The low-hanging fruit of players being suspended for gambling on sports has made it easier for the NFL to ignore the top-of-tree coconuts that could fall on the league’s head.
Inside information presents a constant threat to the integrity of the game. Who has it? How is it being protected? How is the NFL ensuring it won’t be misused by those who could profit from it?
One type of inside information relates to facts about a given team’s plans in advance of a given game. Which players will be showcased? Who is really injured, who isn’t? Will the game plan be focused on the run, or the pass?
Another type of inside information exists, and that information a far more direct on the outcome of an associated wager. With bets made on when and where players will be drafted, knowledge regarding a given team’s plans can be very, very powerful. And reports based on that knowledge can be very, very impactful.
Last week, in advance of the NBA draft, NBA insider Shams Charania suggested that a player named Scooter Henderson “was gaining serious momentum” to be the second overall pick. Some of Charania’s readers reacted by betting on Henderson to be the second overall pick, moving the betting markets. The Charlotte Hornets, with that second pick, ultimately went in another direction.
As noted by Jared Diamond of the Wall Street Journal, Charania has a business relationship with FanDuel, a sports book that profited from people betting incorrectly on Henderson being the second overall pick in the NBA draft.
No one is suggesting that anything improper happen, but the appearance of potential impropriety is unavoidable. Charania, paid by FanDuel, pushed a possibility that got people to make bad bets, to the financial gain of FanDuel.
It’s just another thing the NFL must be concerned about. The NFL has sports book sponsors. The NFL employs a small army of reporters. What if Ian Rapoport had reported on the day of the draft that the Panthers might draft Anthony Richardson instead of Bryce Young? Some bettors would have acted on that report, wagering on Richardson to be the first overall pick — and eventually losing their money to one or more sports books that give money to the NFL.
And so, beyond the concern regarding the misuse of inside information is the potential use of misinformation that could benefit the sports books that pay the NFL. The sports books ultimately want to win your money, and reporting from NFL reporters could help them do that — especially if that reporting ultimately was not accurate.
It can be done without a reporter undermining his or her reputation. Charania, for example, didn’t say Henderson would be the second overall pick. He simply threw an idea out there that Henderson could be, and the market predictably reacted.
The first major scandal of the legalized sports betting era has yet to happen. But it’s inevitable. And it can come from a variety of potential places — including the misuse of inside information and/or the weaponization of misinformation. It’s critical for the league to spot all potential problems, and to put meaningful steps in place to ensure that a potential problem doesn’t become an actual crisis.
