Prior to May 2018, the approach across much of sports media was to ignore the existence of sports betting — even if the person on the mic knew everything there was to know about the subject.
After May 2018, the approach across much of sports media swung to finding ways to force sports betting into the conversation — even if the person on the mic knew absolutely nothing about the subject.
The past five years have seen gradual tweaks and updates to the unwritten rules of talking about sports betting on the air. But potentially the most massive shift since the Supreme Court ESPN BET sportsbook app launches.
The four letters synonymous with sports broadcasting for the past four decades or so are, in partnership with PENN Entertainment, getting attached to a sportsbook. ESPN itself is not taking bets, exactly. But ESPN BET is (with PENN as the operator). And that’s close enough to represent a paradigm shift.
One thing observers will be watching for is how the push to promote ESPN BET will spill into, or perhaps take over, the on-air product. We’re not necessarily talking about broadcasters’ betting habits — for what it’s worth, ESPN is still finalizing its employee guidelines regarding use of the ESPN BET product, a network sportsperson told Sports Handle. We’re talking about broadcasters’ broadcasting habits and how much betting talk infiltrates them.
Each broadcaster is different — from the studio hosts to the play-by-play guys to the in-game analysts to the opinionators — so here we present a look, based on previous things they’ve said and done, about how some of the higher-profile ESPN personalities feel about sports wagering. Those histories could inform how frequently they’ll slip the name “ESPN BET” into conversation.
Scott Van Pelt 3n3lb
This is the easiest one to assess, outside of Daily Wager personalities whose whole job it is to talk overs and unders. Labeled last year by Sports Business Journal “a modern-day Jimmy the Greek, but better,” SVP is never shy about talking wagers. He is as well known for his “Bad Beats” segment on SportsCenter as for anything else he does.
On a 2019 SI Media Podcast in which he addressed the tendency among some sportscasters to tip-toe around betting talk, Van Pelt said, “This insistence upon ignoring what is plainly obvious, it’s an affront to intelligence. … When things are obvious, we’re adults, let’s just be adults about it. And talking about it as if it isn’t real … it’s like a guy with a combover. You’re bald. It’s all right. No one thinks you’re not bald.”
SVP doesn’t have a combover. And he won’t be hesitant to tell his viewers what the ESPN BET odds are.
Stephen A. Smith 13656b
Is Smith a gambler? Well, he’s not above placing an off-book bet on sports, having apparently won $1,000 off his colleague Marcus Spears on Niners-Cowboys last weekend. But generally, Stephen A. doesn’t use his air time to dig in on three-team teasers and closing line value.
There’s no question, however, that he s legal sports betting. Back in 2018, he declared “I think it’s long overdue” to legalize wagering. And more recently, Smith said, “Gambling has become a fabric of the sports world, on a legitimate level”:
Gambling on sports has always existed, but the recent investment and ingratiation by sports leagues has certainly changed things pic.twitter.com/jr2VgdvNBA
— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) April 23, 2023
Troy Aikman 3y234a
The color analyst on ESPN’s Monday Night Football tends not to insert betting angles into his coverage, but we have two strong hints that he’s in favor of legal sports gambling.
For starters, Aikman has an endorsement deal with Choctaw Casinos & Resorts. And when Calvin Ridley was suspended for the entire 2022 season for wagering on NFL games, the former quarterback told TMZ the penalty “seems like an awful lot.”
One hesitates to make assumptions, but these two bits of evidence suggest Aikman shouldn’t be opposed to mentioning the lines while calling a game.
Joe Buck 705461
Aikman’s broadcast partner on MNF raised a few eyebrows when he made a subtle, sly, Al Michaels-esque comment late in a Packers-Rams game last December:
Joe Buck doing his best Al Michaels impression referencing the 39.5 total https://t.co/FZqLiCSvKr
— GetACLSports.com®–Sports Investor (@TheRealMrACL) December 20, 2022
Buck also spoke about referencing betting lines during games mobile sportsbook to promote, chances are the subtle, sly approach will give way to more straightforward betting-related comments.
