares what team of jerks beats the other team of jerks.Team mates can't even stand each other.Then these players have no loyalty to the towns they play in.Next year when they move on through free agency and are playing with another team they will be bashing the town they used to play in.These guys would play in Siberia or Antarctica if the price was right.

Pro and college sports should kiss the ground any legal,illegal or offshore sportsbook walks on because if it weren't for the added interest of gambling on games all that would show up to watch would be retards that sit in the front row of pro wrestling matches thinking it's a legitimate sport.Then usually the simpletons get free tickets to the games anyway so that's not a money maker for the teams.hehe!

[BuddyBear]

I think it would hurt the NFL quite a bit....especially prime time games like SNF and MNF. Similarly NCAAF and NCAAB would suffer quite a bit since those are favorites to gamble.

I think baseball would be okay though...

[JoshW]

Would hurt some, but the majority of fans don't even care about betting.

[rolemand]

I agree completely with lakerfan. As a kid you don't think about betting you just fall in love with a team or a sport and love to watch. It's only later in life that you may pick up the betting vice to add more sports into your viewing repertoire and level of interest. At least that's the way it worked for me.

[BigD]

I don't think it would hurt baseball at all, I think it would hurt Football a little mostly everyone nowadays has some form of action on football. NCAA would get hurt the most I mean would you really stay up to watch Hawaii at midnight if you didn't have action on it, I believe ESPN would get zero rating during college hoops and football if there were no action. Who really is interested in Akron and Miami Ohio on a Tuesday night other then people with action unless you a fan of the team

[Seattle Slew]

I back this theory as well. I think the interest level would suffer, however, once your own team was eliminated.

As for the NFL, I think they would suffer the most. I recall a great line a few years ago when the NFL put out some crazy statistic that their research showed only 8 percent (or some silly low number) of people who watch the NFL actually bet on it.

Analyst Beano Cook had the greatest comeback to that line: "They all live on my street."

I agree completely with lakerfan. As a kid you don't think about betting you just fall in love with a team or a sport and love to watch. It's only later in life that you may pick up the betting vice to add more sports into your viewing repertoire and level of interest. At least that's the way it worked for me.

[Willie Bee]

Analyst Beano Cook had the greatest comeback to that line: "They all live on my street."

Ol' Beano could come up with some doozies at times.

Football would definitely get hit the most, but only in terms of TV viewers and sites that have the increasingly sophisticated game-tracker info. The stadiums would still be full, Saturday afternoon tailgates would still be huge on college campuses and Monday Morning QBs would still be in full force around the old water cooler talking about great catches and missed field goals.

[BigDog]

I believe there are a LARGE majority of people that wouldn't ever watch a sporting event again if they didn't wager on it.....I can honestly say that 95% of the games I watch its because I have money riding on it.....If there was no money involved,I would only watch playoff/tournament games and really wouldn't care either way on most of those.....Its sooooo hard to really pull for "your" team anymore because so many players are worthless pieces of shit and the ONLY thing they care about is the paycheck.....It makes me sick seeing some of these guys attitudes.

Sports and I do mean ALL sports would take a HUGE hit if there was no online sportsbooks,locals or other avenues to place wagers

[scottyy11]

I just dont think there is as much love of sports as there was years ago..............i think people love the action more (betting,pools ect..). I don't think kids play as many pickup games that they use to .......not around here anyway. I feel sports in general lost alot of the warm fuzzy feeling when everyone started making 10 million a year, makes it hard for the average joe to relate to the guys.

[SBR_John]

Its one of those deals where the sports say we are against gambling while they have their fingers crossed behind their back.

Player salaries would be cut in half or less if there was no gambling on sports.

[slacker00]

Sports Betting is woven into the fabric of sports, deny it or not. I listen to sports radio, and they struggle to NOT put things in gambling terms. Just talking about who the "favorite" or "underdog" is, is couched in a gambling mindset. People who are interested in sports are at least marginally interested in gambling aspects of sports despite the antisocial connotations of gambling in general.

Personally, I find myself getting "hooked" into wagering events which I would never have much more than a marginal passing interest. I've followed American Idol, from a betting standpoint, as well as horse racing, which never interested me whatsoever. Same with NBA and MLB, which don't really interest me as a sport, but it's hard not to play some of the betting angles. I imagine betting is an integral part of sports, due to this simple fact that many events and sports gain interest when there's betting interest, and vice versa.

[priceperheadexpert]

Gentlemen..The NFL did a study years ago where they measured gambling against viewership..They were so scared they couldnt print the results..

Demographically if there were no gambling on these events, the group if viewers would be mostly 13-21..I believe salaries would also be affected..Go to a KNICK game..with 2 minutes and the Knicks up 10 and the line being 8..look at the $$$ seats..Thats when you see the gamblers..and by the way..they are everywhere..