July 29, 2025 • 29 mins
In this episode of the Huddle Within Podcast, we delve into the complex relationship between gambling and sports, particularly focusing on recent scandals involving athletes in the NBA and AFL. Discussing the implications of betting on player integrity, the hypocrisy of leagues profiting from gambling while punishing players for betting, and the broader societal issues surrounding gambling addiction.
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Chapters
00:00 Huddle Sporting Recap
12:41 The Impact of Gambling on Sports
28:11 Conclusion and Future Directions
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to the Huddle Within podcast, where we go beyond the
surface to uncover the real impact of sports on our lives.
Whether it's lessons of resilience, the passion that
fuels us, or the stories that connect us all, This is where
the game gets personal. I am Daniel, a regular sports
fan just like you, and together we'll explore what sports truly
means beyond the surface. So step right into the Huddle
and let's get into it. What is going on, everybody?
(00:39):
And welcome to this week's episode of the Huddle Within
podcast. Thank you very much for tuning
in wherever you are getting these podcasts whenever time
you're listening to this, whether you're on the way to
work, whether you've finished work and you've decided to Chuck
this on, whether you're 2-3 weeks late, it doesn't matter.
Glad you're here. Thank you for tuning in Today we
(01:04):
are going to be talking about a very interesting topic.
Reason why I've sort of decided to speak on this is because of
the fact that I've I've seen thescandals happen quite often now
as of late, especially when it comes to the NBA and certain
players, those being Malik Beasley and Terry Rosie, who
(01:25):
have been currently under investigation for some potential
betting scandals. So I really wanted to talk about
betting as a whole and how it kind of effects athletes,
players, etcetera, across acrossthe board and sort of dive deep
into that, something that's not really talked about on podcasts
(01:46):
as much. But when the scandals and
obviously when these events do happen, a lot of people are
quick to jump on it and put in AI guess report or a storyline.
But I think a lot goes more intojust the player, the athlete
betting on there. And when I do talk about these
things, it's not to say that what they're doing is is correct
(02:07):
and and they shouldn't be punished for it.
It's just seems as though there's a bit of things that are
are kind of flawed in in the system, especially when most of
the leagues now are heavily sponsored by by these betting
companies. But before I go on to all that
jazz, I thought I'd kind of update the latest and greatest
(02:27):
Sporting News that's occurred bygreatest, I would say the
performance from the Saint. Kill the Saints in the AFL.
Yeah, coming back from 46 pointsagainst Demons.
And if you're a Melbourne fan, Iknow a few if you are listening,
mate, that's just that's rubbishlike that.
That's embarrassing. You can't.
(02:47):
And I've seen the Wizards lose by 35 in basketball, but down 46
or up 46 and and dropping that to Saint Kilda of whole teams
who don't really have a strong track record is is quite crazy.
And it's quite funny because with about 40 seconds to go,
(03:07):
they were up by 6 points. And you have Bailey Fritch,
who's a who's a four line playerdown back, getting absolutely
speculated on by who is I'm a Collingwood fan and I I love
Nick Dagos, but I can't go past on what Niziah is doing right
now. He's unbelievable.
Takes a specky right on Fritch'shead, kicks it straight through
(03:32):
the middle and ties the game with eight seconds to go.
And at that point you're thinking this is 100% going to
be a draw. And then they get called for the
666 rule. And for those that don't know
what that is, it's basically when there's a goal that occurs
in AFL, teams have to set up 6 midfielders, 6 defenders and
six, four players. Melbourne's fully stuffed that
(03:54):
up I think added an extra playerdown back and it was a free kick
to obviously St. Kilda.
They left the same player that just scored on them and has hit
33 disposals on them before thatmaking a 34 obviously open.
And the Ziya is is literally free inside the Ford 50 from the
midfield. No one's tagged in, no one's
(04:14):
marked on on him, there's no four line players in Sakilda,
all of them are injured at the moment and basically he has a
chance to to pretty much win thegame with any score and albeit
he just hits it straight down the middle.
So Naziah wins the game for Sakilda if it's straight through
the middle kick eating the hearts of of Melbourne down 46
(04:38):
end up winning by 6. So they scored a total of 52
points in that quarter, which was unbelievable.
And yeah, get the victory and I think Melbourne's finished, St.
Kilda have probably played theirgrand final because they're not
playing finals footy. But it was something that I
(04:58):
wanted to talk about because I don't talk about footy much and
I love talking about footy and Ilove footy.
And that was probably the highlight moment of the round
besides probably Jezza kicking 11 on North Melbourne, who I
didn't even know how there's still an existing football club
to be honest. And Nick Dakos.
She's being Nick Dakos, who's yeah, pretty much unlocked to
(05:20):
win the Brownlow, which is greatfor me to hear.
Naziah and I think St Killer take the cake here on what was a
incredible comeback in, in a round that was full of
rivalries. Like you had all the Interstate
rivalry matches this week and this overshadowed it.
A irrelevant 2 Victorian teams that are not making the finals
(05:42):
game to top off the round in in the last game as well for Sunday
arvo which is normally the the graveyard game.
Quite amazing and something to talk about.
What unfortunately wasn't amazing was the passing of Hulk
Hogan and a lot of people in thewrestling universe and community
(06:04):
towards the end of his tenure were not massive fans of, of
Hulk Hogan due to his racial remarks and his controversial
takes. But in saying that, if you take
that away, no one's perfect obviously.
And he did make his mistakes. He was a pioneer of, of
wrestling. And look, I wasn't around to
(06:25):
know Hulk Hogan. I was not even probably in my
dad's balls, but he literally changed the pop culture and the
landscape of of wrestling to what it is today.
Something built on characters being able to just provide
entertainment for people in a time where there was a lot of
(06:47):
war and issues going on in in America as well.
That was a real modern day superhero for people in in in
that entertainment industry and for people in the United States.
So for him to pass away is extremely sad.
