Eli5: Why are professional athletes typically banned from placing bets that are in favor of their own team/themselves?

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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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Anonymous 0 Comments

Because bets aren’t that simple. You have bets like “we’ll win and beat the spread ” or not beat the spread.

Like say the bet is, we’ll win, but only by less than 3 points.

So if there’s a chance to win by more than that, they could do something that will make sure it doesn’t happen.

It gets very complicated with all the different types of bets being made.

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