Add UFC fighter Alex Hernandez to the growing list of athletes who have lamented that fans care more about making money off their performances than appreciating sports for other reasons.
This undermines the sports betting industry’s claim that most people gamble on games or individual athletic performances primarily for “entertainment.”
Speaking to The Ariel Helwani Show, Hernandez, fresh off a recent victory, said that it’s relatively common for people to approach him in an airport, for example, and tell him about their parlays.
“The saddest thing in the world is you get done with a fight, you’re in the airport, and no one just comes up to you to say they’re a fan or ‘great work,’” Hernandez said. “They say, ‘You hit my parlay,’ or, ‘Man, we cashed out.’”
The 34-year-old UFC veteran added: “When did it change from just being a fan appreciating the work, appreciating the art, appreciating the will? Now you just appreciate your pockets.”
The shift began after states started sponsoring online sports gambling in 2018.
Zooming Out
What Hernandez described is gross, but it’s the lighter side of sports betting brain rot. Many athletes and coaches receive abuse or threats when they don’t perform to expectations, or when the team loses. In extreme cases, this kind of abuse plays a role in an early retirement.
We’re not using “brain rot” here to necessarily refer to problematic gambling, though attempting to contact or approach an athlete because of gambling appears to be a troubling behavior.
Harassment and threats are more concerning than obnoxious fans who approach athletes to thank them for a winning wager, and the major sports leagues recently urged states and the gambling industry to crack down on abusive or threatening bettors. Some sportsbooks have started banning these users, but they haven’t released data.
Some fans may also try to influence the event itself to win their wagers, as one PGA golfer described.
Hernandez does not personally have a gambling sponsorship, but the UFC has had numerous gambling-industry partnerships over the years. Some UFC fighters have promoted gambling.
Following Other Athlete Comments
Athletes such as the NBA’s Kyrie Irving, the NFL’s Marquez Valdes-Scantling, and MLB’s Paul Sewald have made similar comments about betting rotting sports fans’ brains.
The most notable rebuke may have come from LeBron James, who now promotes sports gambling.
The following 2023 James quote from the Los Angeles Times has aged like milk outside in Las Vegas.
“I mean, it’s weird that some of our regular fans that love the game kind of only care about a parlay now,” James said. “I guess that’s the word everybody is using. It’s kind of taken some of the integrity out of the game because people are kind of really only caring about the betting.”
About two months later, James partnered with DraftKings to promote NFL bets. Now, James makes $15 million annually promoting Polymarket, nearly four times his NBA salary this season, according to Front Office Sports.
James did, in his interview with the LA Times, acknowledge that gambling has been happening for generations. “So, I mean, to each his own,” he said.
The problem, however, is that state-sanctioned online gambling has exploded sports betting’s popularity and potentially its addictiveness.
Another notable example in this context is Kevin Durant, who criticized bettors in 2023 who insulted him after failed parlays. Durant now promotes FanDuel Sportsbook.
Why It Matters
While the list of athletes and celebrities who promote gambling grows, a corresponding backlash appears to be brewing. One NBA superstar recently stated he would never endorse gambling.
Also take a Los Angeles Times op-ed published this week with the bold headline “Celebrities who shill for sports betting are the modern Marlboro Men.” It was a blunt comparison to Big Tobacco.
Celebrity endorsements normalize betting and make it seem safer, which could also lead fans to think they have the leeway to contact or approach athletes with nice or ugly comments about betting.
Some public health experts have argued that a good place to start reform is to end sports leagues’ and athletes’ endorsements of sports gambling products. This could help reestablish an era of less cynical sports fandom, which many athletes appear nostalgic for. It could also make them safer.
