ESPN’s Playing Pivot Compromises Even Extra of Its Integrity

4 months ago 3 min read

Already a questionable journalistic entity due to its media rights agreements with lots of the sports activities leagues it covers, ESPN’s future as a 100% authentic and unbiased information supply simply obtained a bit murkier. Yesterday it was introduced {that a} $2 billion take care of PENN Leisure will rebrand Barstool Sportsbook as ESPN BET.

ESPN BET, which is able to launch this fall within the 16 states the place Penn is licensed, has a superb shot at breaking apart the U.S. sports activities betting duopoly between FanDuel and DraftKings. However it has an excellent higher probability of bringing the credentials of The Worldwide Chief’s reporters and insiders into query. In spite of everything, it’s not that tough to consider that an entity with insider details about sports activities would use that data to assist its associate, a playing platform, create favorable traces, is it? Wouldn’t ESPN wish to use league insiders like Adam Schefter (NFL), Adrian Wojnarowski (NBA) and Jeff Passan (MLB) to assist Penn incentivize bettors? It truly appears fairly logical — and others agree.

“The connection additionally highlights the varied questions and issues in regards to the intersection of playing and sport, with ESPN now strolling the road between large partnerships with people who produce the sports activities on which betting happens, and an organization that hopes to facilitate increasingly more (and extra) betting by most of the people,” in accordance with ProFootballTalk.

In Tuesday’s announcement, ESPN vowed to proceed its “excessive customary of journalistic integrity when overlaying the sports activities betting area.” Sources additionally instructed Entrance Workplace Sports activities that there will likely be “strict traces of demarcation between journalism and sports activities betting” and that ESPN insiders will likely be “stored far-off from gambling-focused packages like Every day Wager.” It’s attainable that ESPN actually will have the ability to separate journalistic integrity and sports activities betting, however all it is going to take is one incident, and even the implication of 1, to show this deal right into a $2 billion blunder by the Worldwide Chief.

A corollary of the ESPN BET announcement is that Penn has offered “100%” of Barstool Sports activities again to its founder Dave Portnoy, per the New York Publish. Portnoy offered a majority of Barstool to The Chernin Group in 2016 earlier than Penn accomplished its acquisition of Barstool earlier this 12 months for $551 million.

To rejoice the buyback, Portnoy obtained himself one thing good.

“We underestimated simply how powerful it’s for myself and Barstool to function in a regulatory world the place playing regulators, the New York Instances, Enterprise Insider hit items fucking with the inventory value. Each time we did one thing it was one step ahead, two steps again,” Portnoy mentioned in a video in regards to the sale. “We obtained denied licenses due to me. You title it. So the regulated trade most likely not one of the best place for Barstool Sports activities and the content material we make. Extra importantly, for us, for Barstool, for the primary time in perpetually, we don’t have to look at what we are saying, how we speak, what we do. It’s again to the pirate ship. By the way in which, I’ll by no means promote Barstool Sports activities [again], ever. I’ll maintain it until I die.”

We’ll see.