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Little faith
New research from UK-based YouGov in the immediate wake of the October NBA betting scandal from UK-based YouGov has revealed a profound crisis of confidence in US sports integrity.
According to the global public opinion researcher, a survey revealed more than 80% of US sports bettors think professional athletes alter how they play to affect the outcome of bets.
days after the FBI arrested Miami Heat player Terry Rozier and former coach Chauncey Billups
YouGov harvested the results from 19,000 US citizens days after the FBI arrested Miami Heat player Terry Rozier and former coach Chauncey Billups in connection with an illegal match-rigging and poker investigation.
While the 80% score came from bettors who were polled, 65% of the general population, including those who bet and those who don’t, also thought athletes were dirty.
Scandal for the ages
The survey comes after the FBI’s massive investigations Operation Royal Flush and Operation Nothing But Bet led to the indictment of over 30 people, including Rozier and Billups, on charges ranging from insider betting based on feigned injuries to participation in a mob-linked, high-stakes poker ring.
only 6% said they believed athletes never alter their play
The most concerning piece of data, however, is that among the people polled, only 6% said they believed athletes never alter their play to help gamblers win bets.
Active sports bettors were unsurprisingly the most distrustful of athletes, with 18% certain that game manipulation happens “often” opposed to 13% of the general population.
According to industry reports, the level of distrust poses a complex challenge for sports betting operators in preserving their customers’ confidence in the “the fairness” of their products. The wave of integrity scandals in US sports, according to the survey, has begun to alter the public’s perception of the sportsbook brands behind the wagers.
Brands take hit
The UK market research firm also measured net reputational scores in a split test asking respondents if they’d be proud or embarrassed to work for a company, listing US sportsbooks as the choices.
Across the top ten US sportbooks, according to YouGov, brand reputation only fell by an average of 1.1%, but it was a different story for the two market dominators DraftKings and FanDuel who faced steep declines.
Betway bucked the trend
Both firms saw a 3.1% year-on-year decline in reputation, with 3.5% more respondents choosing embarrassed rather than proud to be employed by DraftKings, with FanDuel not far behind on 3.4%. Betway bucked the trend, however, and was the only sportsbook to record an improvement in brand image, albeit up to a modest +0.1%.
YouGov also probed opinion on what effect the public thought legalizing gambling had on sports. While sports bettors were unsurprisingly more favorable to the presence of legal markets at 31%, 44% of the general audience believed they hurt sports, with just 9% seeing legalization as positive.
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