In the lead-up to this month’s Boston Marathon, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission denied a request from the sports betting company DraftKings to take wagers on the race. The commission cited concerns from the Boston Athletic Association that there wasn’t enough time to safeguard the integrity of their flagship event. (Gambling on sporting events was only legalized in Massachusetts earlier this year.) While it’s understandable that the BAA might be a little nervous about embracing the brave new world of legalized gambling, not everyone applauded their prudence. The sports business reporter Darren Rovell told his nearly two million Twitter followers that the decision was a “missed opportunity to draw more attention to running.”
Is this the kind of attention running needs? Rovell is a columnist for the Action Network, a sports betting industry trade publication, so he is not exactly unbiased. Nonetheless, he raises the larger question of whether it’s in professional running’s interest to get in on the action of a sports betting market that has skyrocketed since the Supreme Court struck down a federal ban…
