The headline highlighted in red (which links to this) is the second Vegas-related story that ESPN has given significant coverage over the past couple weeks. The first was this story about the books wanting to take more action on the Phillies, since they stand to lose so much on futures bets if the Rays win. The current story is the third headline on the front page; the older one was one of the top stories on the MLB page for a few days before the WS began.
I'm admittedly not very old, but there's no way these items would've gotten so much MSM exposure five years ago, right? This came up over at Sports Investments the other day as well. I'm certainly all for this trend, I just wonder what it's been caused by.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
ESPN and Gambling
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They've got RJ Bell from Pregame.com on OTL talking about all this stuff right now. I wish I had some way to post this video.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't be surprised if it's a journalistic tactic.. when the economy is down, people's interest in the lottery and lottery stories go up. I would venture to say interest in "Vegas," gambling, especially the sports gambling market would go up, too.
ReplyDeletedoesnt that make total sense...
ReplyDeletethe economy is in the toilet so lets be MORE risky with our money!
Wouldn't this be related to the explosion of online gambling Web sites?
ReplyDeleteThe increase in online sports betting action means that, from a business standpoint, mainstream sports sites like ESPN.com can increase traffic if they play a little bit to that market. I think it's quite a plausible assumption that users of sports gambling get their share of news and scores frommainstream sports sites like ESPN...
Is there a statistic lying around somewhere on the percentage of the population that has placed a bet online for each of the past 10 years, or something similar?
ReplyDeleteV-Watch, I've scanned for studies to that effect but I haven't encountered anything. Congress is (somewhat meekly) addressing online gambling, so depending on your access you may want to look back at some of what went on in Washington (legislative documents, transcripts of hearings, etc.) in advance of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006...
ReplyDeleteSorry, one final thought: the reason we don't have much to go on in the U.S., statistically-speaking, is because the market is totally unregulated. If the U.S. ever legalized it, we'd know a lot more about it...
ReplyDeleteThey've had "Hammerin' Hank" on for years though making pre game pickst ATS though haven't they?
ReplyDeleteLook, ESPN has been consciously reluctant for years to acknowledge the fact that gambling is the driving force behind the success of their programming. At a certain point they realized it, hence the emergence in the last 2-3 years of Tuesday and Friday football games. Really!? How many people are interested in the Tuesday night football games unless they have some action. There is a large part of their viewing audience that is betting on these games and that is the rational for both ESPN and NCAA to put college football on almost daily. NCAA is the biggest hypocrite of all. They profit $xxx,xxx,xxx dollars in this sport and then go and take such a tough stance against gambling. Hahaha. They should just continue to protect against corruption/fixing but encourage programming addressed at gamblers. ESPN would be wise to have a show for college football gambling, minus paid programming touts.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to above comment: The other fact that ESPN should acknowledge the betting markets is because the markets are the best insight to the game. The markets, just like the stock market, are just a reporting agency. Even if I am just a casual fan who doesn't bet, I'd rather hear what the action in Vegas says about a game rather than some bloated bullshit artist commentator's opinion. Just look at the polls, why is there several instances of a lower ranked team being the favorite? Because polls aren't the best reflection of reality, markets are.
ReplyDelete