Drew Magary: ESPN wants you to think sports gambling is easy
SFGATE columnist Drew Magary breaks down an unholy genre of sports gambling story.
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Degenerate gamblers, rejoice: ESPN says it's never been easier to beat the house
SFGATE columnist Drew Magary breaks down an unholy genre of sports gambling story
Purdum is taking up the mantle of former ESPN business reporter and brand worshipper Darren Rovell, who cut out the middleman entirely in 2018 and left the network for a gambling concern. Rovell was no stranger to this “Bookies really took a bath this time!” form of take, where any anomaly in the pregame line or the postgame result triggers a house loss that looks onerous when isolated but is ultimately a rounding error for businesses that routinely make hundreds of million dollars annually. BetMGM made $850 million in revenue last year. The market cap for Caesars Entertainment currently stands at $9 billion. These are not companies in dire straits. Quite the contrary
In fact, ever since the Supreme Court legalized sports betting in 2018, Americans have legally wagered more than $87 billion, according to the Washington Post. That number figures to increase exponentially as more dominoes fall and more states legalize online sports betting apps to streamline the gambling addiction process. Perhaps you’ve seen an ad or two for such apps, maybe even featuring the comedic stylings of J.B. Smoove
As these services proliferate, they have become comfortably intertwined both with the major sports leagues and, more importantly, with the media companies that hold the broadcast rights to those leagues. According to the Financial Times, ESPN parent company Disney holds a stake in DraftKings and ESPN has an exclusivity arrangement with the clearly struggling Caesars for pregame odds. (Disclosure: Hearst, parent company of this website, also owns 20% of ESPN.) Disney CEO Bob Chapek himself told Disney investors that sports betting was vital to the future of ESPN’s success within the company.