I know he was really sick, but you never really expect someone
to pass away in a week. That had some pretty rough,
(07:09):
rough fallings as well. We've a lot of people have
passed away this year, but we had Ozzy Osbourne that passed
away I think like 2 days ago, which was also sad.
And then sorry for lack of respect, probably should have
researched it, but a pioneer in in jazz as well that passed away
in the same week. It's just really sad And and
we're here talking about Hulk Hogan, his real name,
(07:30):
Terriblayer. And yeah, it's just, it's great
that obviously people have gone around and WWE have given him a
tribute, but it's going to be really hard to think about
wrestling and nothing that Hulk Hogan will just make an
appearance here and there. And he's actually passed away.
(07:50):
It's a shame. And on the same year that it
looks as though John Cena's going to finish up his year as
well soon. So yeah, really unfortunately
for wrestling, I'm a massive wrestling fan.
I am actually in the stage of recording another episode, main
eventing on the main event show every week.
(08:11):
So if you guys are keen to checkthat out, feel free to do so.
It's on the WWE podcast. It's called the WWE Podcast and
I have episodes there every single Monday.
I've been meaning to talk more about wrestling on this podcast
as well. Maybe something that I want to
do on the side as well, because at the moment I think that's my
my craze until probably when NFLstarts.
(08:32):
That's the kind of craze that I have at the moment.
Obviously, 40 seasons ramping up.
We've got the Premier League basically starting in two weeks.
And before I go on a ramble, yeah, there's a lot going on,
but I just got announced as wellthat and I love my fantasy
sports. Supercoach is going to be
introducing the Premier League and for me this is amazing
(08:55):
because the old FPL, the normal Premier League app using that
fantasy was just rubbish. Like there was no just gold
contributions. If you if you didn't, if you
didn't score or assist or you didn't keep a clean sheet.
So basically if you're just a hard working midfielder, you
weren't rewarded points. Now the new Cybercoat system has
22 different scoring points, so different types of ways you can
(09:18):
obtain and, and and retain points as well.
So if you are a person that likes extra stats or more
advanced stats, then having thisSupercoach app is going to be
more beneficial to you. If you're someone that's not
really into the stats and and really want to just focus on
getting players that score, keepclean sheets, by all means, stay
(09:38):
on the FPL app. But I'm definitely moving over
to Supercoach. We've got draught and classic
leagues lined up. And if it's anything like AFL
with Classic where we can potentially trade and and move
money around, then I'm going to have to learn it because I
really tried Supercoach Classic and I sucked at it.
So got to learn how the money works, got to learn how break
(10:00):
evens work. For those that do know about
Supercoach will understand what I'm saying.
If you don't know, then I'm sorry, but essentially that's
going to be involved. That's going to be into play.
And as mentioned, when I'm talking about all the advanced
stuff, stats and whatnot, there's a shit tonne of them.
You've got interceptions, you'vegot key passes, shots on target,
(10:21):
defensive in clearances, all that good jazz.
And it really reflects who actually is playing well.
Like as I mentioned before, a player like Rhodri, a player
like Declan Rice, I know he scored a few goals, but you guys
kind of get what I mean here. Those midfielders or even like
hard working wing backs don't get rewarded for their
(10:43):
performances. It's only just based on goals.
Like there's been so many times where a player has had such a
stand out performance but on fantasy sports, especially the
FBL app, get fuck all points forit.
Like getting like 2 points. It's just ridiculous.
Like there is more to the game than just scoring and assisting.
And I know obviously the goal iswhat wins you the matches and
(11:04):
clean sheets is what prevents you from losing.
But the end of the day there's so many intricacies and little
things on a pitch that equate towinning and contribute to that
as well. So Supercoach EPL is going to be
really exciting and if it's anything like AFL, I'm going to
be extremely excited for that because AFL approved and
Supercoach proved that you don'tneed to have a lot of goals to
(11:26):
really impact the game. It's a lot of possessions, a lot
of accuracy, It scales as well. So depending on the time of the
game, your points can scale up significantly.
So I'm really excited if there is scaling.
I'm not sure if there is, but ifa player does score and if you
want to, if you want to account for that this way, it can be
valuable. Scoring in the 90th minute or a
key defensive block or interception can can scale up
(11:48):
your points massively and reallyhelp you win your fantasy
battles. So again, really excited for
that. And yeah, sort of blab it on.
Again, it's great to blab it on and talk about kind of Sporting
News as well, just given that there's there's so much at the
moment. I've been meaning to do
emergency huddles that haven't had the chance to really get on
that. And what I'm also been meaning
(12:09):
to do is getting more guests. So I'm in the process of finding
some guests. If I get one of these guests to
come on, I'm extremely excited about to be honest, because
really high profile, don't really want to talk too much
about it, but I'm extremely keento have that particular person
on the podcast if we can get it,if we can get it through.
(12:30):
It's really a scheduling issue at the moment as to why we
haven't done that episode yet. It's been a long time coming.
And a few other guests as well that are quite are quite good
guests to different sports as well.
So something completely different to what I've spoke
about on the past as well. So also excited to really talk
about that as well. But without further ado, we'll
(12:53):
go straight into it. Again, as I mentioned, we're
gonna have a deep dive into the psychology.
It's a bit of hypocrisy and the high stakes of gambling in in
modern sports. So talking about the athlete.
So as mentioned, the athletes that have been gambling on their
own games and also kind of the effect holistically and overall
(13:13):
of sports betting in sport for those that do bet and also how
it affects the league and revenues and all that jazz.
So again, what's really happening at the moment is that
there's been an influx, maybe not as prevalent because maybe
they want to hide stories or people haven't been sort of
(13:33):
caught in this. But the last like 2 months we've
had two betting scandals in the NBA and we've had a history of
different betting scandals starting with in the Premier
League, Ivan Tony, who was banned for eight months, 13 bets
on his own team, seven of them to losses, which is crazy.
Could you imagine like your own teammate and you found out that
(13:54):
the whole betting on you guys tolose, it's pretty crazy.
He had 15 bets to score in nine matches.