Mike Greenberg 6h1q66
Greeny is more than happy to talk greenbacks, having tweeted as far back as 2015 in favor of sports betting legalization:
Legalizing sports gambling just makes sense. It's a matter of time. And that time should be now.
— Mike Greenberg (@Espngreeny) February 16, 2015
Around the same time, he expounded on Mike & Mike, “Everyone knows that there are hundreds of millions of dollars that are wagered illegally in this country. That’s not changing no matter what you do. I personally don’t see anything that should be standing in the way of legalizing sports gambling, and I can see enormous benefit that could potentially come from it.”
Since legalization kicked in, Greenberg began hosting the ESPN+ show Bettor Days in 2020, so, yes, he’s a strong candidate to mention ESPN BET wherever and whenever appropriate.
Linda Cohn 2f3c5f
The longest-tenured active SportsCenter anchor, Cohn has generally stayed fairly quiet on the topic of betting, but how opposed can she possibly be if she made a friendly wager with then-colleague Jonathan Coachman on the 2015 Royals-Mets World Series?
Mel Kiper Jr. 211i18
Similar to Cohn, Kiper hasn’t been especially outspoken on wagering one way or the other, but he will make a bet against an ESPN colleague if he has to. In 2020, the veteran NFL Draft analyst bet Todd McShay a cool $5,000 — with the loser’s money going to The V Foundation — that Justin Herbert would be selected before Jordan Love:
Here we go: @McShay13 bet @MelKiperESPN $5,000 that Jordan Love will go ahead of Justin Herbert in April’s draft; loser of the bet sends $5,000 to the @TheVFoundation. pic.twitter.com/Ix5dDnPFgt
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 28, 2020
Kirk Herbstreit 4v2j5m
ESPN college football analyst (and Thursday NFL commentator for Amazon) Herbstreit is old school when it comes to not making picks on the games he’s working, but he’s been willing to place a peer-to-peer wager if it’s not directly attached to a game he’s calling. From betting a steak dinner against “Big Cat” of Barstool Sports to betting “anything you want” against Adam “Pacman” Jones, Herbstreit clearly is willing to talk wagers in a public forum.
Buster Olney a2r4j
In an article he wrote for ESPN’s website in 2020 examining MLB teams’ win total over/unders, Olney declared, “I can’t bet and I don’t bet.” That said, the article was focused on where Olney saw value against the lines the sportsbooks set. So, just because Buster isn’t a bettor doesn’t mean he won’t engage on the topic.
Tony Kornheiser 43w3e
Pardon the Interruption’s resident curmudgeon isn’t necessarily into betting himself, but he routinely welcomes former professional gambler Jeff Ma (the main subject of the book Bringing Down the House and movie 21) to The Tony Kornheiser Show to offer NFL picks. So there’s no reason to think Kornheiser and Mike Wilbon won’t occasionally talk some ROI on PTI.
Adam Schefter 382w6w
Ah, the news breakers. Schefter, ESPN’s primary NFL scoop-ologist, has been a subject of much speculation, since he sometimes possesses knowledge that could move markets before the oddsmakers possess that knowledge.
Schefter was an investor in Boom Entertainment, a creator of casino and sports gambling apps, which raised questions when Caesars Sportsbook that same year but stayed put at ESPN. He talks fantasy on his podcast prior to the start of every NFL season.
Schefter, like NBA counterpart Adrian Wojnarowski, provides information vital to bettors nearly every day, but he tends not to frame that information in a betting context. Reporters armed with scoops have generally been steered away from shows like Daily Wager, so if any folks at ESPN will be encouraged to do their jobs without invoking the words “ESPN BET,” it figures to be the likes of Schefter.
ESPN BET will begin accepting legal wagers on November 14th, 2023. For more information on the ESPN BET promo code please direct your attention to our sportsbook review.
