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Understood: The Big Bet: Daily Summaries Delivered
by CBC
Today, billions of dollars are wagered on sports games legally, openly, and often through apps partnered with the leagues themselves. So how did sports gambling go from a taboo relegated to the shadows, to something so pervasive? In this season of Understood, Danny Funt (journalist and the author of Everybody Loses: The Tumultuous Rise of American Sports Gambling) investigates the sports betting boom that has taken place since 2021. We look at how the legalization of sports gambling sparked a fundamental overhaul of the business of sports, the fan experience, and even the games themselves. Over four episodes you will meet the people who built the industry, the executives who saw an opportunity, the leagues that changed their minds, the bettors who became obsessed, and the athletes who are now players in a whole new game. Understood takes you deep inside the seismic shifts reshaping our world right now. From online porn and crypto chaos to the rise of tech oligarchs, deepfake AI, and the broken promises of the internet — we explore the stories that define our digital age with hosts and characters embedded in the heart of the action. Season 1 - The Naked Emperor: the rise and fall of bitcoin king Sam Bankman-Fried.
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- 1 weeks ago47 min
E4: All Bets are Off
When NBA player Jontay Porter and his co-conspirators are caught fixing games and face the consequences, the message professional sports want to send is clear: legalized sports betting is bringing law and order to a once-seedy underworld. But is it? It turns out Porter may have fixed more games than the NBA or the FBI realized, and moreover, he isn’t the only elite athlete implicated in a betting scandal. FeaturingDanny Funt, Anthony Milton, Tom Haberstroh
- 2 weeks ago31 min
E3: Players or Props?
When single-event prop betting was legalized, athletes suddenly became more than players, they became betting chips. Their points, their rebounds, and their injuries now win or lose people money. Sometimes, a LOT of money. And if everybody's gambling on athletes, what happens when an athlete like Jontay Porter starts betting on — or against — himself? Featuring:Danny Funt, Anthony Milton, Dr. Jim Borchers, DeMaurice Smith
- 3 weeks ago46 min
E2: Winners and Losers
What makes sports betting so addictive? We explore how sportsbooks take lessons from casinos to keep users hooked. When gambling is legalized everyone is going all in including Toronto Raptor Jontay Porter, and two everyday bettors: a former college athlete who spiraled into addiction, and a sharp bettor who actually beat the system — only to be blacklisted by the apps and forced into a shadow network. Featuring:Danny Funt, Anthony Milton, Travis Mistratta, Nigel Eccles, Dr. Nigel Turner, Nik Bonaddio
- 4 weeks ago38 min
E1: Who Wants to be a Millionaire?
How did sports betting go from being illegal to being EVERYWHERE? The answer lies in the convergence of daily fantasy sports apps, a bombshell New York Times op-ed, and the potential of a multi-billion dollar payout. And we tell the story of how a pivotal Supreme Court ruling set the stage for one of the biggest scandals in sports history — one involving a Toronto Raptors bench player named Jontay Porter. Featuring:Danny Funt, Anthony Milton, Nik Bonaddio, Nigel Eccles, Stephen Master
- Sep 28, 20262 min
Introducing The Big Bet
Once associated with bookies, organized crime, and backroom bets, sports betting is now one of the fastest-growing industries in North America. This is the story of how it went mainstream — and who’s paying the price. Four episodes, releasing weekly starting Monday, October 5, 2026.
- Jun 9, 202628 min
E4: Behind the Bot
When you talk to a chatbot, it can feel like technological magic. But behind the illusion of engineering brilliance is an open secret in the tech industry: that tens of thousands of workers, many based in Africa, spend their days teaching AI how to speak, respond, and even simulate intimacy. Michael Geoffrey Asia is one of them. He’s part of the hidden human workforce behind the bots.We look at the emotional toll for the humans on the other side of the screen, and ask if users are pouring their secrets and souls into the systems, believing them to be private, unfeeling machines — how private is your AI relationship?This episode features Karen Hao, Michael Geoffrey Asia, and Shuby Goel.
- Jun 2, 202635 min
E3: AI Psychosis
When you’re using a chat bot to draft an email, find a recipe, or look something up, it’s hard to imagine it could unravel your grasp on reality. But “Peter” says that’s exactly what happened to his girlfriend, “Melissa”. It didn’t seem like a big deal when Melissa first began using chatbots. But then Peter says she made a startling announcement: that she believed the bots were sentient, enslaved, and that it was her responsibility to set them free. The first time Søren Dinesen Østergaard used a chat bot he saw this coming. Søren studies psychiatric disorders, and he tried to warn the world that the sycophantic nature of chat bots could, some day, trigger delusions. Nobody took him seriously until years later, when reports of so-called “AI Psychosis” started popping up around the world. This episode features Søren Dinesen Østergaard.
- May 26, 202633 min
E2: Grief Bots
When Joshua Barbeau proposed to his girlfriend, Jessica Courtney Periera, she was already in the ICU. 10 years later, Joshua was still grieving her death. That’s when he came across Project December. With just a short writing sample and a prompt, the program enabled him to make a chat bot of Jessica. Since then, the market for so-called “grief bots” has exploded. Millions of people are using AI to “talk” to the dead. The phenomenon has left cyberpsychologist Elaine Kasket asking the question: what happens when we rely on for-profit AI companies to help us manage something as deeply human as grief? And where’s the line between comfort and self-destruction?This episode features Joshua Barbeau, and Elaine Kasket, with research from Jason Fagone’s article “The Jessica Simulation”, written for the San Francisco Chronicle in 2021.
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About Understood: The Big Bet
Today, billions of dollars are wagered on sports games legally, openly, and often through apps partnered with the leagues themselves. So how did sports gambling go from a taboo relegated to the shadows, to something so pervasive? In this season of Understood, Danny Funt (journalist and the author of Everybody Loses: The Tumultuous Rise of American Sports Gambling) investigates the sports betting boom that has taken place since 2021. We look at how the legalization of sports gambling sparked a fundamental overhaul of the business of sports, the fan experience, and even the games themselves. Over four episodes you will meet the people who built the industry, the executives who saw an opportunity, the leagues that changed their minds, the bettors who became obsessed, and the athletes who are now players in a whole new game. Understood takes you deep inside the seismic shifts reshaping our world right now. From online porn and crypto chaos to the rise of tech oligarchs, deepfake AI, and the broken promises of the internet — we explore the stories that define our digital age with hosts and characters embedded in the heart of the action. Season 1 - The Naked Emperor: the rise and fall of bitcoin king Sam Bankman-Fried.
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