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Why sports gambling won't see a boom during the Tokyo games

Darren Rovell , a Sports Busines Reporter and Senior Exectuive Producer at The Action Network, previews what to expect from the sportsbooks during the Olympics.

Video transcript

SEANA SMITH: The Tokyo Olympics are officially underway. And as the games ramp up following the Opening Ceremony, there's one thing that's missing, and that's interest in betting in the Summer Games. We want to bring in Darren Rovell. He's a sports business reporter and also senior executive producer at The Action Network. And Darren, I guess, why aren't we seeing more interest in the games? You would think that this is something that would generate interest when it comes to betting.

DARREN ROVELL: Yeah, it's kind of strange, right? We've only had augmented interest in betting as, you know, more than 20 states are now legal in the United States. But listen, it's not sports that you bet on all the time. That's one. Two, you have the Americans, in most cases, what people want to bet on, these guys are humongous favorites, whether it's Simone Biles, Katie Ledecky, Caleb Dressel, any of these guys, plus USA both men's and women's basketball.

And then finally, you know, there's a big time delay issue with the-- some of the events going on. You know, obviously, 12, 13, 14 hours ahead of us, that's an issue. Live betting is moving up and up on what's important to bettors here in terms of in America for other sports, and so they're not getting the juice to wake up and try to live bet this thing.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Do you think there's any chance, though, that once the games get really going-- we're in the last two weeks of July. People are kind of summer relaxed. They're going to watch this stuff, even with the time difference-- that the betting will accelerate, that there will be excitement as we get into the game?

DARREN ROVELL: So I mean, listen, the bookmakers by state, it depends on what they can do, depending on what the governments of each state allow you to do. But they are trying to throw up as many props as possible. Will Katie Ledecky win 2 and 1/2 medals, over or under? The props they're trying to do as much as possible because that's something that people would do pre-betting. So the bookmakers are just saying let's-- people are going to get their bets in before, and let's do that and come up with amazing props.

Again, there is some problem with the value, right? Like, if you're a bettor and you really want to make money, you're not really going to bet on will the US be number one in medals. There's zero value there. And so we're so great at the Summer Olympics in so many sports that the people that you want to bet on are such prohibitive favorites that you have to parlay a bunch of them to make money. So that is also a significant issue.

SEANA SMITH: Darren, are there any prop bets that caught your eye, that you like?

DARREN ROVELL: You know, I mean, I like the Australians to win men's basketball. And I know that's not patriotic here, but you know, we've had two losses coming up. They were 20 to 1. They are down to, like, 8 to 1 now. I mean, because other people-- the Americans were, you know, prohibitive, prohibitive favorites and are still favorites, but not the same amount. So listen, I don't want to go to a party and tell my friends that I bet against US men's basketball. But as a bettor, I look for value, and I think that's the best value on the Olympic board. Don't kill me.

ADAM SHAPIRO: You don't think the Russian timekeeper is going to set the clock back and-- like, '72?

DARREN ROVELL: The reference to 1972, good job by you.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Yeah, some of us now showing our age. Real quick, what kind of interests are you seeing with the NFL, especially with the announcement and the pushback from some of the players?

DARREN ROVELL: On--

ADAM SHAPIRO: COVID.

DARREN ROVELL: On gambling?

ADAM SHAPIRO: Well, gambling, yeah, there's always interest in gambling with the NFL. But does the NFL stand to perhaps take the golden goose away--

DARREN ROVELL: The vaccine?

ADAM SHAPIRO: --because of-- yeah.

DARREN ROVELL: Yeah, I mean, this is really interesting. We've now had two coaches one with the Vikings and one with the Patriots today who are leaving their jobs because they don't want to get the vaccine. Obviously, these are private teams. They can do what they want. They're private citizens. They can do what they want.

You know, and the NFL basically saying that if it comes down to a game in week 17 or whatever where there is unvaccinated individuals and they have to delay the game, it will, in fact, be a forfeit. So you know, there's-- they were-- the NFL was the first league to put this type of pressure on, and I expect this to be a significant issue.

We haven't had a star player leave. We've had a guy like DeAndre Hopkins delete a tweet yesterday saying that he-- you know, this was going to be an issue and he'd have to consider his future in the NFL but then deleted it. I think this is going to be a real issue. I don't know if people will sit out, but you wonder what's going to happen. We've had two coaches in the past four hours leave their jobs because of it.

SEANA SMITH: Darren, I also want to quickly ask you, and I know you were tweeting about this earlier today, Naomi Osaka, she had the honor of lighting the Olympic cauldron. What do you think of the decision there and also just the example that this sets?

DARREN ROVELL: Yeah, I think that, you know, Naomi has done a tremendous job. She gets a lot, a lot of hate because of people not really understanding why she decided not to play recently and, you know, why she could be in "Sports Illustrated" and why she could light the cauldron but then talk about her mental health. These are two totally different things, and I think a lot of people don't understand the nuance of what she's going through and the nuance of mental health at large.

And that is going to be why I contend that at the level she's at, taking the break she's taking and then being augmented to lighting the cauldron, I think she's going to be an example for mental health and kind of to get that to the forefront. I think it's been creeping up slowly. But this is a different kind of thing, like someone leaving a game and taking a mental health break for two days. This is someone at the top of their game leaving Wimbledon, not playing in tournaments.

And so I think-- I hope that people understand that doing this and being in the Swimsuit Issue has nothing to do with, you know, taking questions at press conferences. And I see, and you'll see after my tweet, there's a lot of hate for it. And I think she's going to get blowback, as all mental health issues get blowback, but I really think she's going to contribute to society here.

SEANA SMITH: Darren Rovell, it was great to get your perspective. Sports business reporter and senior executive producer at The Action Network, thanks so much for joining us.