GOOD EVENING!

This is OUT OF SCOPE, your weekly intel to fuel your water cooler conversations, delivered to your inbox every Monday. If someone forwarded you this email, be sure and subscribe here. 

LUNCH BREAK

five consumption recs for the time between meetings

1. SEMPER AI. ChatGPT offers a year of free premium services to veterans. 

2. IN MY AREA, YOU SAY? Documents revealed Meta internally estimated $16 billion in revenue to come from scam ads in 2024.

3. YOU MAYO KISS THE BRIDE. Hellmann’s is among the brands to take an unexpected turn into wedding planning. 

4. FAIR ENOUGH. After an astonishing 5% jump, Ryan Murphy’s new show peaked at 5% on Rotten Tomatoes.

5. A PRETTY PENNE. Pasta purveyors are in hot water.

pro players or pro parlayers?

If you’re one of America’s millions of sports enjoyers, the latest major league gambling scandal probably feels par for the course. 

This week, two MLB pitchers caught gambling charges. Struck by deja-vu? That’s because just a few weeks ago, the FBI announced they're bringing a handful of NBA players and coaches to a different kind of court for their involvement in two mafia gambling schemes. So, how exactly did American sports end up in such an untenable situation? 

For starters, sports and gambling have a centuries-long track record. In America, organized crime syndicates sustained the practice underground until 1919, when the Black Sox scandal surfaced corruption in one of this country’s most sacred institutions.

Sports leagues were quick to tighten up anti-gambling policies, and the stigmatized practice was all but contained to Sin City throughout the 20th century. While the birth of the internet made illegal online gambling more accessible and popular, the floodgates really opened when New Jersey overturned the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) in 2018. 

Just seven years later, online sports betting has taken hold across leagues, geographies, and just about every demographic you can imagine. 

Ironically, leagues like the NBA, MLB, and NFL that once lobbied strongly in support of PASPA now have lucrative, multi-year deals. Prop bets have gone from niche action on the side to the main event. On a single Thursday this NFL season, Kalshi tracked $114 million in wagers, with 85% tied to props and parlays – an explosion that would’ve been unthinkable until recently. 

And while the headlines focus on players and coaches caught crossing the line, in truth, they’re symptoms of a wider industry kowtowing to gambling interests. Don't get us wrong, HL's office fantasy league is a mainstay of our water cooler talk. But there's a difference between fans having skin in the game and an entire industry restructuring itself around gambling revenue. These recent scandals may have the best premise for an HBO miniseries, but they're not isolated incidents – they're the inevitable outcome when love of the game is sidelined for love of the action.

TREND RAPPORT

viral vocab of the week 

CHOPPED (adj.) – Unattractive.

CLICKBAIT (n.) –  Hyperbolic content designed to solicit curious clicks.

SIX SEVEN (n.) –  An intentionally vague interjection with no fixed meaning. It gained traction as a brainrot-coded Gen Alpha joke – and if the term confuses you, you’re the punchline.

SEE YOU NEXT MONDAY!

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