From Tokyo, Japan and New Plymouth, New Zealand – this is Down to Business English. With your hosts Skip Montreux and Samantha Vega. Double down, odds-on-favorite, beat the spread, down to the wire, jump the gun, throw in the towel. What in the world are you going on about Skip? Samantha, quick. Where do you think all of those words and phrases come from? Uh, well they’re all English obviously. No. What I mean is, when you hear them, what topic do you think they are all related to?
Are they about the weather? Movies? Cooking? What?! I don’t know. Let me hear them again please. Oh, alright. Double down, beat the spread, odds-on-favorite, down to the wire, jump the gun, and throw in the towel. Well, they are all very common expressions. But I’m guessing they are all related to sports somehow. Yes. Sports, and sports betting. I wonder why they are so familiar to me. I don’t gamble at all. I certainly don’t bet on sports. Well, sports and sports betting involves risk.
So does everyday life. So English is full of high frequency idioms and expressions that come from the world of sports and gambling. That makes sense. Is this somehow connected to your report today? It is, very much. I think I know where you’re going with this. Oh you do? Where do you think I'm going? Does this have anything to do with the bombshell news about the scandal surrounding Shohei Ohtani?
The Japanese baseball superstar whose interpreter allegedly stole $4.5 million from, to pay off gambling debts that came from sports betting. You can see right through me Samantha. That was huge news both here in Japan and in the US. And that is our story today? Not exactly. But it is the impetus for my report. At the heart of the Ohtani scandal is sports betting. Did you know that over the last five or six years, legal sports betting in the US has undergone explosive growth?
It’s really popular here in New Zealand too. And incredibly popular in Australia. I think it is a growing trend in many places. And it is huge business. I was not aware of that. So, I thought we could take a look at the world of sports betting in the USA, and along the way, maybe introduce some useful sports related words and phrases that have a strong crossover into business. Then why don’t we dive into it. That’s a sports idiom right there, dive into it. So it is. Alright. Let’s do it.
Let’s get D2B … Down to Business with The Wide World of Sports Betting in the USA. I haven’t been to the United States in years, but I was always under the impression that sports betting was pretty much illegal in America. Actually that is not the case. Betting on sports has a rich tradition in the US. Isn’t there always the risk that the games could be fixed if there is gambling involved? Mm, absolutely.
You can go as far back as the 1919 World Series of Baseball and the huge scandal that took place when eight players on the Chicago White Socks took bribes and threw the series. Ah. I think I saw a movie about that many years ago. I have no idea what it was called. Oh yeah, what was the name of that? Oh, Eight Men Out. Ah, that’s it — Eight Men Out. Starring Charlie Sheen and John Cusack. A great movie and yes, it does tell the story of the scandal surrounding the 1919 World Series.
And wasn’t it after that scandal that sports betting was outlawed? You think it would have been, but no it wasn't. It remained legal throughout most of the 20th century and was, for the most part, unregulated. You’re kidding. It wasn’t until the early 1990s when the US Congress passed the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, or PASPA, that sports betting, for all intents and purposes became illegal. Why would they suddenly make a law after so many years of it being unregulated?
A government committee at that time took a hard look into sports betting and came to the conclusion that it was quickly becoming a national problem. And if it continued to grow, it could significantly harm society. So they came up with PASPA. They did. And in October of 1992, President George HW Bush signed it into law. And ever since, other than in a few states, sports betting has been illegal in the US. But today, it isn’t illegal? That’s right. It is perfectly legal in 38 of the 50 states.
Wow, it’s really prevalent. Yeah, it’s almost everywhere. How is it that sports betting went from illegal, virtually nationwide, in 1992 — to what is going on today? What happened? What happened was the internet. The internet? Yeah, the internet. You see, PASPA didn’t actually outlaw sports betting in itself. It just outlawed where people could bet. I see. Betting on sports wasn’t illegal, just placing a bet in the States was. Exactly.
So, if you could place a wager on the internet, and the company you are placing the bet with was not based in the US, everything would be above board. Got it. Sports betting outfits could set up offshore and use the internet as a way for their customers to place their bets. And it was legal because the bet was being placed outside of the US. That is exactly the situation. A very popular place was the island of Antigua in the Caribbean, as a matter of fact.
