"There have always been some pro athletes who bet on their own games" has never made any sense to me as an argument for making it way easier to bet on sports. Akin to "There have always been athletes who use steroids, so we should put a pre-loaded syringe in every players' locker."

Loved getting to appear on @vox.com's "Today, Explained" pod to discuss sports gambling scandals -- and share a few scoops from my book "Everybody Loses" (preorder link in bio) megaphone.link/VMP2802839945

Excited to be on @nbcnews.com at 3:15 ET to discuss the MLB indictments and the growing concern that legal gambling is corrupting sports.

Two Cleveland Guardians pitchers were arrested yesterday for allegedly manipulating their play in coordination with bettors. Seems like a good time to re-up my recent @newyorker.com piece explaining why people inside sports predicted this kind of corruption. www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...

Really enjoyed @jessedougherty.bsky.social's reflections on sportswriters also being fans. I find it annoying when journalists ham up rooting for "their" team. I also find it annoying when journalists are joyless about sports they cover. What's the happy medium? open.substack.com/pub/colleges...

Thrilled to read this starred review in @ala-booklist.bsky.social. Thank you! "Funt masterfully chronicles the meteoric rise in gambling and societal acceptance of a predatory business in a book that will simultaneously inform and alarm readers." "Everybody Loses" is available for preorder.

I was hyped to be listening to the @houseofstrauss.skystack.xyz podcast and hear this really generous shoutout for my book "Everybody Loses" by @bomani-jones.bsky.social. Thank you both! It's available now for preorder on Amazon, B&N, etc. or through your local bookstore youtu.be/11fiWyRSOvA?...

"Integrity monitors such as Sportradar are responsible for flagging sports gambling-related corruption, so I was alarmed to hear both of the men I phoned use the same expression to describe a fundamental defect in that oversight: 'A fox in the henhouse.'" via @dannyfunt.bsky.social

Integrity monitors are responsible for flagging sports gambling-related corruption, so I was alarmed to hear two veterans of the field use the same expression to describe a fundamental defect in that oversight: "A fox in the henhouse." I get into why for @msnbc.com www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...

"Gambling advocates can’t lose. When time passes without a scandal, they say it proves fears about legal gambling are overblown. When a player is caught betting, they say, The system is working."

Leagues claim that the legalization of gambling protects the integrity of sports. But as the scandals rack up, this claim has become flimsier, and fans have started to lose faith in the legitimacy of what they’re watching.

Sports gambling "integrity monitoring" often prioritizes sportsbook profits, not the integrity of games. Saying otherwise, acknowledged one integrity monitor veteran, "frankly is bullshit." My @newyorker.com dive into the NBA bombshell and an emerging scourge of corruption 👇

Woke up to epic Steph Curry highlights. Also see the Thunder played yet another double-OT thriller. There have been a ton of awesome moments in just the the first few days of NBA action. Got me feeling really bummed about the gambling scandals. They run the risk of sapping the joy from sports.

Really looking forward to discussing the Terry Rozier and Chauncey Billups gambling arrests — and what they might reveal about corruption in sports — with @jaketapper.bsky.social on @cnn.com tonight. I should come on around 6:15 ET

Just gonna drop this here. There is a full chapter about how gambling is corrupting sports, and how the leagues, sportsbooks, and their "integrity monitor" partners don't seem remotely equipped to stop it. www.simonandschuster.com/books/Everyb...

Remember: Sportsbooks almost never issue refunds to customers who bet on a game that turned out to be fixed.

How many years of Wemby will it be before I can watch him without constantly thinking "damn he is so tall"?

My latest newsletter features an exclusive interview with the writer of a memorable sports gambling episode of "The Sopranos." But I also wrote about The New York Times's unhinged account of a New Jersey baseball game in 1884. Here's a taste of what I mean: dannyfunt.substack.com/p/what-the-s...

Matthew Weiner wrote a remarkable episode of "The Sopranos" about Tony's descent into compulsive sports gambling. For the first time, Weiner explains what that storyline sought to convey about the dangers of sports betting. It's more resonant than ever. (link👇)

This is exactly the point I was trying to make in my previous tweet. People admitting that gambling hurts their personal relationships is not a matter of "narrative."

Per @johngramlich.bsky.social in @pewresearch.org, Americans increasingly believe: --legal sports gambling is bad for the country (34% in 2022 to 43% now) -- and bad for sports (from 33% to 40%) In response ... (1/2) ...

I've heard sharp sports bettors dream of gaining access to that very data, for golfers especially.

@drewmagary.bsky.social presses @pablo.show to give straight answers on questions I and probably a lot of people have been wondering about, namely, "How on earth does Pablo have time to dig up so much so consistently?" Great interview. www.sfgate.com/sports/artic...

I had to pick my jaw off the floor after reading this lede in @rachelmonroe.bsky.social on self-defense insurance. Like out of an Elmore Leonard novel. www.newyorker.com/news/letter-...

Right after Trump's '24 election, Adam Gopnik of the @newyorker.com offered a prediction that seemed improbable and oddly specific at the time: He said one of MAGA's first priorities would be to find a way to get Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel out of late night.

