Sports TV News

ESPN to Announce Expanded Talent Lineup for Gambling Products and Shows

“I am the custodian of the ESPN brand, and we needed to make sure that whoever we went with on this journey was someone that we could trust.”

Published

2 months ago

October 13, 2023

BSM Staff

Courtesy: Mike Segar, Reuters

The Walt Disney Company and Penn Entertainment recently came to terms on a partnership to launch an ESPN-branded sportsbook – ESPN BET – which is expected to be released sometime in this year’s fiscal fourth quarter. The 10-year, $1.5 billion deal contains various performance incentives with a goal of yielding a 20% share of the total addressable domestic online sports betting marketplace. Furthermore, Disney will receive warrants worth nearly $500 million that will allow them to purchase shares in the gambling company. Disney chief executive officer Bob Iger was originally against the idea of expanding into sports betting, but as time passed, he realized that its growing influence on the marketplace was simply too powerful to ignore.

Disney engages in cross-platform integration and promotion across its various brands, and ESPN has recently started various alternate-style broadcasts. Jimmy Kimmel, for example, recently appeared on Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli, while Stephen A. Smith will occasionally welcome celebrities on First Take and the secondary game presentation, NBA in Stephen A’s World. ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro was cognizant of the implications a betting partnership could have in the marketplace and does not take the responsibility of serving the sports fan lightly.

“My job is to protect the brand at all costs,” Pitaro told The Wall Street Journal in an interview. “I am the custodian of the ESPN brand, and we needed to make sure that whoever we went with on this journey was someone that we could trust.”

The in-depth report, which is authored by Robbie Whelan, Katherine Sayre and Jessica Toonkel, shared that Disney began thinking about immersion into the sports betting space upon its $71.3 billion acquisition of Twenty-First Century Fox and other segments of the company. The transaction included a 6% stake in DraftKings, which it sold within the third financial quarter.

Previous Disney CEO Bob Chapek explored a partnership with DraftKings, which has a 27.3% share of gross gaming revenue in the marketplace. The companies, however, were reportedly far apart as it pertained to financials, complicating the negotiating process. In the end, DraftKings reportedly offered approximately $100 million annually for ESPN to use the sportsbook, but a provision of the deal indicated that DraftKings wanted its branding on the app and marketing materials. The Wall Street Journal reports that Pitaro felt it was “nonstarter” and wanted solo ESPN branding across the endeavor. Later on, Rush Street Interactive is said to have offered Disney more than $100 million per year, but no deal ever materialized.

As Disney engaged in laying off 3% of its global workforce to slash $5.5 billion in costs, Pitaro was reportedly informed by Iger that he could continue efforts of trying to find the company an operating partner. Following a 90-minute meeting with PENN Entertainment chief executive officer Jay Snowden, he directed ESPN employees to converse with the entity to discover the specifics of a potential partnership.

Once PENN sold Barstool Sports back to founder Dave Portnoy for $1, along with a bevy of provisions, the company was able to finalize its deal with Disney and forge ahead. The partnership can be severed after three years, which Snowden indicated was around 10%, as the companies attempt to leverage the ESPN brand and react to growing consumption trends in sports media.

“There’s only one ESPN,” Snowden said. “If we were going to make a pivot, there was really one option to do that, and that was with what is the only name that is truly anonymous with sports in the United States.”

Pitaro shared that ESPN will soon announce an expanded talent lineup to host and promote gambling-related products and content. The company recently exited its Las Vegas studios, launched a new afternoon radio show with betting personality Joe Fortenbaugh and is frequently featuring betting intel from analyst Erin Dolan within its football programming. As it pertains to alternate broadcasts, the network is reportedly considering alternate broadcasts focused on the practice and will also look to promote ESPN BET through its daily programming and fantasy sports users.

BSM Staff

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John Dickinson Exits 95.7 The Game

“The longtime Bay Area sports radio reporter and host announced his departure on social media.”

Published

11 hours ago

November 28, 2023

Jordan Bondurant

23538F4F-2BF5-40B4-9FA4-07801B5214EE | Barrett Media

A voice familiar to Bay Area sports fans will no longer be heard on 95.7 The Game. Reporter John Dickinson announced on Monday that it was his last day at the station.

Dickinson posted a note on X on Monday expressing his gratitude for getting to be at 95.7 The Game for well over a decade covering sports.

“Who would have thought I’d have been fortunate enough to cover two World Series or three Super Bowls or SIX NBA Finals?” Dickinson wrote. “They even let me pretend to be a hockey reporter during the 2016 Stanley Cup Final. Through the countless hours of radio shows and update shifts, and the long days and nights of traveling to cover Warriors and 49ers games all across the country, it’s been a pleasure to interact with some of the most passionate and knowledgeable (and sometime neurotic) fans in sports.”