So respect that he wants to backhimself.
And then he had 126 total bets on on matches that he could have
been in involved with. So by that I'm guessing any
match that occurred in the Premier League and maybe the
Football Championship as well, but almost over 100 and and 40
(14:18):
bets, maybe even close to 150 total bets made five and Tony
and he got an 8 month ban, whichwhich is quite crazy.
We also had Malik Beasley who's apparently being investigated
for some betting scandals as well, some betting on his own
team. It is said that he's had like
$600,000 debt, so he's got a bitof financial issues there.
(14:42):
Don't really know how when when his contract is pretty high, but
he's also one that's that's in that investigation.
And then most recently, Terry Rozier, who there was a
Mississippi, I think booking place or the bookies there in
Mississippi that saw an influx of betting, betting on the under
when he was at the Charlotte Hornets.
(15:04):
And one of the games that was that influx.
He basically left the game after10 minutes of foot injury.
So there's some fishiness going on there.
And then also we had the AFL one.
Another reason why I want to talk about AFL one, and I'll
start with that, was the Jaden Stevenson one where he put
basically like a $36 bet or a total of $36 bets on on three
(15:27):
multis that were unsuccessful involving Collingwood.
And he copped A22 game, 12 of them suspended and also a
$20,000 fine, which is crazy. And I'll start with Jaden
Stevenson. We all know AFL fans know who he
is. He's now a tradie, unfortunately
didn't really have the success as a as a footy player due to a
lot of off the field stuff such as this.
(15:49):
But yeah, he basically got into trouble for that betting on his
own team. And although it was like $36 on
a multi, you shouldn't be, you shouldn't be betting on your own
team. And I completely sort of
understand that. But the reason why he probably
did it was because of the financial issues that occurred.
And no, by no means I'm justifying any of these players
(16:12):
as I look into James Stephenson,especially because he doesn't
make as much money as the other three.
The AFL has a lot of sponsorships and most of them
come from gambling. If not, actually, you've got a
fact here that I'm pretty sure. And if I can find it, oh bloody
hell, where are you? How do you?
(16:34):
Before I had to pause to to basically find this because I
was sounding so stupid, but I got basically I got the article.
The article is is from ABC, so I'll read it out to everyone.
Almost 2/3 of all major sportingteams in one Australian state
are receiving money from gambling companies and ABC
analysis has found, revealing A concerning and toxic reliance on
(16:57):
gambling sponsorship and advertising. 7 sporting club
codes and their domestic clubs Ican't read were examined for any
relationship or commercial partnership with gambling
organisations, including casinos.
The ABC looked at publicly available information for 74
teams across the NRLAFL, Rugby Australia, Football Australia,
(17:19):
Cricket Australia, Netball Australia and the NBL.
Eight of the 13 teams examined in Queensland were sponsored by
gambling companies and six of the strongest commercially
viable clubs in the state, the Lions, the Broncos, the
Dolphins, Cowboys, Titans and Sons all had at least one
gambling sponsor. That's pretty crazy.
(17:39):
In contrast, only one team in Victoria, the Melbourne Storm,
was sponsored by a gambling company, while there were none
in in SA. NSW.
Several sporting teams have signed up to reclaim the game, a
government established initiative which reduces or
removes sports betting from homegames.
OK anyway from that, and this isnot counting essentially like
(18:03):
sports bet TIB and all the betting companies actually
betting sponsoring the league itself because they do do that
too. That's pretty crazy.
And for a player like Jaden Stevenson who is going to get
fined basically $20,000 and essentially ban 12 games for a
(18:25):
$36 bear, it is quite, it's quite unjustified, especially
given that they're making millions and millions of dollars
off of betting companies for their leagues to function.
So do you see that kind of the disparity, the disparity there?
And obviously it happens across NBA and and and EPL as well, but
I have less sympathy for those players because they don't make
(18:47):
as much money. But this was kind of the same
issues in the 90s when Maribo and all those companies were
sponsoring. If you're encouraging gambling
and if the the league is making so much money from the
sponsorships, then how can you not expect players to bet when
(19:12):
the league is just generating money?
Like the hypocrisy there is crazy.
And yes, that's probably from what I've heard, there are
gambling associates or people that that go into these teams
now and sort of help and supportthe players.
But in my, in my honest opinion,you're still exposing them
(19:33):
massively like and we take away the players like myself, for
example, I'm someone that has done a lot of sports betting.
I do like a good multi here and there and I have bet on a lot of
games. For me it makes a funnest person
or whatever. That ease of access that I have
onto an app to be able to look at everyone's stats and being
able to bet is just crazy. Like a 2 year old can literally
(19:57):
get on the app and bet. It's that simple.
The apps are so sophisticated now.
Sports bet have literally got pinpoint disposal multis.
You have people endorsing it, famous people endorsing it.
Then garage is 1. Shout out to Dan Garage.
Love that guy but he's one that also has his own multi feeds.
So the betting. And there's no nothing against
(20:18):
him to bet because he's a, he's not a player.
He can do whatever he wants. But the amount of coverage and
how and how easy it is to bet inin Australia and, and, and quite
frankly, around the world, It iscrazy.
And the fact that the league makes so much money, but simply
just ban players as if, as if they're doing something very
(20:39):
malicious. Like, yeah, OK, they're cheating
on the game, but they're not really.
Like I've seen less bans given for like people getting bashed,
for example, or like even for Mason Greenville and, and, and
Miles Bridges didn't even get that much of A consequence from
the league. They they got consequences
outside the league and and legally, which the justice
(21:02):
system does what it needs to do,but in a sporting perspective,
didn't get half the punishments that that they that these guys
have got. And even for Jonte Porter, who
is probably never going to ever play in a league game again.
And again, this is not me defending them at all.
Like for someone to put a bet ontheir own game, they deserve a
(21:23):
punishment because they ultimately have control of the
outcome. But again, when you have these
betting companies there and they're so sophisticated, they
make so much money, it's just soeasy for for for everyone to get
and do a bet. Why wouldn't you think that
these guys wouldn't do it either?
