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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There’s just a lot of illicit activity that could come about as a result.
* I could offer to secretly split my winnings with a player on the other team. He’s incentivized to play badly so that I win, and he gets around any regulations betting *against* himself.
* I could play badly for several games prior to my “big bet” game. My betting odds go up as a result, and I can win bigger when I play my best and actually win – now I’ve manipulated the bet spread to my advantage.
* There’s a lot of insider information available that might not be public. The opposing team has a star player, but our team’s scouts know that we have a strategy that gives us a great chance to beat him. The odds that I know are different from what the public knows, and I get an advantage over the betting market.
* Every athlete has incentive to cheat to a degree, but adding more money on top of it just makes cheating in my sport even more enticing
In some cases, leagues and commissions do allow players to bet on themselves (but not *against* themselves), such as boxing. But especially in team sports where there are lots of variables involved and more chance for manipulation, there are valid reasons to ban betting altogether, and avoid any of these issues from cropping up.
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