So much intrigue in this NCAA release on Fresno State and San Jose State men's basketball players gambling and colluding with bettors. One important point is that some games were manipulated to ensure certain bets *won*. Too often people assume fixing always = failing. www.ncaa.org/news/2025/9/...

Every time the car GPS says to do something in 350 feet, 500 feet, etc., I imagine a home run traveling that distance and it seems oddly short. Am I alone?

The thing I keep thinking about re: Jalen Carter spitting on Dak — nobody does that once. Like Jalen Carter probably didn't decide in his 3rd NFL season to debut spitting on another man. That's a move. Maybe he just never did it to a quarterback with a ref standing two feet away.

As Steve Coll recounts in his extraordinary “The Achilles Trap,” Saddam Hussein vented privately to GOP Senators visiting Baghdad about the US press for drawing the world’s attention to his gassing of tens of thousands of Iranians and Iraqi Kurds, which he’d denied. Their reply:

"Room" in NFL-media-speak, i.e. a team's "receiver room," "QB room," etc., is now so ridiculously overused. Gonna spread outside football before long. "Congratulations to our my daughter for choosing a strong addition for our in-law room."

From this trailer, looks like Nick Watt and and co. pull no punches in their new sports betting documentary. Was grateful to be interviewed for it. Airs at 10 pm ET Sunday on @cnn.com

From this trailer, looks like Nick Watt and and co. pull no punches in their new sports betting documentary. Was grateful to be interviewed for it. Airs at 10 pm ET Sunday on @cnn.com

Amid some wild developments with sports betting, my latest newsletter (👇🏼) covers —my @washingtonpost.com piece on the WNBA’s dicey embrace of gambling —@jonlerner.bsky.social’s beef with people begging for prop refunds after injuries —the truly bizarre rate of deaths at 1800s baseball games

I've been raising this issue for years now, too. WNBA gambling has been a thing for ages, but it's growing massively (in large part because the league wants it to). And the players still make, relatively, peanuts. It's an obvious target for corruption and potentially very damaging scandal. #WNBA

Gambling on the WNBA is way up, as are the unintended consequences. By @dannyfunt.bsky.social: www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2025/...

Read the full story by @dannyfunt.bsky.social ⤵️

Pushing fans to gamble is risky business for any league. But for the WNBA, all those potential dangers — abuse toward players, match fixing, a culture clash between fans and bettors, etc. — seem to be even higher stakes, experts told me for @washingtonpost.com

Sometimes newspaper editors are too strict with word counts. I came across this story in The New York Times from 1889. I would have appreciated at least a few more paragraphs, personally.

It's pub day for my buddy @joshuasharpe.bsky.social and his incredible book THE MAN NO ONE BELIEVED ... I did a Q&A with him about his reporting process, freeing innocent people from prison, and the magic of the pedal steel. tommytomlinson.substack.com/p/pub-day-jo...

Lovely story about a man's lifelong book consumption. Seems like a character beyond his avid reading. I liked "The only things he asked for in the last year of his life were a soap dish, a watch battery and MSNBC." (By then, his eyes weren't up for reading.) www.nytimes.com/2025/07/26/b...

A mind-boggling game I had never heard of. Really expands your appreciation for human perception www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

Extraordinary. If a props ban rippled across states, could the sports betting industry survive?

I've seen smart people associated with book publishing assert that social media doesn't sell books, and that's not my experience. I can't quantify how many books a site like Bluesky has sold for me, but it has given me a community, which has then spread word of my books to those who wouldn't see it.

Legal sports betting in Massachusetts raised $90M in taxes in 2023, @umassamherst.bsky.social finds. But MA bettors lost $450M that year and few jobs have been created. When you factor in health costs, reduced discretionary spending, & the toll of more young people gambling ... Is it worth it?

Sally is my favorite sports columnist. Obviously I'm excited for what she does at The Atlantic, but what a loss for The Post ...

Even in a departure letter, Sally Jenkins gives some of the best and finest writing you’ll read today. Grateful to have had the chance to work with one of the all-time greats, a singular voice who lifted up Post Sports and made the whole place better.

Wait ... hold on ... A few days of social media sleuthing from @pablo.show and @tomhaberstroh.bsky.social turned up ANOTHER potentially manipulated Jontay Porter game that the FBI (and presumably the NBA) had failed to identify after months of investigating?! Some thoughts 🧵

Brian Pempus spent years writing for poker and sports betting affiliate sites, but seeing the damage that gambling can do ate at him. A few months ago, he launched @gamblingharm.org, an independent news site. He was kind enough to tell me why he'd had enough of the betting biz.

Today on All Of It: Larry Fink's photos in the Hudson Valley; @dannyfunt.bsky.social on sports-betting; @nytimes.com new podcast season; Things to do in Queens. Live at noon on 93.9 FM, AM820 or @wnyc.org

Look forward to discussing how gambling is changing sports with Allison Stewart on @allofitwnyc.bsky.social, live from 1:30-2 ET. You can listen here: www.wnyc.org/radio/