CHICAGO — It’s an hour before a recent Cubs game, I’m at the new DraftKings sportsbook outside of Wrigley Field and some real sharps are at the window.
Dangerous gamblers. Seedy types.
One of them completes his turn and turns around, giddy with anticipation:
“Nico Hoerner to hit a home run, +1300,” he says with a laugh.
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A high roller then places a $15 bet on the Cubs moneyline, a whopping $5 on the over for Cody Bellinger’s total bases and $20 on something I couldn’t make out. Must be betting for a syndicate.
As it turned out, Hoerner didn’t homer, Bellinger didn’t record any bases, but the Cubs did win 9-7. I’m guessing more people at Wrigley Field wasted money on beer bats than bad bets.
Is the first retail sportsbook in Chicago a sign of the gambling apocalypse where formerly successful members of society find themselves penniless on the side of the road, asking for money to place a same-game parlay? Or is this all just the result of a common vice being legalized, taxed and publicized, so it’s in our faces more?
I write and talk a lot about the past, present and future of sports gambling, and every so often I like to revisit Charles D’Ambrosio’s story “Winning” about his uncle’s Chicago bar and the gamblers who inhabited it. D’Ambrosio came to realize these were the kinds of failures who only felt alive when they were losing a bet.
“Now when I think of it,” D’Ambrosio wrote, “I understand it was never so much the potential for gain that animated gamblers like George, these men who had nothing, but being reawakened to a world where loss was once again possible. … As long as you could fall farther you distinguished yourself from the fallen. Loss reinstated possibility, but possibility without hope.”
That’s true for some degenerates, the real lost causes. But for the casual bettors, like the guys I overheard at the window, I think the attraction is more about the idea of being right for a fleeting moment in their lives, the validation of being considered “lucky” and being part of a community. Sure, it’s a community of people mostly losing money but it’s still a community.
For all the bemoaning about the explosion of sports betting — like marijuana, an already popular vice that has now been radically mainstreamed by legalization across the country — ruining sports, I hope that these smallish bets are more common among new gamblers than the life-ruining ones.
I do worry about the high school students and the college kids who don’t have their own money or the awareness of failure that comes with old age, but the same can be said about nicotine pouches, vaping and, of course, drugs and alcohol. Some vices never really change.
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While many of my colleagues have rightfully pointed out the social ills of sports betting to the financial dangers it presents to its contributions to the rise of over-the-line trash talk to athletes, sometimes you have to admit it’s just fun to have a little action on a game you’re already watching.
Listen, gambling is a vice. It’s not good for you, but all in moderation, right? Which, of course, we in America do so well. Just don’t expect to win.
The rise of the smartphone’s importance in our daily lives is inescapable, but it’s not exactly working wonders for our self-restraint, so in-person betting is a more palatable alternative. It sacrifices convenience for forced discipline. You’re going to make fewer bets (in-game betting is a cash cow), you’re going to pay in cash and you’re more likely to keep the money you do win (if you win) than if it’s sitting in some account.
Since legalized gambling is here to stay, we need more regulatory limits, including banning prop bets for college athletes (which some states already do) and limiting them for the pros. Even the hardest-core gamblers would support a tighter leash on the marketing aspect. We’re all tired of the commercials, especially the ones telling you to bet parlays. (I’m looking at you, sports radio hosts.) The ad reads during RSN broadcasts aren’t exactly smooth. (The Athletic has a partnership with BetMGM.)
But at least, the average bettor doesn’t have to use sketchy offshore websites anymore.
I was there at Rivers Casino when sports betting went live in Illinois in 2020, just as the pandemic rocked the world. Four years later, I was at the official opening of the DraftKings book, complete with former Bears lineman Kyle Long placing a celebratory first bet.
The 2,200-square-foot structure opened last season as a bar/restaurant. It took another year for a sportsbook license to be approved by the Illinois Gaming Board. The regulatory process is thorough, from background checks to security requirements to the usual dotted i’s and crossed t’s. But DraftKings felt it was important to its brand to make the investment.
“Sports betting is inherently a social activity, whether it’s having your phone out at home on the couch or in a bar with friends,” said Stephen Miraglia, the senior director of communications at DraftKings. “This is just another way to engage with consumers in such an iconic venue, or adjacent to an iconic venue, while allowing customers (to experience) the brand outside of their mobile device.”
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As a reward for showing up, they were giving away hats and foam fingers.
If you’re wondering whether the Cubs can make money from suckers’ losing parlays, the answer is: not quite.
In the fall of 2021, the Cubs signed a 10-year, $100 million partnership to make DraftKings their official sports betting and daily fantasy partner. They don’t get to take a cut of the action, they just charge rent and make a little off the food and alcohol, which is run by concessionaire Levy Restaurants.
The Cubs also have a TV and radio marketing deal with Las Vegas-based Circa Resort & Casinos, which owns a casino in far north Waukegan, Ill. Cubs fans are potential marks, I mean customers.
If this isn’t your thing, you can pretty much avoid it at Wrigley Field if you’re not interested. It’s also worth noting there aren’t in-and-out privileges between the park and the sportsbook during games.
The Wrigley DraftKings is the company’s second physical location. The first opened at TPC Scottsdale, the golf course famous for the boozy Waste Management Open. (I went during spring break and highly recommend it.) The Wrigley one is the only retail sportsbook in Chicago (the others are in suburban casinos) and it looks like it will stay that way for a while.
While DraftKings and FanDuel are in a war for your money and attention — they’re the two top dogs in terms of market share — they’re taking different approaches in Chicago.
I was at the United Center recently and popped into the FanDuel lounge in the 100 level to see if betting was open there as well. It was not, and the people working there weren’t sure what was going on. I later found out that the company had canceled its application for a license at the United Center last year.
“We found our biggest customers there wanted the flexibility of a lounge, not a sportsbook, with no age restrictions to watch games,” said Chris Jones, the vice president of communications for FanDuel. “Working with the UC as a partner in their building, we want to give the customers what they want.”
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The FanDuel lounge’s wall of TVs is especially popular on NFL Sundays and during events like the NCAA Tournament. Fans can bring kids into the lounge, which wouldn’t be allowed if there were gambling.
From what I’ve been told, that wasn’t the only reason FanDuel and the United Center pulled their application. It also didn’t make sense to spend the money and time to get the license (which has to be renewed every year) given that an in-arena sportsbook wouldn’t be open to the public on non-game days.
The state license for a Sportsbook is $10 million and then there’s all the money you have to put into it, including high-definition cameras like the ones that helped bust Bert Neff at a BetMGM sportsbook in Ohio.
As for now, there don’t seem to be any urgent plans to put a sportsbook at Guaranteed Rate Field or Soldier Field, though both the White Sox and Bears have sportsbook partnerships. Licenses are given to the owners of the stadiums, not the teams, and both buildings are government-owned. And of course, both teams are focused more on moving out of their current homes.
In Ohio, the state lottery has a sports betting operation, which has opened it up to bars, restaurants and gas stations. I wouldn’t be surprised if Illinois follows suit one day.
Hey, one thing you can’t argue about sports betting: It’s less wasteful than playing the lottery.
(Photo of bettors at the DraftKings sportsbook at Wrigley Field: Jon Greenberg / The Athletic)
