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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   30419 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 21, 2022

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How Colleges and Sports-Betting Companies ‘Caesarized’ Campus Life

The online gambling deals have helped athletic departments recoup some of the revenue they lost during the pandemic. The partnerships bring in extra funds that schools can use to sign marquee coaches and build winning sports teams. Mr. Haller, Michigan State’s athletic director, said in a news release at the time of the Caesars deal that it would provide “significant resources to support the growing needs of each of our varsity programs.”

The partnerships raise questions, however, about whether promoting gambling on campus — especially to people who are at an age when they are vulnerable to developing gambling disorders — fits the mission of higher education.

Some aspects of the deals also appear to violate the gambling industry’s own rules against marketing to underage people. The “Responsible Marketing Code” published by the American Gaming Association, the umbrella group for the industry, says sports betting should not be advertised on college campuses.

promoting gambling to 18 year olds is the latest way in which college sports are distorting the goal of college. at uc boulder, the school gets $30 every time someone downloads an app and makes a bet. the faculty managed to ensure that this money went to the right causes, though:

“We came up with the idea that the money from the referral bonus could actually go toward diversity and inclusion and equity efforts at the university, in particular because a lot of the money in athletics are made from underrepresented minorities,” Mr. Hornstein said. A spokesman for the university’s chancellor, Philip DiStefano, confirmed that some of the money will be used to expand mental health and diversity initiatives.

Twitch streamers are paid on the order of up to 10M/month to stream gambling, apparently - adin ross 40M/month (that's gotta be too high, but the eth transaction is there, so at least 10M/some period), trainwreckstv 360M total (gotta be too high too right?), mizkif offered but declined 10M/year for 15h/month. That money's coming from the viewers, obviously. At least HFT creates liquidity!

I work in the industry and the whole thing is absurd.

Honestly unit economics on actually converting somebody from a non-gambler to a gambler are pretty awful in terms of cost per acquisition versus what a 'fresh' gambler will contribute. Takes a few years to mature.

But unlimited VC funds + not acknowledging a severe Pareto principle + growth metrics being all the rage have led to some very stupid decision making in the space of gambling market. All likely ends in tears, harder regulation and hiked tax rates.

Yeah, makes sense that this is just VC money exploring a possibly new market/trying to establish a dominant position.

Plus, in theory if you get the streamer addicted, you can probably pay them less and less and they'll still play your games on stream.

Plus, in theory if you get the streamer addicted, you can probably pay them less and less and they'll still play your games on stream.

Having negotiated some of these deals, generally they're being paid an absolutely obscene amount of cash but have a minimum turnover requirement/additional payments for hitting certain hourlies.

I can't believe you didn't mention Trainwreckstv, quite possibly the face of Twitch gambling.

I edited it in before you posted this! All secondhand knowledge from twitter though, idk much about twitch. I tried watching twitch a week ago, try to stay vaguely aware of different popular forms of media, and every stream I clicked on was just idle chatter, whether over a video game or just a video stream, don't get it tbh.

For me, I like to channel-hop and I don't mind coming into something in medias res; if I end up on someone else's page from a raid or something and I'm interested in what they're currently doing, I'll probably stick around and follow. It's the stream after that one where you can see what someone's really about.

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