Patrick Bernauer
Professional sports, whether it’s Baseball, basketball, or even football are known as a huge moneymaker all over the country. Has it ever occurred to you that these highly popular events are rigged or even staged for the money? This is more feasible in both basketball and baseball than football because of the 7 game series playoff schedule where more than one game is needed to decide the winner. When you think back to recent playoffs in both sports it seems that these series always go to the sixth or seventh game, which is why it could quite possibly be rigged. Overall I believe that the NBA and MLB are both rigged in order to help their organizations gain a better following and make as much money as they possibly can.
Now you may be saying, “It’s because the teams are even and they have exactly the same skill”. False. In the NBA the Golden State Warriors have made it to the finals 4 years in a row and every year the series has gone farther than it needs to besides this last year with them being much better than the opposing Cavaliers. This is also seen in the MLB where in the past 5 years the World Series has gone to 7 games 3 out of the last 5 years. Not only would the foundation make much more money by having more games in the series but this also causes there to be more demand to see the sport when it comes down to the last game. This makes ticket prices higher and again increases the revenue. Both the MLB and NBA could be guilty of rigging their organizations.
When you look at these foundations from a business aspect you really realize how much money the teams are losing by limiting the number of games played. According to fortune.com, the NBA is losing about 80 million dollars per finals game they do not play because of a sweep. This is just the amount that the NBA is losing and does not take into account the amount that each team loses along with the additional money that is poured into the venue where it is held. According to stat.UNC.edu, the World Series has gone to a game seven 38 percent of the time the World Series has been held. This is almost 40 percent of the World Series that have occurred and allows for the MLB to take full advantage of as much money as they can make. Just from ticket prices for 1 game they would be losing about 62,000,000 dollars because of a sweep which is an outrageous amount of money.
Not only are these sports organizations losing lots of money, but they are also losing publicity which increases there demand to see the games that they put on. If a series continued to only go to game 4 and game 5 and was a blowout every time, the demand to see these games would diminish and people would no longer want to watch the sport. By continuing to put the game on the line and go until game 7 it creates more attention to each game and the public demands more of it. It also makes the games more entertaining and people are willing to pay more to see them. Not only do more games help drive the prices up for each game but they are also helpful in keeping people entertained and gaining more and more of an audience.
Overall The MLB and NBA are both missing out on more money than most people can think about when there are fewer games played in the playoffs at the end of each season. Thinking that such high caliber organizations would rig or set up their games I sickening and hard to believe but when you look at the numbers it’s hard to believe they would pass up such a large sum of money. In conclusion, I believe both the NBA and MLB are rigged in some way in order to create more publicity and an overall higher revenue for their programs.
Works Cited
“Breaking Down the Cleveland Cavaliers' 5 Best Moments of 2018.” Cavaliers Nation, 31 Dec. 2018, cavaliersnation.com/2018/12/31/cleveland-cavaliers-memories-2018/.
“Here's How Much Money ABC & the NBA Make with an NBA Finals Game 7.” Fortune, fortune.com/2016/06/18/nba-finals-game-7-abc-profit/.
“How Much Does It Cost to Attend a 2018 World Series Game?” Yahoo! Sports, Yahoo!, sports.yahoo.com/much-cost-attend-2018-world-series-game-170811459.html.
“List of NBA Champions.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 7 Mar. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NBA_champions.
“List of World Series Champions.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 16 Mar. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_World_Series_champions.
Parker, Tim. “The Economics Of Postseason Baseball.” Investopedia, Investopedia, 12 Mar. 2019, www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/1012/the-economics-of-postseason-baseball.aspx.
“Spring Training - Los Angeles Dodgers at Texas Rangers.” Vivid Seats, www.vividseats.com/mlb-baseball/los-angeles-dodgers-tickets.html.
This was super interesting to read about! I never thought of professional leagues rigging their playoffs, but from an economic standpoint (with ethics removed), it definitely makes sense. The equilibrium price definitely increases as the games go on, as supply remains constant but demand increases--and therefore, the NBA and MLB can make a considerable profit off of these additional games. My only question then, is how are the games rigged? Who determines who gets to win which game, and do the players themselves know about the rigging? Or is it just the coaches playing their benchwarmers? I believe that this is something we should work on investigating further, as it's plausible.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that these sports are rigged. The series’s almost always seem to go farther than they need to and with the amount of money that the organizations receive from those extra games being so high it is an easy thought to consider. This being said, it is also possible that the teams playing each other are evenly matched. They are after all the best two teams in the league and that has to count for something. With so much to consider, it is hard to pick a side, however, I do tend to lean towards it being rigged simply because of the frequency that this occurs. When the NBA finals go to game 6 or 7 almost 4 years in a row it’s hard to say the association is not involved in anyway.