Today was my last day at 95.7 The Game after 12 years 7 months & 7 days. (But who's counting) pic.twitter.com/VIDLRLkACI
— John Dickinson (@JDJohnDickinson) November 28, 2023

He continued that he’s thankful for the chance to develop such great relationships with other reporters on the various Bay Area pro sports beats. Dickinson announced that he’s excited for what’s next.

According to sources, that next opportunity will be with KNBR.

“Grateful for the friendships that have blossomed with co-workers and other reporters along all the great beats in the Bay Area,” he wrote. “From my early days almost exclusively on the Raiders/Warriors/Giants to now primarily the 49ers/Warriors. Beyond excited for what’s next, but that’s tomorrow’s news.”

Jordan Bondurant

Jordan Bondurant is a features reporter for Barrett Sports Media. He’s a multimedia journalist and communicator who works at the Virginia State Corporation Commission in Richmond. Jordan also contributes occasional coverage of the Washington Capitals for the blog NoVa Caps. His prior media experiences include working for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Danville Register & Bee, Virginia Lawyers Weekly, WRIC-TV 8News and Audacy Richmond. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @J__Bondurant.

Sports TV News

Rob Stone: Big Noon Kickoff ‘A Toddler But Not in Our Crib Anymore’

The college football pregame show is about to finish its 5th season competing with ESPN’s College GameDay.

Published

11 hours ago

November 28, 2023

Jordan Bondurant

(Photo: FOX Sports)

FOX is about to put a bow on its fifth season of Big Noon Kickoff, and even though ESPN’s College GameDay continues to lead in viewership, FOX isn’t taking its foot off the pedal.

Big Noon Kickoff averaged 1.02 million viewers through the first 10 weeks of the 2023 season according to reporting from Sports Business Journal. That figure was up from the 997,000 viewer average last year, the first year FOX sent its college football pregame show on the road for the entire regular season.

The show has seen its biggest growth in the final hour leading into FOX’s Big Noon Saturday game of the week broadcast. The 11 a.m. hour is averaging over 1.4 million viewers during that window through nine weeks.

FOX has seemed to master creating its own party atmosphere for the on-campus, on-location live show hosted by Rob Stone. Brady Quinn, Matt Leinart, Mark Ingram, and Urban Meyer fill out the desk, with Bruce Feldman and Chris “The Bear” Fallica contributing throughout the course of the morning.

Stone said the show continues to improve and gain momentum. It’s clear the program is on an upward trajectory.

“We’re a toddler, but we’re not in our crib anymore,” Stone said. “We’re demanding a king-sized bed.”

“It’s just a testament to everyone at Fox believing in what we can make this,” Leinart added. “And then also the guys up here and everybody part of this crew — in front of the camera and behind the camera — everybody makes the show go.”

The show obviously wants to eventually overtake GameDay as the most popular college football pregame show in the country, but many elements pull from the formula ESPN has used to make GameDay what it is. Imitation is the most honest form of flattery in Quinn’s eyes, who said that the big difference between what viewers get on FOX is the focus funneling into the noon game of the week.

“Obviously, if you’re gonna start out with the idea to do a college football pregame show, you take a lot of things [GameDay has] done because they’ve been successful,” Quinn said. “What we’re trying to do is taking the tailgate — that party and that atmosphere inside the stadium right before the game — right to kick.”

“The vast majority of our games are that,” the Big Noon Kickoff host added. “So hopefully when you’re watching you get more of the intensity wrapping up to like, here it is, here are the two teams. Boom. Gus and Joel, take it away.”

Jordan Bondurant

Sports TV News

NBC Sports Trialing Paul McGinley as Lead Golf Analyst This Weekend

McGinley will get the opportunity to helm the role held by Paul Azinger before his exit earlier this month.

Published

11 hours ago

November 28, 2023

Jordan Bondurant

When the Hero World Challenge tees off later this week in The Bahamas, NBC Sports will reportedly be auditioning its next PGA Tour lead analyst in Paul McGinley.

The Irish Independent on Monday reported that McGinley, a Ryder Cup champion for Europe who contributes analysis to both Sky Sports and Golf Channel, will get to test out doing play-by-play analysis alongside Dan Hicks.

NBC is going to be hiring a new lead analyst after the departure of Paul Azinger following October’s Ryder Cup. The network’s PGA Tour broadcast schedule for 2024 doesn’t begin in earnest until February.

It’s believed that if McGinley gets the lead analyst nod, he will continue to honor his obligations to Sky and Golf Channel under the Comcast banner.

Jordan Bondurant