PEDs in Sports

Some of the bigger news on many online sports betting sites right now are all about scandals regarding PEDs.

 

The integrity of an athlete who serves as the face of the sport is almost the same as the integrity of the sport. That was why when Lance Armstrong confessed to doping earlier in the year, people didn’t only question the legitimacy of his wins and accomplishments throughout his lustrous career in cycling, but the authenticity of the sport. While the media is focused on the individual drama, the issue here is more important than a celebrated athlete doing something illegal. Sport has always been about entertainment and the ability of sport to entertain has always relied upon its competitiveness and the integrity of that level of competition. Now, if a sport is tainted, why would people still follow it? When the competitiveness of an athlete relies on using a performance-enhancing drug, what makes the sport any different from the likes of professional wrestling entertainment where competition is dictated by the script?

 

There’s absolutely no difference in the sense that winning and losing isn’t determined by the hard work and level of skill. In the world of sports betting, the industry relies so much on the integrity of the sport to attract bettors. If for example cricket players have been tested positive on performance-enhancing drugs, which thankfully hasn’t happened yet, the number of people willing to participate on cricket online betting will surely decline as loyal fans who bet to show their support and passion for the team lose faith on the result of the sport. Professional bettors, on the other hand, will lose interest when they realize that crunching stats and numbers don’t mean a thing when one athlete is buffed up by performance-enhancing drugs.

 

While the Lance Armstrong hullabaloo is probably the most controversial news right now, there are many other athletes that have been found to have used PEDs. You might remember a few seasons ago in the NBA when Rashard Lewis was suspended after blood test resulted positive for traces of illegal substance. In the NFL, the bigger news right now aside from the recently-concluded Super Bowl is about the issue of Ray Lewis using a form of PEDs to increase his recovery rate from his injuries. The sport of boxing has also taken a heavy hit due to prominent athletes getting caught red-handed. Who could forget about Shane Mosley? Even the recent blockbuster fight between Juan Manuel Marquez and Manny Pacquiao have been shrouded with talks of PEDs due to the quick and massive built up of Marquez and the fact that his conditioning trainer has been linked to many cases of using PEDs for athletes.

 

Amidst all these news about PEDs in sports, it is clear to see that governing bodies of different sports must step up their effort to battle this problem if they don’t want their sport to fade into oblivion.