Once upon a time, the NBA made Ontario and British Columbia take NBA betting off their provincial lottery options. Today, sports betting advertisements barrage viewers non-stop when they watch a Toronto Raptors game.
It’s big business, and legal, now that single-game sports betting has been legal in Ontario for over a year now. Few think about the impact it has had on the players themselves. They’ll be the first to tell you, it can get nasty. No longer is it just people coming at you for poor play which can lead their favourite team to a loss. Now it’s about their parlays too.
A pair of Raptors recently opened up about the abuse.
Too many people don’t seem to realize players are humans and that they sometimes see the messages.
Boucher said it’s made him more hesitant to engage with fans. “Do I really want to talk to you? Because if I score eight, you know you’re gonna flame my Twitter, my Instagram and everything,” Boucher said.
VanVleet said on the podcast they are doing him a favour though, as he can avoid the toxic waste dump that is social media.
“In a way, I’m grateful for it because it’s helped me do two things. I’ve been staying off of Twitter, which has been great for me. And two, I stopped looking at my Instagram DMs because it’s all bets.” VanVleet said.
Washington Wizards superstar Bradley Beal recently had an argument with fans who allegedly were criticizing him for ruining their bets with his performance.
ESPN reported that following a loss to the Orlando Magic, Beal and the Wizards were exiting the court and in the visitors’ tunnel headed to the locker room, when, according to a police report obtained by ESPN, an unidentified man said to Beal, “You made me lose $1,300, you f—.” ESPN reported Beal, according to the report, turned around and walked toward a friend of the man who made the comment and swatted his right hand toward him, knocking the man’s hat off and contacting the left side of his head.
Beal said he understands that nobody likes losing money, but told media: “I think it’s when people start getting personal, talking about your family, talking about your character, your integrity towards the game. I think all of that, we can save it. We can really keep those comments to ourselves.
“I understand. I go to casinos, I gamble, I understand that. But I also understand it’s probably a 99% chance I’m going to lose,” he said. “I’m not sitting here about to get angry at the dealer or angry at everybody else.”
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