Thereβs an old saw in the journalism world: When a dog bites someone, it ainβt news. Flip it around, though, and itβs a screaming front page headline: Man bites dog!
As such, please allow me to present to you this woefully underreported story: Bettors in New Hampshire crushed the Super Bowl, wagering $7.1 million and winning $8.8 million. Thatβs right: At least for one day in February, the man bit the dog.
A few caveats: One, DraftKings has a sportsbook monopoly in New Hampshire due to the stateβs silly set-up, so to be clear, itβs DraftKings that took it on the chin there. And New Hampshire bettors are not ready to give up on Tom Brady, as itβs clear the Bucs’ victory was the main driver of public profit.
βSports fans across New England know you cannot bet against Tom Brady, even if it is a little bittersweet watching him lead a different team to a Super Bowl championship,β Charlie McIntyre, the executive director of the New Hampshire Lottery, said in a press release. βWe want to congratulate our players for remaining loyal to the GOAT and for winning big in this yearβs Super Bowl.β
But no one wrote about it. Maybe the Google news search functionality is screwy, but the only ink I saw spilled was from the NH Business Review, and they kinda got the story wrong, saying that the state βwound up $3 million in the holeβ due to losses incurred in the Super Bowl. Which isnβt right, both the number and the βin the holeβ bit. The piece also quoted politicians worried about βlosingβ $3 million. So many lessons here, to be tackled another day.
But yep, that was it, as far as my Google search took me. No other stories about New Hampshire bettors sticking it to DraftKings, and thatβs despite a journalistβs best friend, the quotable press release.
Why?
Sports media still ignoring gambling
βThe thing that it really says to me is that the media really hasnβt caught up with how big sports gambling is,β said John Affleck, who doubles as the Knight Chair in Sports Journalism and Society and the director of the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State. βAnd while itβs still a small piece of the casino industry as a whole, itβs fundamentally changing how we watch sports. Mainstream media is still covering it pretty much like we just watched the game and weβre happy because our team won and we donβt have fantasy teams and arenβt looking at the lines 20 minutes before kickoff. Thatβs why you donβt get coverage of this.β
Affleck, who spent 22 years with the Associated Press before making the jump to academia, said he was recently talking to a sports editor of a large metro daily who told him they had what amounted to a βGambling 101β session for the editors and reporters so they could understand basic sports betting terminology.
βLike parlays, stuff like that,β Affleck said. βJust basic terms. And so clearly, when thatβs the situation, they’re going to miss stuff because they just donβt know it well enough.β
Aaron Moore, a professor at Rider University in Lawrence, N.J., spends his research time at the intersection of sports journalism and gambling. And he agrees with Affleckβs take — and then some.
βMost donβt know about it, and the rest donβt want to know about it,β Moore said. βMainstream sportswriters donβt know enough about gambling, and so many of them are still operating under this old perspective, that itβs a space with criminals and back alleys and broken kneecaps. Itβs an outdated mentality.β
And beyond the knowledge gap lies the high-and-mighty gap.
βSo many of them believe they are above gambling, and they believe people read, watch, and listen to them simply for the love of sports, to see things from their vantage point,β Moore said. βThey do not want to acknowledge sports fans are into gambling and that they see these journalists mostly as information sources for gambling. This would be a shock to the prestigious sportswriters out there who think gambling is beneath them.β
Some gambling news sites have issues
Another issue at play? A touchy subject, to be sure, but the fact remains much of what passes for gambling journalism right now hails from publications that, to a small or greater degree, are engaged a symbiotic relationship with the sportsbooks. But Iβm proud to say Sports Handle and its associated titles are 100% on team βall the news thatβs fit to print,β no matter how lousy it may make the sportsbooks look (see our stories on DraftKings and its ongoing messenger betting kerfuffle, accusations against William Hill of cheating on in-game betting, or my own reporting on the ridiculous limits sportsbooks are placing on even their clearly non-professional clientele).
But to be even more fair, and for a moment of self-awareness, we also didnβt write something up on the joy in Mudville-ness of the New Hampshire bettorsβ super Sunday.Β
βA lot of the gaming press is coming from the perspective of the casinos, of the books, and thatβs not something theyβd be wanting to promote, that they didnβt have a great day,β Affleck said.
Moore echoed the point.
βMuch of the gambling media, along with the bookmakers, are together in this,β he said. βParticularly in New Hampshire, where itβs done through the state lottery. Itβs not really in anyoneβs best interest to talk about the bad stuff.βΒ
Of course, whatβs bad for DraftKings and New Hampshire is good for the sports bettor, be they a pro or, much more likely, a casual player who just enjoys getting a little lunch money down on his favorite quarterback of all time, even if heβs sporting different colors.
Time to change
Of course, widespread legalized sports betting is still in its infancy in America, and both Moore and Metcalf believe things will change in the media, perhaps rapidly.
βIt’s an outdated ideology the media has right now,β Moore said. βIt will absolutely change going forward. The best thing about legalized sports betting is it allows the conversation to happen in the public. No more hidden language, winks, and secret handshakes. You can be in any public setting and talk about sports gambling because itβs legal. Journalists have to be aware of it.β
Affleck is right there.
βI think itβs got to change. I think it will become routine,β he said. βI foresee the traditional gamer story will include a line like, βThe Raiders were favored by seven, but the field goal that cut it to five with three minutes left gave the win to the Ravens bettors.βΒ Part of the reason that it hasnβt been in stories is because it wasnβt legal. And now that it is, thereβs still the vestigial idea that itβs somehow tawdry or unethical to mention gambling. But that is clearly dated.β
So in short: Congratulations, New Hampshire bettors. Sorry we didnβt write about your big winnings. We will next time, I promise. But uh β¦ since weβre here β¦ do ya like the Celtics giving the points in Washington Tuesday night, or nah?Β