It just it just doesn't make sense.
I think the leagues needs to do a better job in sort of kind of
(21:44):
choreographing this in a way where there is more education to
it and and they kind of limit the sponsorship as well because
you can't be banning people and then making money at the same
time. It just doesn't really make
sense. Betting.
Betting is everywhere. The culture is everywhere.
Like even if you're someone thatdoesn't bet on your own league,
(22:06):
you're allowed to bet on a wholenother sport if you want.
It's so easy to do that because the access is so there so
quickly as well. There's a lot of obviously big
betting companies around the world and, and, and it just
continues to to be a big problem.
And going on the hypocrisy as well.
When I when I mentioned that, like people were banned for
(22:28):
placing a bet, like for Jane Stevenson's case, a $36 bet, he
gets a ban, but then the teams are getting sponsorships.
What do the young athletes see? Like imagine you're a kid
watching the sport and you've seen your favourite athlete roll
up into a game on TV and there'sjust a sport betting
advertisement there encouraging you to gamble, encouraging you
(22:49):
to to really muck around with with your finances and those
that are inspiring to be professional as well.
Have that message as a kid to think that's OK.
The fans as well. The fans just wanted to bet,
lose their money and there's just no integrity.
I just don't think there there is a clear line between
competition and business as well.
(23:10):
They'll quick to ban players on doing the action, but then
they're also quick to make moneyas quick as possible and not
really care about the the ramifications of of what that
betting can do and how the league can be done.
And so quick to judge as well. So quick to really discriminate
and get and really want to punish the players big time as
if they're doing the worst thingpossible.
(23:31):
Like, yes, they're cheating and we don't like that, but you're
mutually making money from the same shit.
The only difference is you're not betting on the games
yourself. Like Adam Silva, the way that he
reacted when Jonte Porter got the ban or found I was going to
betting was crazy if if it really felt as though he killed
someone. So just things that the league
(23:53):
need to work on doing like they got rid of the smoking
sponsorships. I know Maribel looked really
cool when I mentioned it again before.
Maribel looked really cool on shirts once as well.
But you don't want to, you don'twant to encourage people to do
bad things. And gambling is a massive
problem, especially in Australia.
Like I just actually read another stat and I found this
stat 33% of people in Australia in the past 12 months have
(24:19):
betted on sport or have gambled on sport. 33%, almost 1/3 of the
country, which which is crazy. And again, those apps, the
sponsorships, that's that's why it's the case.
And you can see why there's so many betting problems and people
have financial issues in this country while the leagues end up
(24:42):
making so much money. And I'm sure that's across
America as well and across the whole, the whole board as well.
There's a big issue for, for mental health and, and it kind
of effects our values as well because it becomes more
commercialised and the more you kind of promote gambling as
well. And it goes back to me and now I
just sort of thought about this in my head.
(25:02):
It goes back to the, the athletes play abuse.
The more you're promoting your athletes to get abused online as
well. Like we've all been frustrated
and I'll, I'll be 1 to say that when a certain player I bet on
fails to hit their line on a, ona score, whether it's a rebound,
disposal position, whatever it is, they, they cost me a chance
(25:22):
to win money. The amount of abuse that they
get from gambling addicts or people like myself, sporting
fans mean not anymore when I wouldn't say I actually abused
them online and messaged them say you cost my multi.
But in saying like I'd be frustrated, but there are people
that send death threats to certain athletes because they
haven't hit their fucking multis.
(25:44):
Like that's crazy. And, and why that's the case,
because the app's easy, the sponsorships are there and they
have the, the rain to do it without any consequence.
But as soon as someone bets on themselves, they get the
consequence. You see, you see where I'm going
in with this hypocrisy, hypocrisy and how it affects
people as well. You see how if you make sport
betting part of a culture, it kind of makes everything worse
(26:06):
as well. And it ruins people's
livelihoods, especially athletestoo.
It's crazy. It's it's, it's not something
you can stop, like you can't stop people from from gambling,
but what you can stop is gettinga piece of the pie from these
gambling companies, the leagues of sport, if you really care
about your athletes and your people.
And that's sort of, yeah, the frustrating part of this as
(26:27):
well. So I think what league should
reconsider as I sort of wrap this up, because there's not
really much to go on more from this, is that there needs to be
more education when it comes to it.
So it's good that leagues are bringing in gambling advice
people and then higher ups to put that in.
The messaging has got to be removed.
(26:47):
The mixed messaging. It's your other one side of the
fence or the other. You can't be on both and you've
got to build safer spaces for athletes to seek help.
If there is gambling issues, it'd be good if that wasn't
obviously publicised into the media until when the
investigation has been finished.And I know there's leaks and
rats, but the league's got to bea do a better job in kind of
(27:10):
keeping that more more secretive.
And if there is that issue, the those athletes get help first
rather than than being scrutinised.
And until the league sort of stops profiting from the
problem, the players are always going to be ones paying the
price in the end. So the leagues are going to have
a good hard look at themselves if they really want betting to
(27:34):
be their their main source of income.
Then they got to reconsider how they view athletes when they 2
put bets on on games as well. So that's kind of where I draw
the line. Again, this is me not saying
that betting is right and it should happen.
It's me saying that these leagues are making money off the
(27:57):
stuff that they're getting upsetabout and when players do it,
they get upset. So spin my spill on gambling and
the effects that it has on athletes and and holistically as
a whole. Thank you very much for tuning
in once again. Hopefully, we can get some
guests on the spot again, as I mentioned, and we can talk about
(28:20):
more deep meaning stuff, but it's been your boy Daniel from
the Huddle Within Podcast, and Iwill catch you guys next week.
Cheers. So that's a wrap for this week's
episode of The Huddle Within Podcast.
I appreciate you for tuning in and being part of this community
where we go beyond the game and into what really matters.
If this episode resonated with you, make sure to subscribe,
(28:41):
leave a review, and share it with someone who sees sports
just the way that we do. And hey, I'd love to hear from
you. Connect with me on my social
medias, which will be linked below, send in your thoughts and
even be part of a future episode.