The federal government must not have seen that coming when they passed PASPA in 1992. No they didn’t. The internet totally allowed companies, and gamblers, to bypass PASPA entirely. So what did the government do about it? Well fast forward to 2006 when President George W. Bush signed the UIGEA, or the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. Hold on a minute.
You’re telling me that George Bush Senior outlawed sports betting on US soil using PASPA in 1992, and his son, George Bush Junior outlawed it on the internet in 2006? Yeah, kind of. Kind of?! Well it’s not that simple. The UIGEA did not make sports betting illegal per se. What it did do however, was it prohibited credit cards and bank wire transfers from being used for online gambling. Ah, it was up to banks and credit card companies to not allow transactions that involved online gambling.
That’s right. The law did not punish bettors in any way. But banks and credit card companies, they could face stiff penalties. It seems that between PASPA and the UIGEA, the government had essentially wiped out sports betting, both in person and online. They had covered all their bases, yes. So, how has it become so commonplace today? There were two more key developments. And they would be? The first development was the rise of Fantasy Football, and similar fantasy sports leagues.
Fantasy football? You mean where you make up your own imaginary team of real life football players and then your team wins or loses based on how well those players perform in real games? That is the gist of it. But you know Samantha, honestly, I have never played Fantasy Football in my life, but I do know it is very popular with my sports-minded friends. Anyway, Fantasy Football was able to take advantage of a loophole in the UIGEA that allowed for betting on fantasy sports. Wait a minute.
Are you saying it was okay to bet on fantasy sports but not real sports?! That’s right. That makes no sense! Why in the world would that be? The UIGEA only restricted bank and credit card transactions related to gambling on games of chance — not games of skill. Apparently there is some skill involved in choosing your fantasy football team. Interesting. Counterintuitive, but still interesting. So I take it, fantasy sports paved the way for real sports betting. It sure did.
Not only did it help normalize betting behaviors in the US it laid the groundwork for the technological infrastructure that would eventually support widespread sports betting. In other words it got people used to making bets through apps on their smartphones. Exactly And what was the second development? You said there were two. The second development was the monumental shift that came in 2018 when the US Supreme Court struck down PASPA as being unconstitutional. Why did the court strike it down?
They ruled that the US Federal government did not have the right to mandate that individual States could not allow sports betting. Ah. It was up to the State to make that decision, not the Federal government. That’s right. And that ruling in 2018 opened the floodgates on legalized sports betting across the country, and is why 38 out of 50 states now permit it.
So, the combination of technology, changing attitudes toward sports betting through Fantasy Sports, and a shift in the legal landscape — all of these factors contributed to a sports betting boom. And it is quite the boom. In 2018 revenue from sports betting was $430 million, in 2019 - $910 million. It doubled in the span of a year. It did. And in 2020, revenues were $1.5 billion. And in 2021 it tripled to $4.3 billion. So much revenue growth over such a short period of time.
Someone must be making a lot of money. Well that would be an obvious assumption, but don’t let those huge numbers trick you. This is not an easy sector to make profits, and a lot of sports betting companies are struggling. And why is that? Because the overhead is extremely high. Of those total revenues, only 10% is profit. 90% goes right back out the door and is spent on advertising and inducements. Inducements?
Yes, inducements are betting promotions the companies give to gamblers to keep them placing their bets. Like how casinos in Las Vegas provide free drinks and complimentary meals to gamblers if they play in their casino. Yeah, that … that’s the idea. The profit margins may not be enormous, but the strategy is to keep customers making wagers. Tell me Skip, with such huge growth in sports betting, there must be concerns?
Definitely. The National Council on Problem Gambling estimates that 2 million US adults have a serious gambling problem, and another 5 to 8 million could be considered as having a moderate gambling problem. And is the sports betting industry addressing that? They are. Seven of the industry’s biggest operators, FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM, and Penn Entertainment have recently formed the Responsible Online Gaming Association, or ROGA. And what will ROGA do?
It is a very new association, so it’s not completely clear. But in a press release they said that ROGA members are committed to work together on responsible gaming best practices. Hm. Sounds like window dressing to me. They could be just trying to put on the appearance of being concerned. Always the skeptic, Samantha.
