When it comes to American football, EA had no competition ever since 2004 when NFL 2K5 was released. As far as I'm aware, EA signed an exclusivity deal with the NFL, therefore they were the only ones able to develop and sell an official licensed game. Supposedly, 2K should release a title this year.
Concerning basketball, EA's most recent entry was Live 19 (that is to say almost 3 years ago). Ever since 2009/10 (right about when 2K started to take over the market), EA has been struggling with development. This was made even more clear in 2013: EA put up for sale Live 14, arguably the worst basketball game in recent memory (if not ever), whereas Visual Concepts through 2K Sports came up with 2K14, a very successful entry in the franchise, that still holds up to this day, not only visually, but also from a gameplay perspective.
While EA has 5 titles canceled in the last decade or so, 2K has been riding the wave and cashed in at every opportunity given.
Long story short: 2K has no competition when it comes to basketball games. Which, if you ask me, is a real shame. Due to this, Visual Concepts has gotten complacent and their latest games show it.
I find their overall quality dropped considerably, especially for single player. Not only that, but nowadays they're riddled with ads, microtransactions and VC.

No offense, but I imagine the type of people who buy those Madden games every year probably have an IQ <75.

I clearly remember ad's from my childhood, but not the stuff I want to remember from my education at the time. Once I realized the significance of this, I began avoiding advertising, TV and otherwise, as much as possible. I don't think I have watched a complete TV ad for over 20 years.

Sh*t in, sh*t out.