Until next time, keep that passion alive, stay in the
huddle, and remember it's alwaysdeeper than the game.
Cheers.
Welcome to the Huddle Within podcast, where we go beyond the
surface to uncover the real impact of sports on our lives.
Whether it's lessons of resilience, the passion that
fuels us, or the stories that connect us all, This is where
the game gets personal. I am Daniel, a regular sports
fan just like you, and together we'll explore what sports truly
means beyond the surface. So step right into the Huddle
and let's get into it. What is going on, everybody?
(00:39):
And welcome to this week's episode of the Huddle Within
podcast. Thank you very much for tuning
in wherever you are getting these podcasts whenever time
you're listening to this, whether you're on the way to
work, whether you've finished work and you've decided to Chuck
this on, whether you're 2-3 weeks late, it doesn't matter.
Glad you're here. Thank you for tuning in Today we
(01:04):
are going to be talking about a very interesting topic.
Reason why I've sort of decided to speak on this is because of
the fact that I've I've seen thescandals happen quite often now
as of late, especially when it comes to the NBA and certain
players, those being Malik Beasley and Terry Rosie, who
(01:25):
have been currently under investigation for some potential
betting scandals. So I really wanted to talk about
betting as a whole and how it kind of effects athletes,
players, etcetera, across acrossthe board and sort of dive deep
into that, something that's not really talked about on podcasts
(01:46):
as much. But when the scandals and
obviously when these events do happen, a lot of people are
quick to jump on it and put in AI guess report or a storyline.
But I think a lot goes more intojust the player, the athlete
betting on there. And when I do talk about these
things, it's not to say that what they're doing is is correct
(02:07):
and and they shouldn't be punished for it.
It's just seems as though there's a bit of things that are
are kind of flawed in in the system, especially when most of
the leagues now are heavily sponsored by by these betting
companies. But before I go on to all that
jazz, I thought I'd kind of update the latest and greatest
(02:27):
Sporting News that's occurred bygreatest, I would say the
performance from the Saint. Kill the Saints in the AFL.
Yeah, coming back from 46 pointsagainst Demons.
And if you're a Melbourne fan, Iknow a few if you are listening,
mate, that's just that's rubbishlike that.
That's embarrassing. You can't.
(02:47):
And I've seen the Wizards lose by 35 in basketball, but down 46
or up 46 and and dropping that to Saint Kilda of whole teams
who don't really have a strong track record is is quite crazy.
And it's quite funny because with about 40 seconds to go,
(03:07):
they were up by 6 points. And you have Bailey Fritch,
who's a who's a four line playerdown back, getting absolutely
speculated on by who is I'm a Collingwood fan and I I love
Nick Dagos, but I can't go past on what Niziah is doing right
now. He's unbelievable.
Takes a specky right on Fritch'shead, kicks it straight through
(03:32):
the middle and ties the game with eight seconds to go.
And at that point you're thinking this is 100% going to
be a draw. And then they get called for the
666 rule. And for those that don't know
what that is, it's basically when there's a goal that occurs
in AFL, teams have to set up 6 midfielders, 6 defenders and
six, four players. Melbourne's fully stuffed that
(03:54):
up I think added an extra playerdown back and it was a free kick
to obviously St. Kilda.
They left the same player that just scored on them and has hit
33 disposals on them before thatmaking a 34 obviously open.
And the Ziya is is literally free inside the Ford 50 from the
midfield. No one's tagged in, no one's
(04:14):
marked on on him, there's no four line players in Sakilda,
all of them are injured at the moment and basically he has a
chance to to pretty much win thegame with any score and albeit
he just hits it straight down the middle.
So Naziah wins the game for Sakilda if it's straight through
the middle kick eating the hearts of of Melbourne down 46
(04:38):
end up winning by 6. So they scored a total of 52
points in that quarter, which was unbelievable.
And yeah, get the victory and I think Melbourne's finished, St.
Kilda have probably played theirgrand final because they're not
playing finals footy. But it was something that I
(04:58):
wanted to talk about because I don't talk about footy much and
I love talking about footy and Ilove footy.
And that was probably the highlight moment of the round
besides probably Jezza kicking 11 on North Melbourne, who I
didn't even know how there's still an existing football club
to be honest. And Nick Dakos.
She's being Nick Dakos, who's yeah, pretty much unlocked to
(05:20):
win the Brownlow, which is greatfor me to hear.
Naziah and I think St Killer take the cake here on what was a
incredible comeback in, in a round that was full of
rivalries. Like you had all the Interstate
rivalry matches this week and this overshadowed it.
A irrelevant 2 Victorian teams that are not making the finals
(05:42):
game to top off the round in in the last game as well for Sunday
arvo which is normally the the graveyard game.
Quite amazing and something to talk about.
What unfortunately wasn't amazing was the passing of Hulk
Hogan and a lot of people in thewrestling universe and community
(06:04):
towards the end of his tenure were not massive fans of, of
Hulk Hogan due to his racial remarks and his controversial
takes. But in saying that, if you take
that away, no one's perfect obviously.
And he did make his mistakes. He was a pioneer of, of
wrestling. And look, I wasn't around to
(06:25):
know Hulk Hogan. I was not even probably in my
dad's balls, but he literally changed the pop culture and the
landscape of of wrestling to what it is today.
Something built on characters being able to just provide
entertainment for people in a time where there was a lot of
(06:47):
war and issues going on in in America as well.
That was a real modern day superhero for people in in in
that entertainment industry and for people in the United States.
So for him to pass away is extremely sad.
I know he was really sick, but you never really expect someone
to pass away in a week. That had some pretty rough,
(07:09):
rough fallings as well. We've a lot of people have
passed away this year, but we had Ozzy Osbourne that passed
away I think like 2 days ago, which was also sad.
