Sports Gambling Never Stops

The Super Bowl of the sports gambling, it’s called March Madness. Where dreams are made and gambling addictions are born. Although it only boosts Vegas gambling commission from $80 million to $90 million, there’s an estimated $7 billion spent illegally by friends, family, workplace, online and anywhere else imaginable. Vegas doesn't complain though, the city is almost completely booked out with an average 97.7% occupancy rate during the last weeks of March Madness.

Even though the NCAA aggressively acts against the popular betting season, the gambling continues to grow.

“Sports wagering can be a serious crime that threatens the well-being of student-athletes and the integrity of the game.” -NCAA

It’s grown so much that is been debated as a gambling event even more than a sporting event! There are countless tips and tricks for gamblers to get the most out of the March Madness. Statistics are built up over decades, fan favorites are promoted to the fullest and some are simply trying to get lucky like everyone else.

As most of the gambling from March Madness is between friends, co-workers, or other similar situations, it tends to become an appealing social activity for others to join in. Some have even labeled March Madness gambling as a “gate-way” gambling problem.

For the love of the game, I sincerely pray that the forces of gambling does not interfere with the meaning of what makes sports so great. Especially for such young adults performing for millions of Americans, corrupting the game is ultimately, corrupting the players.

Always rooting for the Cinderella team.

Sports on Strikes: Lockout and Lockdown

Professional Sports. Where all the blood, sweat and tears finally pay off for hundreds of athletes. Well, most of the time anyway. All sports organizations, like people, go through their ups and downs during their time in the game and trials are bound to happen at one point or another. Over the years images of athletes, coaches, and entire organizations have been tarnished, many of times from a single individual. As team sports emphasize the importance of “team”, sport strikes have certainly used the words meaning to a whole new level.

Understandably, financial reasons are main factor of sports going on strikes. In 2011 trouble among the NBA managers and players was brewing, causing a shutdown for many NBA athletes. Around 65 players left the organization to go play overseas. Even though the majority of those players were definitely not the all-star NBA athletes everyone talks about, their financial influence is still recognized. These players in the NBA have a minimum of $500,000 salary while some deals go for the game winner salaries, like $6 million game winner salaries to be exact. It makes sense that the strike was successful months later and the continuation of the competitive free-agentmarket was back on track.

One of the few sport organizations that had the entireseason canceled was in 2004-2005. The NHL players went on strike and were waiting for all the ice in hell to melt if they had too.  The financial decrease the players were offered was simply offensive, from 57% to 43% to total NHL revenue.

Perhaps the most painful strike to date happened in the MLB back in 1994-1995. Nothing screams America more than the love of baseball to the fans. This was the first time in MLB history that, because of the strike, the World Series was shut down.  This created an all-time low for the sport of baseball and its fans.

It seems that over the years athletes have been taken for granted. Power hungry managers and owners can’t get enough money in this world, especially when it’s so easy to make money off of an athletes and decades of hard work. It’s good to know that the players are still willing to ma

ke a stand when the time comes.

Blood-Spattered Cash Machines

Sports are known for their lucrative money based operations. After all, they’re not in the business for “the love of the game” anymore. Superstar athletes are being paid millions and millions of dollars for what they do best. Floyd Mayweather made at least $32 million for a single fight in 2013. Football star Tom Brady will make upwards of $55 million for his upcoming seasons. Then of course we can’t forget out about the LA Angels, Albert Pujols, that will make $240 million over his 10 year contract! This is only taking into consideration the athletes, there are outstanding numbers behind the net worth of the NFL, NBA, and other professional sport leagues.

Although, no one seems to know how much UFC fighters are making or how well the UFC organization is doing in general. The answer is, the UFC is doing incredibly well, and they’re only getting better with age. UFC has strangely guarded their finance numbers compared to other professional sport leagues, but after a little digging there’s some surprising facts.

In 2001 the UFC was hardly worth $2 million when the Fertittas bought the organization. Fast forward a single decade later and you’re looking at one of the fasting growing poHERE. From a certain standpoint, it’s hard to place a price tag on someone that’s entering the “lion’s den” for a living. Certainly even harder when the possibility of a knee or elbow could leave you in a wheelchair, a coma, or even dead on the mats. Several studies have estimated that lower tier UFC athletes could only be making as little as $70,000 a year for their efforts.

werhouses in the entire sports industry, and a heads up, the brake line seems to be broken.  Today the UFC is valued well over the billion dollar mark and is estimated to make up of 90% of the total MMA industry. Superstars in the UFC are enjoying the growth as well. Fighter George St-Pierre makes an estimated $5-6 million every time he steps into the octagon. However, this does not mean that every UFC athlete feels like they’re being paid fairly as you can see

The UFC does business a little differently than other sport organizations. Unlike other professional organization that have laws that protect their athletes, the UFC has laws that support no such thing. Managers, trainers and the athletes have no say in what minimums or extremes in the MMA financial world. This bloody business doesn’t permanently bond itself to other companies to ensure financial security either. Most of their revenue is made from pay-per-view events drawing millions and millions of dollars to the company while other TV promoters like SPIKE and The Ultimate Fighter also engage in the pay-per-view events.

More UFC statistics can be found HERE and HERE.