Bill Simmons downplays recent betting controversies: ‘We’ve always had gambling scandals’
In recent days, there has been an increase in gambling cases and high-profile betting scandals in the world of sports. However, sportswriter Bill Simmons asked fans not to overreact.
On his “The Bill Simmons Podcast," he said gambling controversies in sports are nothing new and have been for ages.
“I’ll just say this because I’ve obviously been talking about gambling on all platforms since I was at ESPN in 2001: we’ve always had gambling scandals,” said Bill Simmons on his podcast.
Simmons went on to recount several gambling-related controversies over the years, with the message being the same: controversies over this matter have been there forever.
“In the 1980s we had Tulane basketball. Hot Rod Williams, who there was a mistrial, and then he ended up playing in the NBA for nine years. Pete Rose. Art Schlichter. We had the whole Jordan thing in ’93, I’m still not positive all of what happened in that. We had Northwestern hoops in ’95. BC football in the mid-90s," Simmons continued.
"We had the Breeders’ Cup in ’02. We had Tim Donaghy reffing playoff games for years in the 2000s. We had that Rick Tocchet-Janet Jones, that was pretty weird. We had Italian soccer.” said Simmons in his podcast.
Simmon's comments were about two recent sports scandals: the gambling accusations against interpreter Ippei Mizuhara, who allegedly stole $4.5 million from Shohei Ohtani's bank account to settle his debts, and the accusations of betting on his own games by Jontay Porter.
Bill Simmon’s response when asked if he’s uncomfortable about sports gambling
On the “Bill Simmons Podcast," guest Van Lathan asked Simmons if he felt uncomfortable with the rise of betting cases in sports, to which he replied with the example of fantasy games.
“I remember when this happened with fantasy 20 years ago when people were like, ‘fantasy’s going to ruin the game. People care more about their fantasy teams than real teams.’ And we had to go through that whole stretch," Simmons said.
"Guess what, it’s just a different muscle when you’re following sports. I think we’re going to get there with the gambling thing. But what’s going to happen is a lot of people are going to latch onto this. You know how the internet goes. This is something they can go nuts about."
"I look at it like, this has been a part of sports forever,” said Simmons in his podcast.
Simmons is more worried about the fact that, with time, more and more people will get involved with sports betting, which will eventually ruin the essence of the game.