The same day the NFL suspended Falcons receiver Calvin Ridley over a $1500 bet and costing him his $11 million salary, it was hard not to think of Ridley’s situation when Golf Channel aired a perplexing feature (below) about sports betting during Monday’s Live From The Players. In just over five minutes, the piece served up a combo platter attempting to use golf’s long history of players wagering on the course as a legitimizing force for the fan gambling push. With plenty of the usual grow-the-game, it’s-what-the-kids-want gibberish.
(After the feature the PGA Tour’s Norb Gambuzza revealed in an on set discussion that the 501(c)(6) non-profit is hoping to up its share of the U.S. sports betting market from 1.5% to 4-5% in the next few years. So much for the slow, careful buildout.)
Also making the piece pretty weird: ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt was the primary voice for a pro-gambling message.
The feature’s message suggests it'’s cool for players to bet in a practice round or at home when playing golf, yet there will be consequences if they bet on PGA Tour action under their integrity statutes. However, since the PGA Tour does not announce fines and suspensions, we probably won’t know if a player ever does such a thing or is punished in the same manner as Calvin Ridley.
Regarding disclosure, Gambuzza was asked by Rich Lerner in the post-feature discussion if player injury reports will be optional. It’s a good question given that other sports provide various ways for gamblers to have some sense who might be at less than 100% or even doubtful for a game. Golf is going to leave such information up to the players.
This is problematic since there are others (caddies, club reps, agents, range pickers) who have access to inside information that can be used to profit. As soon as gamblers know they were kept in the dark and it becomes the “product” lacks transparency, unwanted controversies are all but guaranteed.
Here is the feature under the title of “Golf betting emerging from shadows of sport”. Lerner voices what is said to look at “the impact sports gambling has had on professional leagues around the world and how that translates to golf,” but really is just a messy attempt to rationalize the hard push to capitalize on betting.