"We are not allowed to talk about it": in the world of American sports betting | Television and radio

SSeveral years ago, Luke Korem's friends, documentary director and Texas A & M graduate, challenged him to favor his outsider squad at the expense of Alabama college football. He searched for "sports betting" on Google, clicked on a website and placed a bet of $ 100. A few weeks later, his credit card statement included a mysterious and modest $ 100 cash flow for a spa treatment in the Caribbean. Without realizing it, he had made an illegal sports bet on the high seas.

Until last May, it was the nature of sports betting in the United States: illegal enough to be confined to underground networks or offshore books, but widespread enough for an amateur to access them. with a simple search on Google. And Korem was not the only fan to bet on games; Like a marijuana cloud hanging over a music festival, sports betting is an undeniable, albeit vague, denominator of America's prolific sports culture even before the Supreme Court's decision of the year the last leaves its legality to each State. Today, as the states of New Jersey in New Mexico adopt their own legalization measures, the sports game quickly emerged from the shadows as a national, cash – endowed sector whose High stakes and often disconcerting process is explored in Korem's latest documentary series, Action.

The four-part series follows some of the key players in the industry over a pivotal period, with sports betting quickly becoming a legal infrastructure in the months leading up to the most prolific betting day in the US: the 2019 Super Bowl , which brought in nearly $ 5 billion stake. Action is a resolutely up – to – date project that perfectly illustrates the speed with which fortunes can change and the way in which all this has recently developed. The series begins with footage of the Super Bowl less than two months ago, and premieres the first weekend of the NCAA March Madness University Basketball Tournament, in which Americans should bet more than $ 8.5 billion. dollars, according to the American Gaming Association.

The booming bets are just the latest proof of the rising profile of the sports game. "Sports betting has always interested me, especially because it's rooted in the world of sports and America, the sport is huge," Korem said by phone. "We all know that all this money is bet on the sport" – the American Gambling Association has estimated that illegal sports betting amounted to a ridiculous $ 500 billion – "but we are not allowed to talk about it. "

Korem was already in discussion with Boardwalk Pictures about a sportsbook documentary when the decision provided a crucial element: "Why now?" He immediately got the Showtime deal, "and a week later, I was on a plane to Vegas".

Korem's first task was to find colorful pepper characters. Action at various levels of the world of sports betting: expert commentators ("handicappers"), amateur and professional bettors, gambling addiction experts, an illegal bookmaker and many others who "represented a different part of the ecosystem" , and could pit Las Vegas's established play circuit against ambitious bettors, such as Atlantic City.

In the world of high stakes game, it is not difficult to find a conflict to create a scenario. "If you live every day in the world of gambling, if you wake up and do not know if you are going to lose money or make money, your life will only be a roller coaster" said Korem. . "It became clear that everyone we met lived an adventure every day."

The adventure could be a euphemism for the uninitiated at the staggering cash of an average day in Vegas. In one scene, the controversial character of the "Vegas Dave" Oancea performs a morning working in front of a camera, between Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat, while he sells his choices for the games of the day. "Five hundred dollars, $ 500," he repeats with an auctioneer's pace as he goes through his e-mail until one hour later he earns $ 180,000.

In another scene, a professional punter, Dave "Krack", Krackomberger, shows "the easiest way to keep a $ 10,000 package" ($ 1,000 increases, with rubber bands in the opposite way). "I'm not your typical sports bettor. I do it for a living and it's a big deal for me, "he says in his buttoned cap and reporter cap. When an off-screen interviewer wonders if he would bet a million dollars, Krack replies with disbelief. "Of course, are you kidding me?"

The most decisive badysis of Action on the Emerging Sports Game Ecosystem comes from a handicapper, Kelly Stewart, one of the only gambling experts in Vegas and a former bottle waiter who knows how to honestly equitably the echoes of the media landscape of Vegas. Stewart was on a plane ticket to relocate to Costa Rica last year when legalization launched his media career, formerly cloisonné in paris circles, in the mainstream. Now she's zigzagging between WagerTalk's radio shows and videos, with women's extra work protecting respect and relevance through the costly and relentless pursuit of youth. The camera focuses on Stewart's makeup brushes, stiletto heels and sheath dresses, the blood on her face when she undergoes a painful laser procedure. "As a person who knows that she has a limited life span, I have five years to maximize what I want to do," she says.

The candidacy can be staggering, frustrating, but "I really wanted them to see that, because men do not have to do it in our area," Stewart says over the phone. "The reality is that I have to go take Botox, I have to get my teeth whitened," because you do not see unattractive women on sports television. "It's the world we live in and I was not afraid to say it."

Although encouraged by the freshly broadcasted bill noises and the applause of a busy crowd, Action does not fear the darker aspects of sports gambling. the weekend at his parents' home. Much of the second episode focuses on testimonials from gambling addicts and drug addicts.

"I've always wanted to put a total goal on the industry," says Korem about these choices. "I do not want to just praise sports betting as something that will be great. With good it is evil.

If we are already in a world saturated by the language of the game – "oppressed" and "favorite" are the terms of Vegas, after all, then any review of the sports game is an opportunity to better understand the parameters of the sport of today 'hui. "In the end, I hope it will spark a conversation," said Korem. "I think it's really healthy, so we're starting this with an open minded state and not just with pink glbades."