And then sorry for lack of respect, probably should have
researched it, but a pioneer in in jazz as well that passed away
in the same week. It's just really sad And and
we're here talking about Hulk Hogan, his real name,
(07:30):
Terriblayer. And yeah, it's just, it's great
that obviously people have gone around and WWE have given him a
tribute, but it's going to be really hard to think about
wrestling and nothing that Hulk Hogan will just make an
appearance here and there. And he's actually passed away.
(07:50):
It's a shame. And on the same year that it
looks as though John Cena's going to finish up his year as
well soon. So yeah, really unfortunately
for wrestling, I'm a massive wrestling fan.
I am actually in the stage of recording another episode, main
eventing on the main event show every week.
(08:11):
So if you guys are keen to checkthat out, feel free to do so.
It's on the WWE podcast. It's called the WWE Podcast and
I have episodes there every single Monday.
I've been meaning to talk more about wrestling on this podcast
as well. Maybe something that I want to
do on the side as well, because at the moment I think that's my
my craze until probably when NFLstarts.
(08:32):
That's the kind of craze that I have at the moment.
Obviously, 40 seasons ramping up.
We've got the Premier League basically starting in two weeks.
And before I go on a ramble, yeah, there's a lot going on,
but I just got announced as wellthat and I love my fantasy
sports. Supercoach is going to be
introducing the Premier League and for me this is amazing
(08:55):
because the old FPL, the normal Premier League app using that
fantasy was just rubbish. Like there was no just gold
contributions. If you if you didn't, if you
didn't score or assist or you didn't keep a clean sheet.
So basically if you're just a hard working midfielder, you
weren't rewarded points. Now the new Cybercoat system has
22 different scoring points, so different types of ways you can
(09:18):
obtain and, and and retain points as well.
So if you are a person that likes extra stats or more
advanced stats, then having thisSupercoach app is going to be
more beneficial to you. If you're someone that's not
really into the stats and and really want to just focus on
getting players that score, keepclean sheets, by all means, stay
(09:38):
on the FPL app. But I'm definitely moving over
to Supercoach. We've got draught and classic
leagues lined up. And if it's anything like AFL
with Classic where we can potentially trade and and move
money around, then I'm going to have to learn it because I
really tried Supercoach Classic and I sucked at it.
So got to learn how the money works, got to learn how break
(10:00):
evens work. For those that do know about
Supercoach will understand what I'm saying.
If you don't know, then I'm sorry, but essentially that's
going to be involved. That's going to be into play.
And as mentioned, when I'm talking about all the advanced
stuff, stats and whatnot, there's a shit tonne of them.
You've got interceptions, you'vegot key passes, shots on target,
(10:21):
defensive in clearances, all that good jazz.
And it really reflects who actually is playing well.
Like as I mentioned before, a player like Rhodri, a player
like Declan Rice, I know he scored a few goals, but you guys
kind of get what I mean here. Those midfielders or even like
hard working wing backs don't get rewarded for their
(10:43):
performances. It's only just based on goals.
Like there's been so many times where a player has had such a
stand out performance but on fantasy sports, especially the
FBL app, get fuck all points forit.
Like getting like 2 points. It's just ridiculous.
Like there is more to the game than just scoring and assisting.
And I know obviously the goal iswhat wins you the matches and
(11:04):
clean sheets is what prevents you from losing.
But the end of the day there's so many intricacies and little
things on a pitch that equate towinning and contribute to that
as well. So Supercoach EPL is going to be
really exciting and if it's anything like AFL, I'm going to
be extremely excited for that because AFL approved and
Supercoach proved that you don'tneed to have a lot of goals to
(11:26):
really impact the game. It's a lot of possessions, a lot
of accuracy, It scales as well. So depending on the time of the
game, your points can scale up significantly.
So I'm really excited if there is scaling.
I'm not sure if there is, but ifa player does score and if you
want to, if you want to account for that this way, it can be
valuable. Scoring in the 90th minute or a
key defensive block or interception can can scale up
(11:48):
your points massively and reallyhelp you win your fantasy
battles. So again, really excited for
that. And yeah, sort of blab it on.
Again, it's great to blab it on and talk about kind of Sporting
News as well, just given that there's there's so much at the
moment. I've been meaning to do
emergency huddles that haven't had the chance to really get on
that. And what I'm also been meaning
(12:09):
to do is getting more guests. So I'm in the process of finding
some guests. If I get one of these guests to
come on, I'm extremely excited about to be honest, because
really high profile, don't really want to talk too much
about it, but I'm extremely keento have that particular person
on the podcast if we can get it,if we can get it through.
(12:30):
It's really a scheduling issue at the moment as to why we
haven't done that episode yet. It's been a long time coming.
And a few other guests as well that are quite are quite good
guests to different sports as well.
So something completely different to what I've spoke
about on the past as well. So also excited to really talk
about that as well. But without further ado, we'll
(12:53):
go straight into it. Again, as I mentioned, we're
gonna have a deep dive into the psychology.
It's a bit of hypocrisy and the high stakes of gambling in in
modern sports. So talking about the athlete.
So as mentioned, the athletes that have been gambling on their
own games and also kind of the effect holistically and overall
(13:13):
of sports betting in sport for those that do bet and also how
it affects the league and revenues and all that jazz.
So again, what's really happening at the moment is that
there's been an influx, maybe not as prevalent because maybe
they want to hide stories or people haven't been sort of
(13:33):
caught in this. But the last like 2 months we've
had two betting scandals in the NBA and we've had a history of
different betting scandals starting with in the Premier
League, Ivan Tony, who was banned for eight months, 13 bets
on his own team, seven of them to losses, which is crazy.
Could you imagine like your own teammate and you found out that
(13:54):
the whole betting on you guys tolose, it's pretty crazy.
He had 15 bets to score in nine matches.
So respect that he wants to backhimself.
And then he had 126 total bets on on matches that he could have
been in involved with. So by that I'm guessing any
match that occurred in the Premier League and maybe the
Football Championship as well, but almost over 100 and and 40
(14:18):
bets, maybe even close to 150 total bets made five and Tony
and he got an 8 month ban, whichwhich is quite crazy.
