How the US became hooked on sports betting – and the cost it’s having on lives
CNN
The billions of dollars that are being wagered has brought into sharp focus the US’ complicated relationship with sports gambling.
In August 2019, Saul Malek realized he’d hit rock bottom. His girlfriend had broken up with him, friendships had gone south, and he had money problems. “I noticed all my memories were really gambling related,” Malek explains to CNN Sport. “If I went out with my girlfriend and some friends, I’d tell her at the end of the night, ‘This is a great night because this bet won, and I was up this amount.’” In a last-ditch effort to resurrect his relationship with his girlfriend, Malek says he told his Gamblers Anonymous mentor that he wouldn’t place a bet for six months. Almost five years later, Malek still hasn’t bet. The billions of dollars that were bet on this year’s Super Bowl, the millions that will be wagered on Saturday’s Kentucky Derby and stories like Malek’s have brought into sharp focus the US’ complicated relationship with sports gambling.
In a season of ticking off accomplishments, the Cornhuskers bull their way into March taking dead-eye aim at the elephant sitting square in the middle of their locker room: Their school is the only one power conference team that has failed to win an NCAA Tournament game.
Team USA avoided a World Baseball Classic disaster on Wednesday when Italy pulverized Mexico, ensuring the Americans advanced to the quarterfinals.
Cinderella is a funny girl when her glass slippers are Nike issued. We are amused by her as a lead-up to the ball, love her if earns a party-crashing admittance and then goes on to trash the place in the first weekend. But not everyone is so eager to hand her one of the coveted 37 extra tickets held in reserve.
New York Giants co-owner Steve Tisch is requesting his ownership stake in the team be transferred to his children, according to an internal NFL memo.
Team USA is on the verge of one of the most embarrassing exits in World Baseball Classic history and, at this point, there’s nothing they can do about it.
Rick Barnes has been a head coach for 48 years. Won 857 games, been to the NCAA Tournament 29 times. He is not a man who needs to explain or even create a culture around his team. It sort of just exudes from him at this point.
Seven members of the Iranian women’s soccer team have remained in Australia, while the rest of the squad has now left the country for Iran, a source has told CNN Sports.
After their final defeat in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup on Sunday, supporters of the Iranian women’s football team crowded around their bus shouting at police to “save our girls” as it pulled away.
The Iran women’s national soccer team was forced to salute and sing its anthem on Thursday ahead of its Women’s Asian Cup group stage match against host Australia, sources close to the team tell CNN Sports, just days after the squad refused to do so in its tournament opener.
Lou Holtz, the College Football Hall of Fame coach who led Notre Dame to the 1988 national championship and won 249 games over 33 seasons at six schools, has died. He was 89.
North Carolina runner Molly Born won the USA Track & Field (USATF) women’s half marathon championship by a slim margin of just over four seconds on Sunday in Atlanta – but the result is only half the story.
It’s now 100 days until the FIFA World Cup is set to begin in North America, and the intensifying war in the Middle East has raised further questions around what is already a controversial tournament.
When American golfer Brooks Koepka left the PGA Tour in 2022, he didn’t seem all that sorry about it.