Television and the rest of the media nationwide has come a long way since Brent Musburger and Jimmy “The Greek” would subtly talk about NFL betting lines on the CBS pre-game show in the 1970s and 1980s.
A media relations expert, Tuesday, credited sports betting websites and other media emanating from Las Vegas for making wagering more acceptable to the public. The compatibility made states more willing to legalize sports betting after the U.S. Supreme Court a year ago by stuck down a federal ban on the activity,
Ryan Thies, a graduate student in media relations at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, said the expansion of sports gambling is only going to lead to more betting discussions by media and proliferating during game broadcasts – something once considered taboo. What’s started in Las Vegas is currently is setting the stage for sports betting media throughout the country, Thies said in an interview.
He was scheduled to speak at the International Conference Gambling & Risk Taking at Caesars Palace but could not attend. The conference is produced by UNLV’s International Gaming Institute.
Theis cited football handicapping publications like The Gold Sheet that have been around for decades, and radio sports betting programs produced out of Las Vegas, for ESPN and other networks becoming more aggressive in talking about sports betting. The trailblazers also led to the creation of Vegas Stats & Information Network (VSiN), a national sports gambling news network based at the South Point Casino with Musburger as its lead personality.
“For the last 10 years, websites have come out talking about sports gambling and started to normalize talking about it,” Thies said. “ESPN’s web page looks like (Covers.com). It’s making gambling less of a taboo subject.”
ESPN and Fox Sports cable shows have increased their sports betting discussions since the court ruling. Newspapers and other local media have produced betting stories, especially if the activity was approved in their state, Thies said. Earlier this year, Caesars Entertainment said it would team with Turner Sports to develop gaming content for a Bleacher Report studio inside the sports book.
“They have been waiting for less of a risk to get into that realm,” Thies said. “ESPN has been talking gambling since 2014 but mostly on their pay wall on their web page, but they needed something official like the (ruling) to give them a safety net that it’s OK and the law says it’s OK now. It’s legalized so we can talk about it on TV. It doesn’t have the same stigma it does now. It used to be once you talk about it people thought you encouraged point shaving and people with gambling addictions. Those problems have been ironed out now.”
Thies said Musburger and Jimmy “The Greek” wanted to discuss sports betting on CBS, but didn’t want to face the backlash of directly talking about it.
“They had that secret code of Jets by a touchdown,” Thies said. “We have come a long way since then. It’s more out in the open now. If you wanted to find gambling content in the past, you could. Now it’s more accessible and you stumble into it. It’s being advertised. The Fan Duel and DraftKings ads in New Jersey are through the roof.”
Thies said he doesn’t foresee gambling content on the main channel of an NFL, NBA or Major League Baseball game, but he expects it on a digital channel or some another ESPN-like channel, such as the channels used for the college football championship game. VSiN has a radio show called Bet-Cast where it talks betting options during a game, he said.
“The technology is there to add a gambling aspect to a broadcast,” Thies said. “VSiN is really the first to do that. They encourage you to watch it on TV and listen on the phone or speaker and talk about the spread and totals. It’s a matter of time before it gets on TV.”
