AILSA CHANG, HOST:
The World Cup is expected to be the biggest sports betting event ever. And wagering on sports has never been more accessible to fans, even though it is not a new phenomenon. Wailin Wong and Darian Woods from The Indicator tell us how gambling became foundational to professional sports.
DARIAN WOODS, BYLINE: Sports gambling has a long history that goes back millennia, all the way back to ancient Olympic Games in Greece.
WAILIN WONG, BYLINE: In the U.S., though, sports gambling was essentially illegal until 2018. But David Bockino has his own take about how long gambling has been a part of American sports. He's a professor at Elon University in North Carolina and author of the new book "Over/Under: An Unexpected History Of Sports Betting."
WOODS: David argues that gambling is not something that grew out of American sports. It's actually the other way around. Collegiate and professional sports in the U.S. exist in their current form because of gambling.
DAVID BOCKINO: What I found in those early years is that what got those people to go out and watch baseball games was gambling, was betting. It's that me and you show up to a game, and I say, hey, you take the red team. I'll take the blue team. We'll bet a nickel. We'll bet a dime. We'll bet a dollar, whatever.
WONG: And in fact, the official historian of Major League Baseball has said that gambling is one of three essential ingredients for a game to grow into a national professional sport. The other two essential ingredients are statistics and publicity. And David says this combination of gambling, stats and public awareness shows up in other professional sports like boxing and American football.
WOODS: But the people running these leagues haven't always felt comfortable with the connection to betting. Some of this is tied to cultural ebbs and flows and sentiment around gambling. But David sees a business reason behind the unease.
BOCKINO: So what they're saying is that, hey, more gambling will lead to fixed games. Fixed games will then lead to potential decreased fan interest, which will then bring down the value of our franchises, the value of our leagues.
WONG: It's not an unreasonable anxiety, right?
BOCKINO: No, it's not. I think we've gotten to the point where I'm not sure major game-fixing scandals would have that much of an effect on the popularity of amateur and professional sports.
WONG: And sports gambling in the U.S. is more popular than ever. Leagues, teams, media networks and even individual athletes have official partnerships with gambling companies like sportsbook operators. Data from the American Gaming Association show that sports betting revenues totaled $17 billion in 2025. That's up 23% from the prior year.
WOODS: All of this activity has been accompanied by not just game-fixing scandals but other problems like addiction and the harassment of players. The NCAA recently surveyed athletes and found that around 35% of Division I men's basketball players reported experiencing social media abuse related to sports betting.
WONG: Did reporting this book, you know, reshape your thinking in any way around these things?
BOCKINO: It has changed my thinking in some ways. The biggest one is that I don't love that betting is this big a part of American sports, even if it was inevitable.
WOODS: David says he doesn't like how modern betting has stripped away the communal aspects of sports fandom. He says, when he talks to his students, they agree. And David's optimistic the next generation will find a way to address some of these pitfalls.
WONG: Wailin Wong.
WOODS: Darian Woods, NPR News.
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