ReplyDeleteThere have been several known instances, some proven some not, of referees and players impacting the game in order to get the desired outcome. Either someone paid them to impact the game and is betting on the outcome, or the ref/player is doing so himself. The bets placed are just on the game however, not duration of the series. Your argument does make sense, everyone makes more money if the series is stretched out, and you are accusing the league of tampering with the outcome of games. The only way that the league can have a direct affect on the outcome of the game would be through instant replay/review of close/challenged calls, or the other way would be to pay the officials directly. From my limited knowledge on the topic, I don't think that this has ever been proven. The only times the outcome of a game has been changed for money that I know of, was from a third-party.
ReplyDeleteYour article was really engaging. I think it’s important to go into the real world with an understanding that almost everything is done around money. You definitely have this mindset. While I haven’t been keeping up with the latest scores and wins, it was important that you used statistical details to claim that games are being played unexpectedly. This made me realize that a lot of money is being used to rig the system. I would have liked you to go more in depth about the money they lose if they didn’t rig the system and had less games. What goes into the 80 mil and why would they be losing 80 million dollars.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting topic! I do think there is some truth to your article that professional sports aren't actually about the entertainment but rather about making money. This is true with anything, even though it is something we may not like to admit, our favorite teams and leagues are still businesses. They capitalize on us "fans," aka consumers to buy tickets, pay for highly inflated prices on food and merchandise, all because of this rivalry between teams marketing has hyped up. It is interesting how you brought up, however that the skill of the teams is partially funded by these profits from the fans paying for "better" or more expensive athletes. It is also a unique point that the World Series has gone to a game seven 38 percent of the time. Who knows, is it all a rigged scheme to make us spend more money or is it just a coincidence more than a third of the World Series games have gone to game seven? This is something we overlook as the consumer, but there is definitely more truth to the business that we don't know about.
ReplyDeleteIn recent years I have began to realize that the thought of pro sports being rigged is not so crazy after all. I think back to recent memory where the warriors went up 3-0 against the Cavs, the year they didn't blow a 3-1 lead. The Golden State Warriors were so insanely dominant it looked like there was no chance they would lose game 4. They had lost no games in all of the playoffs and were ready to celebrate. That is then when they lost the game to the Cavs, and eventually winning game 5 to take home the ship. Them losing this game makes me think they did so almost on purpose for the extra money a game 5 would bring in. They were easily poised to win the series even if they lost that one game, so why not just lose it and take create the extra revenue? In effect they could have just lost on purpose to have another game that would bring in revenue, and still be in a comfortable position to win the ship. In the end, sports organizations are businesses. Players are traded because money triumpths over loyalty in the sports world. These business decisions lead me to believe that teams take advantage of the system to make more money, whether they admit it or not.
ReplyDeleteI think it is very possible that professional sports are rigged in favor of building more hype for the NBA finals or the MLB World Series. This is because hype is not just something that lasts a few days, but rather for years after the series is over. When the Cubs won the world series a few years ago, not only was everyone excited for their win, but now fans look nostalgically back on the series. Because of this nostalgia, fans buy more Cubs merchandise or attend more Cubs games. Also, I completely agree with you that demand significantly rises as a series continues. The stakes become higher, and the amount of rivalry between the two teams rise as well, leading to more people becoming interested not just in the winner and loser, but the story of the series. I feel that demand also rises when there is some sort of inspiring or hopeful story that comes from sports. For example, in March Madness, whenever there are upsets, or "Cinderella" stories, this raises the novelty of that team, and more people will feel inclined to watch. It is just natural for society to want the underdog to win. Plus, going along with the March Madness example, it is a great marketing and advertising move to run campaigns that have a tone of a 1 seed and a lower seed in the finals. The dominant team versus the underdog nobody expected. This will highly increase demand, as fans will think that something like this specific series will never occur again. Lastly, in the end, the MLB and NBA are businesses, who want to make as much money as they can. It is simply good strategy if they rig some of the playoffs or even regular season games to create more lasting hype for fans.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to see how these major leagues can increase revenue by a tenfold by just adding more games and increasing consumer wants from added suspense. How do the teams benefit from these added games? Is there profit and incentive for losing teams to throw games or are they unwittingly playing these games. Other than that aspect, it really is ingenious to increase revenue by just adding a few more games. However, does this bring more incentive to the teams to make it to the higher games or not? Disregarding the teams, it isn't really unethical to add these games or rig them as consumers still get what they want: a source of entertainment. Technically most wrestling matches in the WWE are staged, but there remains a large fan base as the audience isn't aware of the premeditated results which brings the same amount suspense and interest as "authentic" match.
