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.

Four episodes, releasing weekly starting Monday, Oct. 5.

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.

Season 2 - The Pornhub Empire: the story of how a Montreal-founded company came to dominate the adult industry.

Season 3 - Modi’s India: how one man rose from poverty to the peak of political power.

Season 4 - Céline: the surprising cultural, political and business alchemy that created a superstar.

Season 5 - Who Broke the Internet? The internet sucks now, and it happened on purpose.

Season 6 - The Making of Elon Musk: exploring the little known side of the polarizing billionaire

Season 7 - Deepfake Porn Empire: the porn was fake. The fallout was real.

Season 8 - Artificial Intimacy: What happens when a human becomes intimately enmeshed with a chatbot?

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Avsnitt(46)

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Deepfake Porn Empire | E1: The Dawn of Fake Porn

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The Making of Elon Musk | E3: The Legion

What does Musk, father of 14, expect from his “legion” of children? We unravel his quest for genetic optimization, including alleged embryo screening, and his pronatalist views. And we hear from his e...

21 Okt 202549min

The Making of Elon Musk | E2: Technocracy, Inc.

Could Musk’s authoritarian streak trace back to his Canadian grandfather? Before Joshua Haldeman brought his family to South Africa, he made waves as part of the radical 1930s Technocracy movement. An...

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The Making of Elon Musk | E1: Escape from Pretoria

Where did Elon Musk’s epic ambitions begin? In search of clues we return to his sheltered youth in apartheid South Africa, a world engineered for white supremacy. Along the way, we connect the dots be...

7 Okt 202538min

Introducing Understood: The Making of Elon Musk

What explains Elon Musk? Could his most outlandish ambitions and most toxic qualities trace back to his youth in Apartheid South Africa? Understood: The Making of Musk explores his seemingly insatiabl...

26 Sep 20252min