I moved across the country in 2019, packing a VW Jetta with pretty much everything I owned and coming to Vancouver. One of the first groups of people I met and made friends with were the core of my Sunday wood bat league team, and through them I started technically sports gambling. We didn\u2019t just play together on the field, most of us formed the backbone of a fantasy league, $50 buy-in, pretty standard Yahoo roto league sort of thing. My best finish is third, and this year I decided not to play.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m a little wary of the \u201cI decided to stop doing this thing and you all need to know about it\u201d type of thing that\u2019s kept certain of the Substack class in business, but this isn\u2019t Substack and you can go read a prospect report one byline below mine on this same blog. And I do think my reasons are real, and reflect a growing problem; the gambling\u2019s gotta go.<\/p>\n
Some folks out there are in the thrall of the \u201cpredictions markets\u201d (read: betting in a quarter-zip Patagonia) in the same way they were in the thrall of the NFT movement after being in the thrall of the 3D TV movement after being in the thrall of the Netbook movement, and I really wouldn\u2019t care about this newest attempt to separate you from your money if not for two things. First, this idea that you can purchase a contract (make a bet) on anything from the pitch you\u2019re about to throw in an MLB game to the death of a country\u2019s leader should just sit with you in an uncomfortable way, and second, baseball\u2019s highest level is signing off on that concept as an Official Partner.<\/p>\n
Yes, MLB and Polymarket are now bedfellows, and that the announcement came the same week the league confirmed that Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz were moved from paid suspension to unpaid leave as the investigation into their pitch-rigging scandal seems to move to another level is either ironic or perfectly fitting. Rob Manfred wants to promote every possible way to suck another dollar fifty out of a fan while arguably the best relief pitcher in the sport will likely never appear in professional baseball again, all centered around the same service!<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not an original thought on my part, but maybe we actually got Las Vegas correct as a species. An oasis in a desert where anything goes, and you always leave feeling a little sick to your stomach. Maybe that was the ideal for something like sports betting, a place you could go but it would take real friction \u2014 you had to take a plane or a road trip, you needed a hotel, you needed to worry about food. Even the casino in my city takes some kind of friction, a 25 minute subway ride that mandates I leave the home.<\/p>\n