I understand why you would not want athletes to throw games on purpose if they place a large bet for the opposing team to win, however let’s say I am a pitcher in baseball, and I place a bet for my own team to win, wouldn’t that only motivate me to play better because I stand to win more money by doing so?
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When it comes to betting, the most important thing an athlete has is NOT the ability to influence the outcome of a game. It is _access to information that can influence the outcome of a game._
So an athlete bets on his own team to win this week. Aw, he’s just confident in his teammates! But next week, he _doesn’t_ bet on his own team to win. Why not? Clearly he must know something that the betting public does not! Who’s hurt worse than we know? Who’s gonna be getting more carries? He might be illegally betting on inside information — and now the snowball is rolling.
Other gamblers say: We better find out what that inside info is! So now you’ve got gamblers coming at him and paying $10K for information about injuries, game planning and so on. They’re not paying him to throw the game (yet) — just paying for information. Contrary to popular belief, not all athletes are megamillionaires, and $10K is a lot of money to a guy on the bottom of the roster — a guy who only gets on the field for special teams, where he is in a prime position to miss a tackle on a kickoff return. And of course now that he’s taken money from gamblers, he’s compromised.
Pro athletes get a cut of the money that leagues get from their partner sports books. Part of that agreement is that they simply can’t bet on their own sport. There’s too much risk.
A lot gets made about the injury report in pro sports. Even when leagues were opposed to gambling, they wanted an accurate injury report so that everyone had the same information and gamblers would stay away from the players. The injury report came into being specifically because of the scenario above — gamblers were paying players for inside information, which left those players compromised and vulnerable to manipulation.
Of course, even if a player doesn’t bet at all, he could still get worked by gamblers trying to fish for information. But you’ve got to draw a clear line somewhere. If you’re playing in the game, or even if you’re just on the team, you just don’t get to bet on it.
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