Espn Sports Betting
The mainstreaming of the US legal sports betting industry has been developing at an incredible rate since the Supreme Court overturned its blanket ban on the platform in 2018. In the latest move that “normalizes” sports betting, Worldwide Sports Leader, ESPN is ready to bring to market two gambling-focused productions from their new Las Vegas studio.
Of course, I’m talking about ESPN’s latest push to integrate sports betting into everything the worldwide leader in sports owns. ESPN issued a press release Wednesday announcing the network is moving Daily Wager, its hour-long sports betting news and information show, to a larger audience on ESPN2 starting on August 20.
Over the weekend, ESPN delivered the news that it was ready go live with a new digital sports betting show “Bet” which aired for the first time last night at 5:30 PM Eastern, ahead of the first Monday Night Football broadcast. It is scheduled to be streamed across ESPN’s digital platforms three times per week. It also announced the creation of a dedicated sports betting YouTube channel that will cater to the throngs of active bettors that rely on ESPN to better educate themselves prior to throwing down a wager.
Media release from ESPN:
- Betting on the Orioles and A's in 2012 or the Mariners in 2001 would have paid big dividends. Here are the best betting seasons for each team from the past 20 years. 244d ESPN.com staff.
- On May 14, 2018, the Supreme Court ruled that the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) is unconstitutional, changing the future of sports betting in the United States.
- ESPN already airs a show focusing on sports betting, the Daily Wager. ESPN’s Vice President for Business Development Mike Morrison said: “Working with a category leader like Caesars Entertainment will help us serve these highly engaged, diverse sports fans with the best and most relevant content possible.
“On the heels of the opening of its new studio on the Las Vegas Strip and the return of its sports betting television program Daily Wager, ESPN is expanding its sports betting footprint with Monday’s debut of Bet, a new half-hour program that will stream three nights per week on digital platforms.
Also on Monday, ESPN is launching a YouTube channel dedicated to sports betting content.
Bet, co-hosted by Joe Fortenbaugh and Tyler Fulghum, will originate from ESPN’s just-opened studio at The LINQ Hotel + Experience and will be available for live and on-demand viewing on the ESPN App and on ESPN’s social media feeds on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.”
Content
The two new ESPN sports betting offerings will feature clips and segments from gambling-related content from their network throughout the week in order to fill the timeslots that they have committed too.
ESPN has been slowly moving to more bet-centric content as of late and aims to build on that with the new shows that they are creating. Betting odds, trends, player news and profiles and team statistics will be discussed in detail to better inform and educate bettors on upcoming games and matches.
“Bet will allow us to connect with fans and drive the conversation in a way that leverages what we do best on social and digital platforms,” said Mike Foss, Senior Director, Digital & Social Video, Social Content, ESPN.
“We have seen tremendous success and growth in our slate of digital shows in 2020. Bet will showcase an amazing new studio in The LINQ and we are tremendously excited about delivering a new live and interactive show core to our audience expansion priority.”
It Ain’t ESPN’s First Sports Betting Rodeo
Quietly, ESPN had already been building up their sports betting content over the years. Not only has gambling and the gambling industry been covered on ESPN for the last 10 years but ESPN2 has been broadcasting Daily Wager, a sports betting news and information program for some time.
The “Behind the Bets with Doug Kezirian” podcast has been airing from Las Vegas, Sports Center’s Scott Van Pelt has been airing a segment called “Bad Beats”, ESPN+ has featured “Bettor Days with Mike Greenburg” and the Stanford Steve and The Bear podcast goes live on ESPN digital outlets during Football Season.
What It All Means
Taking steps to bring sports betting content into peoples’ homes under the ESPN banner is a big development not only for the media outlet, but also for the legal sports betting industry. ESPN gives immediate credibility to a platform that has traditionally struggled with its image.
ESPN’s acceptance and willingness to not only back, but take advantage of the legal sports betting industry in the US shows just how seriously the network is taking the emergence of the gambling platform.
Not that the sports betting industry needed anything else to legitimize its presence in everyday society, but ESPN is a nice addition to the overall support that sports betting has received not only among the public but also media outlets and lawmakers in the last few years.
Details of ESPN-Caesars partnership
ESPN, one of the biggest sports networks in the US, will set up a studio on the Las Vegas Strip under a new partnership deal. The network is partnering with the Caesars Entertainment Corporation to create a new ESPN studio in the Linq Hotel in Las Vegas.
The studio will create content related to sports betting and will be shared across the globe. Details of the financial arrangement are not available.
This new studio, scheduled to launch in 2020, will play a key role during significant sporting contests. Content for both social media and digital will be shot there. ESPN already airs a show focusing on sports betting, the Daily Wager.
ESPN’s Vice President for Business Development Mike Morrison said: “Working with a category leader like Caesars Entertainment will help us serve these highly engaged, diverse sports fans with the best and most relevant content possible. The sports betting landscape has changed and fans are coming to us for this kind of information more than ever before.”
Sports betting capital
Las Vegas is still the leader in sports betting. The city now has two major sports teams, he Vegas Golden Knights (NHL) and the Las Vegas Raiders (NFL), and has hosted the NBA Summer League and the NFL Draft.
The city is looking to cement its position as the premier destination for sports and entertainment on the globe. Its goal is to convert casual fans into advocates for sports betting. Fan engagement will play a key role in the success of the sports betting sector.
Casinos and networks embrace sports betting
Caesars Entertainment and some of its competitors have been making a lot of moves in the sports betting space. Caesars is the official gaming sponsor for the NFL and has also bought a stake in DraftKings, which is a sportsbook operator in numerous states. MGM Resorts is the official gaming partner for MLB, the NHL, NBA, and MLS.
Espn Sports Betting Show
Fox Sports is making moves in the sports betting space, buying a 4.99% share in the Bet StarsGroup for $236m (£183m). The companies will join forces to create a sports betting offering called Fox Bet. Fox has the option to purchase half of the Bet Stars operations in the next decade as part of this deal.
This is the biggest investment a media company has made in the sports betting space to date. The Stars Group owns PokerStars and also bought the popular European sports betting operator Sky Bet in 2018 for $4.7bn (£3.7m).
This new platform, which will launch by the end of 2019, will actually be two separate platforms. One will be entirely free to play and players will win prizes if they successfully predict the outcomes of certain sporting events. The other platform will be a traditional sportsbook.
The idea is that the free-to-play platform will attract casual sports fans who can then be converted to the real money sportsbook platform. Fox already has a sports betting show on its FSI channel called “Lock It In.”
Nfl Vegas Odds
The Sinclair Broadcast Group is also making moves in the sports betting space. The company recently bought 21 regional sports networks from Disney for $10.6bn. These networks will play a key part in their efforts to establish themselves in the sports betting sector.