From the Cleveland Guardians pitch-fixing scandal to the rise of prediction markets, ESPN's leading gambling reporter shares insights on the industry's turbulent year and what lies ahead
The Pulse of Sports Betting
As the gambling landscape continues its rapid evolution, few journalists have maintained their finger on the industry's pulse quite like ESPN's David Purdum. With connections spanning from sportsbook trading floors to league offices, Purdum has consistently broken major stories while providing nuanced analysis of the gambling world's most pressing issues.
In an exclusive interview with Gambling Insider conducted between Christmas and New Year, Purdum discussed the industry's most significant developments from 2025, offering perspective on regulatory challenges, prediction markets, and the high-profile scandals that rocked professional sports.
Regulatory Pushback Intensifies
When reflecting on 2025's industry developments, Purdum identified the growing regulatory backlash as particularly significant.
"I thought there would be pushback against the industry, and there certainly was," Purdum noted. "The industry overall – the stakeholders, including the sports leagues, athletes, and sportsbooks – didn't do themselves any favors by getting in trouble, continuing to push the advertising, and so forth."
This resistance materialized through multiple congressional bills, though none advanced significantly. Purdum anticipates this trend continuing throughout 2026, with potential restrictions on advertising similar to those implemented in the United Kingdom, where "whistle-to-whistle" bans prohibit gambling advertisements during live sporting events.
Additionally, proposition bet limitations have become a focal point for legislators, with Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) exploring potential restrictions. Major League Baseball has already implemented a $200 limit on single-pitch wagers, and Purdum believes more leagues may follow suit.
"I could see more and more of those pullbacks on the betting menus, and I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing," he explained. "The betting limits almost incentivize these types of corruption."
The Guardians Scandal: A Watershed Moment
The most shocking story Purdum covered in 2025 involved Cleveland Guardians pitcher Luis Ortiz, who was suspended after integrity monitoring systems flagged suspicious betting patterns on first-pitch balls.
"When I first heard it, I was like, 'No way. There's not a way to get enough money down on a bet like that to make it worthwhile for somebody trying to fix it,'" Purdum recalled. "But we learned more about it, and there was."
The revelation that bettors were placing thousands of dollars on such easily manipulated outcomes stunned Purdum, particularly given Ortiz's substantial $782,600 salary for the 2025 season.
"I was stunned that a Major League Baseball pitcher who makes a decent salary would get involved in something like that, and I was just stunned that there was a mechanism that would make it worthwhile for somebody to try to compromise that."
Prediction Markets: Hype vs. Reality
Prediction markets emerged as a contentious topic throughout 2025, particularly when Kalshi filed to self-certify betting on whether college players would enter the transfer portal – a move that generated significant backlash.
While these markets have gained traction, Purdum remains skeptical about their long-term dominance, drawing parallels to the UK market where exchange-based betting remains niche compared to traditional sportsbooks.
"I think eventually we will follow what's happened in the UK, the evolution that's already been there for decades, where prediction markets are still there, betting exchanges are still there — Betfair — but they're a niche product, not the mainstream sportsbook product."
When asked whether prediction markets might influence sports betting legalization efforts in holdout states like California and Texas, Purdum acknowledged they could provide "a small incentive" for legislators to regulate and tax traditional sports betting rather than allow unregulated alternatives to flourish.
However, he dismissed the notion that major operators like DraftKings and FanDuel might pivot away from lobbying efforts in favor of prediction market strategies: "The prediction market model is so less profitable than the sportsbook model. That's proven out in the UK for a long time."
Federal Regulation: A Matter of Time
Despite the patchwork of state-by-state regulations currently governing sports betting, Purdum believes federal intervention is inevitable.
"Eventually, yes, I do think feds will get involved and some sort of rules will be put in place at the federal level," he stated, though he declined to predict specific timing. "With the rise of prediction markets and the continued scandals in the leagues, there is going to be enough will from the federal government to get involved."
Purdum also expressed confidence that the controversial 90% gambling loss deduction cap would eventually be repealed, calling the current tax structure illogical: "Why would you get taxed on something you haven't earned? It doesn't make any sense."
Beyond the Press Box: Soccer and Music
Away from the high-pressure world of breaking gambling news, Purdum has cultivated a second career as a youth soccer coach – an endeavor that began with coaching his daughter, who now serves as starting goalkeeper for her high school team.
"When I'm out there on the soccer field coaching those kids, that's one of the only times I'm not thinking about [work]," he explained. "I can get away from it, and it's been a really great life balancer for me."
This balance occasionally creates amusing intersections between his professional and coaching lives, such as when news of the Guardians indictment broke during a youth soccer match he was coaching.
"I put my phone on the bench and set the timer so the kids can watch how much time is left in the half... and all of a sudden my phone started blowing up. [The kids start asking], 'What's going on, Coach? Why are you getting so many text messages?'"
Looking Ahead: Super Bowl Prediction
As the NFL playoffs approach, Purdum offered his Super Bowl prediction: a Seahawks-Broncos matchup, though he hopes it proves more competitive than their previous championship meeting in Super Bowl XLVIII, which Seattle dominated 43-8.
For an industry at a crossroads, with regulatory challenges mounting and technological innovation accelerating, Purdum's insights offer a valuable perspective on what may lie ahead for the gambling landscape in 2026 and beyond.
