The growth of sports betting in the United States has come with several issues.
Outside of the obvious — that more Americans are gambling at irresponsible levels — there are also regulatory issues that have had an effect on the sports world.
NFL players have faced suspensions for betting on games, while the NBA recently had the high-profile case of Jontay Porter, a fringe player who was banned from the league for life for player prop bets placed on him that he fixed by faking injuries.
Sports leagues like the NBA and NFL have the ability to ban its players who could alter bets or bet on themselves, but the regulations differ among the many sports and leagues.
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A prominent example of this was seen late last month after boxer Ryan Garcia won his match against Devin Haney. Garcia was a +600 underdog for the fight — though he was an even bigger underdog before the weigh-in, where he was three pounds overweight.
However, a week after Garcia’s win, a report first published by ESPN said that the boxer had tested positive for Ostarine in a Voluntary Anti-Doping Association test taken before the fight.
From a boxing record standpoint, it’s unclear to this moment what will happen to the fight and whether Garcia and Haney will exchange the official win and loss. But from a betting standpoint, the result appears as though it will stand as a Garcia win.
That has caused a ton of chatter on both sides — but it’s put a spotlight on the issue in boxing about the effect of PEDs on sports betting.
Idc if Ryan Garcia was on steroids, i’m not giving FanDuel their money back 😂😂 https://t.co/Hg0xKkcgOK
— Kay Parlays (@KayParlays) May 2, 2024
The Action Network’s Chase Howell told TheStreet that first and foremost, he’s shocked that the results of Garcia’s test weren’t released prior to the fight.
“I don’t understand, in my opinion, how it took so long for this news to come out because it does affect betting so much,” Howell said.
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Garcia claims he even placed a $2 million bet on himself to win the match that would pay him out $12 million, though it’s unclear whether that is true. Bets of that magnitude are unlikely to clear with legal sportsbooks in the U.S. — and Howell said that he’s spoken to sportsbooks and was unable to find bets above five figures for the fight.
It doesn’t seem likely that Garcia will face any punishment when it comes to betting — an issue that Howell thinks is unique to boxing because of the many stakeholders and operators for fights from boxing organizations to state regulators.
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It’s unlikely that sportsbooks are going to take into account these types of instances in terms of bets moving forward — especially when news of PEDs comes out well after the actual match has ended.
Howell gave the example of the 2021 Kentucky Derby when after the win of the horse Medina Spirit was vacated because of a positive test for bethamasone, which is considered a performance-enhancer for horses. Medina had 12-1 odds to win the whole thing, and the bets placed on the Kentucky Derby were not changed despite the results.
While PEDs do not guarantee wins, they give a significant advantage to athletes that could create a problem in the betting industry if an athlete purposely takes PEDs and discloses that information to bettors. Or if the athletes places a bet on themself.
The solution must be proactive and not reactive to make sure there are better regulations prior to the fight. Howell believes that should start from the state regulators.
“I think [state regulators] need to be a lot more strict on the testing and they have to be able to conduct a lot of tests leading up to the fight,” Howell said.
In the meantime, Howell believes that the upcoming fight between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson on July 20 should be another test case for sports betting in a boxing. Paul has also been rumored to use PEDs in the past, so there may be more heightened monitoring given the situation with Garcia in the lead-up to the massive bout.
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