Sunday Night Football or Wednesday Nine to Five? Why Not Both?
By TUSHAR DWIVEDI
Sports betting has raced to a fast start in the United States, with valuations of the industry ranging from tens to hundreds of billions of dollars. Among the various legalized states, Delaware and New Jersey were some of the earliest to jump on the opportunity, officially establishing a legal sports gambling culture outside of Nevada. Being located in what may be one of the greatest and most passionate sporting cities and states in the country, it is no wonder that Bostonians find both potential and danger in the idea of legalized sports betting coming to Massachusetts. Recent legislation proposes exactly this, as Governor Baker is pushing for legalized sports betting (for individuals over 21 and non-high school or collegiate level sports).
While many individuals may look forward to being able to put down $50 on the next Patriots Super Bowl or Red Sox game against the Yankees and adding a little extra spice to everyday sports watching, it is critical to think about the far-reaching impacts of the industry. While tax revenues for the Commonwealth to allocate towards urban and social projects are positive externalities from which we can all benefit, the rise of the gambling industry has also created thousands of jobs for software engineers, financial analysts, and other technical roles in companies such as the Boston based DraftKings. After receiving an internship offer at DraftKings, a Junior mentioned that “the biggest allure, honestly, was that this was a chance to turn his passion for sports and coding into a career.”
Baseball, long labeled America’s pastime, has brought a unique sort of unity and pleasure to the country that has rarely been seen elsewhere. For how many other events or TV Shows can one imagine blocking off an entire day of the week, every week for months, other than Football? For those who are not athletes but are incredibly passionate about a sport or sports, careers like journalism, media, marketing, strategy, and more recently data analytics, have allowed hundreds of thousands to experience the same pleasure of SNF during the work day. For many — including individuals attending college in Boston — Sports Gambling opportunities offer another avenue into the exciting sports industry.
Tushar Dwivedi ’20 (tushar_dwivedi@college.harvard.edu) looks forward to seeing exactly how sports betting plays out in Boston.