We also had Malik Beasley who's apparently being investigated
for some betting scandals as well, some betting on his own
team. It is said that he's had like
$600,000 debt, so he's got a bitof financial issues there.
(14:42):
Don't really know how when when his contract is pretty high, but
he's also one that's that's in that investigation.
And then most recently, Terry Rozier, who there was a
Mississippi, I think booking place or the bookies there in
Mississippi that saw an influx of betting, betting on the under
when he was at the Charlotte Hornets.
(15:04):
And one of the games that was that influx.
He basically left the game after10 minutes of foot injury.
So there's some fishiness going on there.
And then also we had the AFL one.
Another reason why I want to talk about AFL one, and I'll
start with that, was the Jaden Stevenson one where he put
basically like a $36 bet or a total of $36 bets on on three
(15:27):
multis that were unsuccessful involving Collingwood.
And he copped A22 game, 12 of them suspended and also a
$20,000 fine, which is crazy. And I'll start with Jaden
Stevenson. We all know AFL fans know who he
is. He's now a tradie, unfortunately
didn't really have the success as a as a footy player due to a
lot of off the field stuff such as this.
(15:49):
But yeah, he basically got into trouble for that betting on his
own team. And although it was like $36 on
a multi, you shouldn't be, you shouldn't be betting on your own
team. And I completely sort of
understand that. But the reason why he probably
did it was because of the financial issues that occurred.
And no, by no means I'm justifying any of these players
(16:12):
as I look into James Stephenson,especially because he doesn't
make as much money as the other three.
The AFL has a lot of sponsorships and most of them
come from gambling. If not, actually, you've got a
fact here that I'm pretty sure. And if I can find it, oh bloody
hell, where are you? How do you?
(16:34):
Before I had to pause to to basically find this because I
was sounding so stupid, but I got basically I got the article.
The article is is from ABC, so I'll read it out to everyone.
Almost 2/3 of all major sportingteams in one Australian state
are receiving money from gambling companies and ABC
analysis has found, revealing A concerning and toxic reliance on
(16:57):
gambling sponsorship and advertising. 7 sporting club
codes and their domestic clubs Ican't read were examined for any
relationship or commercial partnership with gambling
organisations, including casinos.
The ABC looked at publicly available information for 74
teams across the NRLAFL, Rugby Australia, Football Australia,
(17:19):
Cricket Australia, Netball Australia and the NBL.
Eight of the 13 teams examined in Queensland were sponsored by
gambling companies and six of the strongest commercially
viable clubs in the state, the Lions, the Broncos, the
Dolphins, Cowboys, Titans and Sons all had at least one
gambling sponsor. That's pretty crazy.
(17:39):
In contrast, only one team in Victoria, the Melbourne Storm,
was sponsored by a gambling company, while there were none
in in SA. NSW.
Several sporting teams have signed up to reclaim the game, a
government established initiative which reduces or
removes sports betting from homegames.
OK anyway from that, and this isnot counting essentially like
(18:03):
sports bet TIB and all the betting companies actually
betting sponsoring the league itself because they do do that
too. That's pretty crazy.
And for a player like Jaden Stevenson who is going to get
fined basically $20,000 and essentially ban 12 games for a
(18:25):
$36 bear, it is quite, it's quite unjustified, especially
given that they're making millions and millions of dollars
off of betting companies for their leagues to function.
So do you see that kind of the disparity, the disparity there?
And obviously it happens across NBA and and and EPL as well, but
I have less sympathy for those players because they don't make
(18:47):
as much money. But this was kind of the same
issues in the 90s when Maribo and all those companies were
sponsoring. If you're encouraging gambling
and if the the league is making so much money from the
sponsorships, then how can you not expect players to bet when
(19:12):
the league is just generating money?
Like the hypocrisy there is crazy.
And yes, that's probably from what I've heard, there are
gambling associates or people that that go into these teams
now and sort of help and supportthe players.
But in my, in my honest opinion,you're still exposing them
(19:33):
massively like and we take away the players like myself, for
example, I'm someone that has done a lot of sports betting.
I do like a good multi here and there and I have bet on a lot of
games. For me it makes a funnest person
or whatever. That ease of access that I have
onto an app to be able to look at everyone's stats and being
able to bet is just crazy. Like a 2 year old can literally
(19:57):
get on the app and bet. It's that simple.
The apps are so sophisticated now.
Sports bet have literally got pinpoint disposal multis.
You have people endorsing it, famous people endorsing it.
Then garage is 1. Shout out to Dan Garage.
Love that guy but he's one that also has his own multi feeds.
So the betting. And there's no nothing against
(20:18):
him to bet because he's a, he's not a player.
He can do whatever he wants. But the amount of coverage and
how and how easy it is to bet inin Australia and, and, and quite
frankly, around the world, It iscrazy.
And the fact that the league makes so much money, but simply
just ban players as if, as if they're doing something very
(20:39):
malicious. Like, yeah, OK, they're cheating
on the game, but they're not really.
Like I've seen less bans given for like people getting bashed,
for example, or like even for Mason Greenville and, and, and
Miles Bridges didn't even get that much of A consequence from
the league. They they got consequences
outside the league and and legally, which the justice
(21:02):
system does what it needs to do,but in a sporting perspective,
didn't get half the punishments that that they that these guys
have got. And even for Jonte Porter, who
is probably never going to ever play in a league game again.
And again, this is not me defending them at all.
Like for someone to put a bet ontheir own game, they deserve a
(21:23):
punishment because they ultimately have control of the
outcome. But again, when you have these
betting companies there and they're so sophisticated, they
make so much money, it's just soeasy for for for everyone to get
and do a bet. Why wouldn't you think that
these guys wouldn't do it either?
It just it just doesn't make sense.
I think the leagues needs to do a better job in sort of kind of
(21:44):
choreographing this in a way where there is more education to
it and and they kind of limit the sponsorship as well because
you can't be banning people and then making money at the same
time. It just doesn't really make
sense. Betting.
