Victor Strategies EVP Gene Johnson: Prediction Markets ‘Biggest Scam I’ve Ever Seen’

Victor Strategies EVP Gene Johnson: Prediction Markets ‘Biggest Scam I’ve Ever Seen’

Player props, multi-leg combos, point spreads, and over/unders. Open up an app offering all of that, and you’d be forgiven for thinking you’d landed in a sportsbook.

The thing is, these days, you may actually be looking at a federally regulated prediction market.

It’s a future Gene Johnson anticipated.

Back in March 2025, Johnson wrote a column warning that sports prediction markets wouldn’t stop at simple game-outcome contracts. He predicted that they’d move into player props and parlays until it became increasingly difficult to tell prediction markets and sportsbooks apart.

More than a year later, CasinoBeats spoke with Johnson in a wide-ranging interview and asked him to revisit that prediction in light of everything that had changed since.

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New York Sports: Prediction Market Deals Test How Far the State’s Crackdown Can Go

New York Sports: Prediction Market Deals Test How Far the State’s Crackdown Can Go

Polymarket partners with the Yankees and RangersNovig signs a deal with the MetsKalshi named official prediction-market partner of Madison Square Garden.

Headlines like these are everywhere, so much so that you’d hardly know New York is waging one of the most aggressive crackdowns on sports-event contracts in the country.

The Yankees became the latest to jump on the bandwagon when they announced an official partnership with Polymarket on August 6. That deal includes branding at Yankee Stadium, broadcast-visible home-plate signage, and fan experiences.

With the deal signed, the Yankees are now part of a growing group of New York sports organizations with prediction-market partnerships that go well beyond just adding a logo to a sponsor page.

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Sports Leagues’ Gambling Partnerships Challenge the Logic Behind Player Betting Bans

Sports Leagues’ Gambling Partnerships Challenge the Logic Behind Player Betting Bans

When is a friendly wager between athletes just that — a friendly wager?

In the aftermath of a year marred by a string of betting scandals, investigations, and allegations of game manipulation across the NBAMLB, and college sports, even a seemingly friendly side bet can make headlines.

That’s what happened when WNBA stars Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers were filmed making a $400 bet during All-Star Weekend on an upcoming game between their teams, the Atlanta Dream and Dallas Wings.

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College Campuses: Sportsbooks’ Next Geofencing Challenge May Be Smaller Than State Lines

College Campuses: Sportsbooks’ Next Geofencing Challenge May Be Smaller Than State Lines

On paper, it seems like a pretty straightforward idea: draw a digital line around a college campus to stop people inside it from placing mobile sports bets.

In practice, that line may have to wind around public roads, private businesses, hospitals, student housing, and mixed-use buildings. And the map would have to keep changing as the campus itself changes.

That’s the challenge behind a pair of bills in New York that would turn college campuses into no-bet zones for mobile wagering.

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Play Ventures GP Anton Backman: Real-Money Gaming is Entering Its Mobile Games Era

Play Ventures GP Anton Backman: Real-Money Gaming is Entering Its Mobile Games Era

Most of the apps on our phones are built to feel social. We can chat, scroll, follow live events, and often see what other people are doing in real time.

Sports betting has moved from the counter to the smartphone, but open an online sportsbook, and you’ll notice that the experience hasn’t changed all that much.

There are still odds grids, bet slips, promotions, account balances, and casino lobbies full of games that users mostly play on their own.

That model is big business, but it’s also starting to run up against a different kind of user expectation.

Younger gamblers grew up in a completely different type of entertainment economy.

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