AI illustration for Deadline Detroit
Shortly after federal authorities in New York announced two gambling indictments on Thursday — one of which named ex-Detroit Pistons star Chauncey Billups — veteran Detroit sportswriter Lynn Henning weighed in on X.
"Sports fans of all stripes are shaking their heads today, disgusted over the Chauncey Billups/Terry Rozier charges, but not particularly bothered by these same sports being happily married to their gambling-house sponsors. There's the disgust. There's the vileness."
The Pistons, Red Wings, and Tigers now air on FanDuel TV, where the company's home run odds flash across the screen during baseball games, and gambling ads fill some air time for pro sports on all stations.
Henning tells Deadline Detroit he’s bothered by the indictments — one alleging that Billups and others took part in rigged poker games with ties to the mob. The other, which does not name Billups, alleges that people fed inside NBA information to help bettors game the online betting system.
But the hypocrisy of sports and gambling really bugs him.
"It's been part of the hypocrisy first and foremost with their disposition toward Pete Rose," he said. "They blackballed him — exiled the man with more big-league hits than anybody in the history of the game — and then turned around and jumped in the sack with all of these betting houses and promoted them throughout a ballgame."
Well-known Detroit players over the years have gotten in trouble for gambling. Detroit Lions lineman Alex Karras was suspended for a season in 1963 after admitting to betting on NFL games. Detroit Lions wide receiver Jameson Williams was suspended for six games in 2023 for gambling on college sports while at a team facility. The suspension was later reduced to four games.
And in 2023, Detroit Lions safety C.J. Moore was suspended for a year for betting on NFL games.
Are players bothered by what Henning sees as a glaring hypocrisy?
"Players are infamous for not being terribly socially conscious, and I don't want to use too broad a brush," he said. "But it applies in the majority of cases."
Bally Sports and FanDuel
In 2021, Bally Sports Detroit began broadcasting Detroit’s professional sports teams — minus the Lions. Bally is in the gambling industry. Last year, it became the FanDuel Sports Network, named after the high-profile FanDuel online gambling brand.
"I think we sit there and see this naked alliance that they have with betting houses and think, how fast can you go from being morally opposed to being absolutely in communion with these outfits? I just don't get it."
On the Jameson Williams suspension, he says:
"It's just another example again of them speaking out of two sides of their mouth and expecting that we're not going to notice. It is absolutely insulting."