Playing fans can't gamble

I've discussed one of the strange aspects of our sport where most of the team coaches are also players on the team. It's actually the same with the fans. Most fans of the sport are the people who play higher level ultimate.

Previously, I've talked about how I think fantasy like the many thousands of fantasy leagues would allow the fan to be more active in the sport. What about gambling, and what about gambling in a self officiated game? Would gambling cause more people to watch the sport like horse racing?

My immediate reaction to the idea is it's a bad idea that can only lead to trouble, and for the most part betting on individual games would be bad with the ease of game fixing games (especially without refs). It's hard enough for an individual to play fair with only the desire to win pushing on our ethics button, but now imagine cash being involved.

I still think the gambling link could be established and prove to bring more attention to the game from outsiders if you mix gambling with fantasy sport. In most cases, fantasy sports is either player pick based or multi team pick based. Picking the bracket, like the NCAA March Madness, on a per tournament basis would be fun and would make it very challenging to actually fix (as long as the people taking the bets were controlled).

The other advantage is that we the players could also bet on the outcome in a bracket form since there would be very little conflict of interest.

Well, after this weekend, more than half of the Open teams have been determined for Nationals and half of the Women's teams. A discussion on RSD is questioning why back door teams keep on losing. Talk is in the air as things continue to heat up on the path to Florida.

PJ