Hatred hurled at Raptors stars shows ugly influence sports betting can have on fandom

Ontario is celebrating a profitable first year for its legalized sports betting market — but to hear two members of the Toronto Raptors talk about it, gambling's expansion comes with an ugly side.

Speaking on Yahoo Sports Canada's Hustle Play podcast in March, forward Chris Boucher said social media can impact professional athletes, and used a deplorable message he was sent as an example.

"Somebody said 'I chose the wrong slave today.' Literally, sent me that message," Boucher said. "I had to read it, I couldn't believe it. He said, 'I chose the wrong slave,' because I had only five points and he needed me to score 10."

Fellow Raptor Fred VanVleet also touched on the issue of fan abuse while speaking with Yahoo's Strictly Hoops podcast. 

"You can't fathom dealing with this on a daily basis," he said "You can't fathom a 'I hope your mom dies' DM every day."

Former Olympian and sport and public policy expert Bruce Kidd was aghast when shown a clip of Boucher's interview by CBC News.

"It's very upsetting that athletes are under this pressure and they're getting these attacks from not meeting the point spread or the parlay that a bettor has placed," said Kidd, professor emeritus at the University of Toronto.

"I'm at a loss for words about how upsetting that is. It so demeans the value of sport — that sport is only for people to be making money out of bets."

Over a billion dollars in revenue

But lots of money is being spent on bets in Ontario today.

Last April, Ontario became the first Canadian province to launch an open, regulated igaming market, called iGaming Ontario (iGo).

Since then, iGo said there've been over 1.6 million active player accounts on websites run by more than 40 operators that have agreements with iGaming Ontario — 31 of those companies provide sports betting.

iGo announced on April 4 — the fledgling market's first anniversary — that the province delivered "about $35.6 billion in total wagers and approximately $1.4 billion in total gaming revenue." But those numbers don't only include sports betting, they also cover casino games and peer-to-peer poker. The data from iGo does not detail the proportion of bets that were strictly made on sports. 

The totals shared by iGo also don't include the digital gaming business that the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) accounts for, including its own sports-betting transactions.

iGo added that places Ontario among North America's top-five igaming jurisdictions, although exactly where and with what other centres weren't divulged.

"Ontario's igaming market has displaced the pre-existing unregulated market and made Ontario a recognized leader internationally in this industry since its launch in April 2022," Ontario Attorney General Doug Downey previously told The Canadian Press. "We are truly proud of this strong, responsible, competitive online gaming model."

In a statement to CBC News, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) said it is aware of the incidents involving the Raptors players, and the commission is "appalled by such acts."

A spokesperson said those incidents fall outside its regulatory authority, and are police matters.

"The AGCO has authority over the gaming operators to ensure all gaming in the province is conducted in a way that meets high standards of honesty, integrity and gaming player protections," a spokesperson said, adding that the AGCO has "strict standards" when it comes to advertising, including a ban on advertising to children.

Basketball most popular for bettors

According to an Ipsos survey conducted last month released by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO), about 85 per cent of respondents who gambled online in the province over the past three months did so on regulated sites.

Basketball was the most popular sport for bettors (at 28 per cent), followed by soccer (15 per cent), football (14 per cent), hockey (nine per cent) and baseball (eight per cent).

Kidd says gambling's impacts are being amplified by its sheer accessibility. Most sports broadcasts in the province are riddled with gambling ads at this point, with stars like Wayne Gretzky and Connor McDavid among those appearing in ads — and that's on top of gambling terms and odds thrown around on broadcasts themselves.

Kidd said he knows Canada won't be turning back the clock on legalized betting, and the current market does have advantages over operating in the black market, like it did previously.

"But surely we can eliminate the advertising for sports betting, surely we can eliminate the messages upon children and youth that sport is most about betting," he said.