At a G2E session on Wednesday, Bill Miller, president and CEO of the American Gaming Association, separately interviewed two influential women. Appearing first was Erika Ayers Nardini, CEO of Barstool Sports; Miller’s second interview was with Sandra Douglas Morgan, president of the Las Vegas Raiders.
Nardini has been with Barstool Sports 6½ years; her resumé consists primarily of working for large media companies. Barstool grew as a media company by successfully using social media to connect with a younger demographic. Recently they partnered with Penn National Gaming and, while still a media company, are in the highly regulated gaming industry.
Miller asked, “How did Barstool Sports grow so big so fast?”
Erika Ayers Nardini responded that the key was to make interaction with their viewers personal. They don’t have “old white guys in suits and ties” telling people how to bet and why. Instead, they have young people conversing and making predictions. A younger audience can relate to this much better, according to Nardini.
Sandra Douglas Morgan is African American, formerly a litigation attorney for the Mirage, a City Attorney for North Las Vegas, and chairman of the Nevada Gaming Control Board, among other positions, a trailblazer in many of her positions because of both her gender and race. She’s been with the Raiders since July.
She said the key to success in her current position will come from interpersonal relationships among herself, members of her team, Raiders fans, and others she relates to outside of the Raider organization.
All three participants addressed responsible gaming. When a player restricts himself, casinos and sportsbooks are becoming very good at enforcing these self-restrictions. But illegal gaming options are always out there, especially in sports betting, where these restrictions aren’t enforced very well. Unfortunately, a person who has a problem in this regard and self-restricts can always find a way to get around those restrictions should he change his mind about whether or not he has a problem.