ReplyDeleteThe reasoning behind why sports playoffs would be rigged makes sense. But really the spot that is overlooked is actually how hard it is to rig games, especially in the MLB. Sure, in the NBA guys can purposely miss shots, forge to play defense, or have a ref make a bad call, but in the MLB this is much harder without getting caught by fans and administration. First of all, you can’t just tell a team to win in baseball, that’s not how it works. They have to physically score the runs, which in baseball is not as easy as it looks, and they have to hold the opposing team to less runs. Tons of factors go into this including favored umpiring calls (which is really for an umpire to do considering there is literally a box hovering over the strike zone on everybody’s TV (which tells the audience whether it’s a ball or a strike). If games were to be rigged, it would be really hard to do so without getting caught.
ReplyDeleteI 100% agree with this post. My main reason for this is that nowadays, everything is about the money. You can see it now in sports stars that leave their original team, chasing money or a championship, which would bring them more money down the road. If these people, who are in the media spotlight and scrutinized everyday, aren’t afraid to do whatever it takes to get rich, what’s stopping the people behind the scenes, those who are running the show, from doing whatever they need to get the most money?
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me it would certainly be a lot easier to rig a NBA game compared to a MLB one. The fast paced action and multiple refs on the court give the refs many opportunities to make a game changing call. This is compared to baseball, where the only major calls that can be made are outs and strikes/balls. From what I’ve noticed, the NBA is also much more marketable than the MLB. To me, it would make sense for the NBA to rig a few playoff games, so they can easily market a high stakes game seven, between whatever teams and players they choose to make it in order to earn the most money possible.
This was a very interesting topic to read about, and this probably was my favorite article all year! But I disagree with you on the MLB and NBA being rigged. I know it might seem like it is but there is no actual evidence that the professional sports are rigged. Also the NBA is rigged because the Warriors make it to the finals every year. I would expect them to make to the finals because 4 of their 5 starters are allstars. But overall great blog post.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with you suspicion of these different sports leagues rigging the system so they can play more games and thus earn more money. However, I find it difficult to select any exact way the associations could possibly be rigging the games without getting caught. If the players knew that their games were being rigged so they could get a larger paycheck, at least a few of them would have turned out to be whistleblowers and the whole situation would have been uncovered. However, I can’t remember any kind of sports scandal like this, so the rigging of the games would have to be done without the players, or at least a majority of players, knowing. I see how all of the data from these games for the last few years would suggest some kind of collusion within the associations to make more money, but I don’t believe the situation would be as widespread and common as your writing would suggest.
ReplyDeleteAs upsetting as this claim may be to many sports fans, the likelihood of its truth is very high. In today's entertainment-centered society, money is the driving behind it all. Professional sports are just entertainment, in the end, so people will try to make the most money off of that one fact by possibly rigging the entire system and ruining the trust that fans have in the process of postseason and playoff rivalries. Seeing the statistics you gave about how much additional money teams can make from just one additional postseason/playoff game removes all doubt from my mind that these sports are rigged. When series get dragged out to the final game, it's almost a win win--the organizations get boatloads of additional cash, and fans are treated to a suspenseful and entertaining series. The only thing that would make me doubt the truth of your claim would be the fact that no players from any league have come out and said anything about it, which is surprising considering how many different leagues there are across all professional sports.
ReplyDeleteThis topic is very controversial. There is no proof because in the MLB pitching is arguably the most important aspect in the game and if you only have 2 great pitchers, combined they may only play 4 of the games. Also, the MLB often does go to game 7s in order to try new pitching and saving some of your best guys for the next game to take advantage of your opponent. As far as both sports go, most teams especially want to win at home. The Warriors knew they would beat the Cavaliers so they sort of "threw" game 4 away to win in Oakland.
ReplyDeleteThis was a very interesting read. Some people might get very offended by this since they are such big fans of professional sports. All in all its entertainment for us non professionals, almost like movie actors, they are getting paid so much money per year just to entertain people. Even though there is no proof of these sports being rigged, how come the same sports teams make it to the finals every year? There is a lot of controversy and I can see why. Personally I like to go to packer and brewer games because the involvement, energy, and excitement is so amazing and puts you in a such a good mood, but I don't understand why they make people pay so much money for one game. Overall I think this was very interesting to read about and there are so many different opinions so looking through these comments was kind of entertaining and fascinating. In end, I don't really have an opinion other than these professionals are paid way to much, the money they are making could be going towards better things.