Betting is everywhere. The culture is everywhere.
Like even if you're someone thatdoesn't bet on your own league,
(22:06):
you're allowed to bet on a wholenother sport if you want.
It's so easy to do that because the access is so there so
quickly as well. There's a lot of obviously big
betting companies around the world and, and, and it just
continues to to be a big problem.
And going on the hypocrisy as well.
When I when I mentioned that, like people were banned for
(22:28):
placing a bet, like for Jane Stevenson's case, a $36 bet, he
gets a ban, but then the teams are getting sponsorships.
What do the young athletes see? Like imagine you're a kid
watching the sport and you've seen your favourite athlete roll
up into a game on TV and there'sjust a sport betting
advertisement there encouraging you to gamble, encouraging you
(22:49):
to to really muck around with with your finances and those
that are inspiring to be professional as well.
Have that message as a kid to think that's OK.
The fans as well. The fans just wanted to bet,
lose their money and there's just no integrity.
I just don't think there there is a clear line between
competition and business as well.
(23:10):
They'll quick to ban players on doing the action, but then
they're also quick to make moneyas quick as possible and not
really care about the the ramifications of of what that
betting can do and how the league can be done.
And so quick to judge as well. So quick to really discriminate
and get and really want to punish the players big time as
if they're doing the worst thingpossible.
(23:31):
Like, yes, they're cheating and we don't like that, but you're
mutually making money from the same shit.
The only difference is you're not betting on the games
yourself. Like Adam Silva, the way that he
reacted when Jonte Porter got the ban or found I was going to
betting was crazy if if it really felt as though he killed
someone. So just things that the league
(23:53):
need to work on doing like they got rid of the smoking
sponsorships. I know Maribel looked really
cool when I mentioned it again before.
Maribel looked really cool on shirts once as well.
But you don't want to, you don'twant to encourage people to do
bad things. And gambling is a massive
problem, especially in Australia.
Like I just actually read another stat and I found this
stat 33% of people in Australia in the past 12 months have
(24:19):
betted on sport or have gambled on sport. 33%, almost 1/3 of the
country, which which is crazy. And again, those apps, the
sponsorships, that's that's why it's the case.
And you can see why there's so many betting problems and people
have financial issues in this country while the leagues end up
(24:42):
making so much money. And I'm sure that's across
America as well and across the whole, the whole board as well.
There's a big issue for, for mental health and, and it kind
of effects our values as well because it becomes more
commercialised and the more you kind of promote gambling as
well. And it goes back to me and now I
just sort of thought about this in my head.
(25:02):
It goes back to the, the athletes play abuse.
The more you're promoting your athletes to get abused online as
well. Like we've all been frustrated
and I'll, I'll be 1 to say that when a certain player I bet on
fails to hit their line on a, ona score, whether it's a rebound,
disposal position, whatever it is, they, they cost me a chance
(25:22):
to win money. The amount of abuse that they
get from gambling addicts or people like myself, sporting
fans mean not anymore when I wouldn't say I actually abused
them online and messaged them say you cost my multi.
But in saying like I'd be frustrated, but there are people
that send death threats to certain athletes because they
haven't hit their fucking multis.
(25:44):
Like that's crazy. And, and why that's the case,
because the app's easy, the sponsorships are there and they
have the, the rain to do it without any consequence.
But as soon as someone bets on themselves, they get the
consequence. You see, you see where I'm going
in with this hypocrisy, hypocrisy and how it affects
people as well. You see how if you make sport
betting part of a culture, it kind of makes everything worse
(26:06):
as well. And it ruins people's
livelihoods, especially athletestoo.
It's crazy. It's it's, it's not something
you can stop, like you can't stop people from from gambling,
but what you can stop is gettinga piece of the pie from these
gambling companies, the leagues of sport, if you really care
about your athletes and your people.
And that's sort of, yeah, the frustrating part of this as
(26:27):
well. So I think what league should
reconsider as I sort of wrap this up, because there's not
really much to go on more from this, is that there needs to be
more education when it comes to it.
So it's good that leagues are bringing in gambling advice
people and then higher ups to put that in.
The messaging has got to be removed.
(26:47):
The mixed messaging. It's your other one side of the
fence or the other. You can't be on both and you've
got to build safer spaces for athletes to seek help.
If there is gambling issues, it'd be good if that wasn't
obviously publicised into the media until when the
investigation has been finished.And I know there's leaks and
rats, but the league's got to bea do a better job in kind of
(27:10):
keeping that more more secretive.
And if there is that issue, the those athletes get help first
rather than than being scrutinised.
And until the league sort of stops profiting from the
problem, the players are always going to be ones paying the
price in the end. So the leagues are going to have
a good hard look at themselves if they really want betting to
(27:34):
be their their main source of income.
Then they got to reconsider how they view athletes when they 2
put bets on on games as well. So that's kind of where I draw
the line. Again, this is me not saying
that betting is right and it should happen.
It's me saying that these leagues are making money off the
(27:57):
stuff that they're getting upsetabout and when players do it,
they get upset. So spin my spill on gambling and
the effects that it has on athletes and and holistically as
a whole. Thank you very much for tuning
in once again. Hopefully, we can get some
guests on the spot again, as I mentioned, and we can talk about
(28:20):
more deep meaning stuff, but it's been your boy Daniel from
the Huddle Within Podcast, and Iwill catch you guys next week.
Cheers. So that's a wrap for this week's
episode of The Huddle Within Podcast.
I appreciate you for tuning in and being part of this community
where we go beyond the game and into what really matters.
If this episode resonated with you, make sure to subscribe,
(28:41):
leave a review, and share it with someone who sees sports
just the way that we do. And hey, I'd love to hear from
you. Connect with me on my social
medias, which will be linked below, send in your thoughts and
even be part of a future episode.
Until next time, keep that passion alive, stay in the
huddle, and remember it's alwaysdeeper than the game.
Cheers.
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