When it comes to businesses that base their earnings on taking advantage of human addiction, like gambling or the tobacco industry, yeah I’m a little skeptical about their intentions. Well, that is probably a good stance to have. And on that skeptical note, I think it's time that we get D2V … Down to Vocabulary. Up first for D2V today is the noun ‘impetus’. An ‘impetus’ is something that pushes, or encourages, or drives something else to happen.
A good way to think of impetus is it is the reason that makes you do something. In the introduction to today’s report, Skip told us that the impetus for his report was the Shohei Ohtani scandal. That scandal is the reason Skip chose sports betting for today’s topic. In a business context, impetus is a great word to use to explain why a particular decision was made. For example, “A rise in customer complaints could be the impetus for hiring more call center staff”.
I had a very negative customer service experience recently. Oh. what happened? I was calling a company for information about their product. After being put on hold for ten minutes I was finally put through to someone but he couldn’t answer my questions. Those are ten minutes you won’t get back. Anyway, the whole experience is the impetus for me choosing another company. Probably a good idea. Moving on, the next item on D2V is the verb fix. That is a fairly basic verb.
Yes, but it does have several nuances. When you say something has been fixed, you are saying that the final result or outcome was arranged, and usually in a dishonest way. Some kind of cheating was going on. That’s right. In my report, when I told Samantha that sports betting had a rich tradition in the US, she was a little surprised, and she asked if there was the risk that games could be fixed.
In other words, she was asking if there was a risk that the final result of a game could be decided before the game was ever played. In business, you sometimes hear of price-fixing scandals. Competing companies secretly agree to fix the price of their products so consumers don’t have any choice or alternative. A completely illegal practice. There was a case of price-fixing in Canada last year in the bread industry. Really? Which company?
Canada Bread just last summer, agreed to pay $50 million for its role in fixing the price of bread. And I guess it goes back many, many years. I hadn’t heard that. A Canadian company involved in price-fixing. I’m a little shocked. It happens. What’s next on our list? We are going to finish D2V today with two verb phrases that are synonymous — ‘to place a bet’ and ‘to place a wager’. Very common verbs when you are talking about gambling.
Yes, and that is why they came up so often in our conversation today. When you place a bet or a wager on a game, you are risking a certain amount of money that your chosen team will win the game. In the report, I explained how betting on sports was not illegal for Americans to do, but placing a bet inside the United States was illegal. While at the same time placing a wager on the internet was perfectly okay if the company you were placing the wager with was located outside of the US.
We should point out that the verb ‘bet’ and ‘wager’ can be used without ‘place’ to communicate that you are very sure or certain of something. For example? Well, I will bet you that Shohei Ohtani will not lose his job with the LA Dodgers over this scandal involving his interpreter. You are certain of it? Professional Baseball is investigating right now. I would wager that in a worst case scenario he will be suspended for a few games at most. But I am betting that will never happen.
Would you like to help D2B reach more people wanting to improve their Business English skills? Be sure to follow D2B on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or any place podcasts are found. While you are there, leave a rating and a review and tell everyone how much you enjoy the show. Thank you Skip for that report on sports betting in the US. Didn’t realize it had become so popular. Neither had I until I looked into it.
I’m glad I don’t know much about professional sports, otherwise I might have to look into placing some bets myself. Yeah, it’s probably best that you stay away from that. I agree. D2B Members, the Bonus vocabulary for today’s episode will be released within the next 24 to 48 hours through your Members-only RSS feed.
The words and phrases we will focus on in that Bonus D2V episode will be: to see right through someone, to be under the impression, to cover the bases, a loophole, and to open the floodgates. So, if you are a D2B member and are not subscribed to your Member-only RSS feed, be sure to visit your Member account on the D2B website and find it. And if you are not a D2B member … do consider becoming one.
Not only do you receive all of our bonus content and access to the Audio Script Library, D2B Memberships are a great way to support the show. To sign up and become a D2B member, just go to d2benglish.com/membership. That’s d2benglish.com/membership. Thanks for listening everyone. See you next time. Take care. Have a comment or question about today’s show? Don’t be shy… visit the D2B website or Facebook page, and post any comments or questions there.
Skip, Dez, or Samantha will be sure to leave a reply. Down to Business English... Business News, to improve your Business English.