ReplyDeleteI definitely see how it could be suspicious that most finals/championship games go into game 7 almost every time. However, I do believe that most of these times it is simply because the teams are so evenly matched that it is super hard to sweep the opposing team. Especially when key players may get injured, games can be stretched out to take a longer time because those key players are not there to deliver a blow to the other team. With that being said, I still see where you are coming from because if a sweep happened every time, many organizations would be missing out on big profits for themselves and the community.
ReplyDeleteI would have to agree with you on saying that sports are rigged in order to make the teams get as much money as they can from these championship runs they are having, everyone knows that NBA or MLB teams could have one the championship within 3 or 4 games, but they always get pushed out of 7 where they can jack up the prices on tickets, get the word out more and just gain a ton more money out of it. I think that they do this for a reason, so everyone can make more money off of it, but I don't believe that this is the right way of doing it.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very controversial point and I can see the arguments for both sides. I remember watching the 2016 NBA finals and every game was won by 10 points or more by either team. The games were never close, and the Warriors won by more than 20 in multiple occasions. Then all of the sudden Cleveland completely turns around and flips the score, winning by 10 or more every game and flipping the 3-1 series score, winning by 4 in game seven? Sounds like the NBA wanted to profit from a 7 game series, and make a good name for themselves by having one of the "greatest comebacks of all time".
ReplyDeleteThe reasoning behind why sports playoffs would be rigged makes sense. But really the spot that is overlooked is actually how hard it is to rig games, especially in the MLB. Sure, in the NBA guys can purposely miss shots, forge to play defense, or have a ref make a bad call, but in the MLB this is much harder without getting caught by fans and administration. First of all, you can’t just tell a team to win in baseball, that’s not how it works. They have to physically score the runs, which in baseball is not as easy as it looks, and they have to hold the opposing team to less runs. Tons of factors go into this including favored umpiring calls (which is really for an umpire to do considering there is literally a box hovering over the strike zone on everybody’s TV (which tells the audience whether it’s a ball or a strike). If games were to be rigged, it would be really hard to do so without getting caught.
ReplyDeleteI could totally see how you would think that playoffs would be rigged. When you really think about how hard it would be to rig of game, especially in the MLB. But in the NBA it would be a lot easier to be able to rig a game because guys can miss shots, not play good defense, even the have the refs make mad called. Back to the MLB it would be very hard to rig a game because the fans are the number thing that would be able to tell if someone is trying to throw a bad game. When it comes to baseball you can't fake a score you have actually score the runs, and this is not easy at all. There are a lot of different factors that play in when trying to rig a baseball game. Because on the tv there is a little box that comes up about the strike zone and if you throw a bad pitch that is called a strike. If baseball was really rigged you would be able to tell and would be caught right away, but in other sports it could be easier but still close to impossible with out getting caught and someone point. It might not be right away but at some point someone will figure it out.
ReplyDeleteThis is really interesting, but the only way to know for sure that this comes full circle is if an executive or anyone part of an organization within the NBA and MLB actually admits it. Yes, it would be beneficial to have more games because the opportunity cost of having less finals games is multiple tens of millions of dollars - but there isn't a concrete way to know for sure right now. They do have a nice economic incentive to make the series' more even though, even if a team has a comparative or absolute advantage, per se, over the other.
ReplyDeleteI know that there have been numerous games and events that have been fixed by referees but most of the time these events have been rigged to benefit the refs who will most likely be involved in underground sports betting and by rigging games they will be putting money into their own pocket. I was surprised when you said that the NBA makes $80 million for every Finals game. I think if the sports leagues were rigging games then there would be more leaks and evidence pointing towards the league. However most of the rigged games are to the benefit of the refs.
ReplyDelete- Kaustav Saha
This is another common conspiracy theory that just cannot be possible. Yes, in the playoffs some series may be closer than they should but in each sport players can not naturally dominate and decide to make every shot, make only perfect passes, hit consistently, it's just not there. Now in football a quarterback might decide a game but that does not mean it is rigged. In the all sports players are paid higher for playing better so why would players decide to lose... as well there are tons of incentives for simply making the playoffs and winning the championship. The only possible way games can be rigged are due to referees but even then it is very hard without noticing. Overall, each sport is still making billions of dollars and entertaining in new ways than ever seen.
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