ESPN BET OR DEBT? MARCH MADNESS HAS ARRIVED AS COLLEGE TEAMS ARE INVESTIGATED
Gambling soars toward $14 billion in annual revenue, which leads to banning players for violations as the “Worldwide Leader in Sports” crashes in a sour wagering relationship with Penn Entertainment
America’s gambling scam generates ghastly numbers, including a record revenue of $13.7 billion last year. What it won’t do — forevermore — is explain how it contaminates sports competition and turns good people into raging junkies. March Madness begins soon with at least two programs under NCAA investigation — Fresno State and New Orleans — and forces bettors to ask which games are clean and which are not.
You might not care about those teams. You might care if others are unraveled. The thugs who wagered on New Orleans, which has lost 25 of 29 games, are connected to two NBA gambling cases. Jontay Porter was banned from the league. Terry Rozier, a notable guard for 10 years, might be next if the feds have their way. Four players were banned — all averaging between 19.2 points and 7.8 points a game. Three Fresno State players are being probed as the team skids at 5-23. A former Temple player is accused of point shaving last March.
“Because they broke a team rule, we had to suspend them,” said Vince Granito, interim athletic director at New Orleans. “They’ve been suspended for a month already.”
And this is why the Supreme Court legalized over-unders and parlays?
So folks who can’t afford to lose bets keep losing?
ESPN, once known for journalism, continues to falter under chairman Jimmy Pitaro. His grand plan to embrace gambling at the “Worldwide Leader in Sports” is collapsing, with Penn Entertainment losing $109.8 million in an online division that includes ESPN Bet. The casino company and the network hoped to grab a 20 percent share within the business by 2027. In the top betting states of New York, Illinois and New Jersey, Pitaro’s pipedream ranks seventh in revenue and has shrunk to just one or two percent. Imagine if Penn Entertainment opts out of a 10-year deal, possible in 2026, and pulls back from a $2 billion investment.
ESPN Bet or Debt?
“When we announced our partnership, both sides made it very clear that we expected to compete for a seat at the podium. And we’re not on pace right now to do that,” Penn president and CEO Jay Snowden told analysts. “We have tremendous plans in place for 2025 and 2026. But if, for whatever reason, we’re not hitting levels that we need to, then obviously as you’re approaching the third anniversary, you have a three-year clause in that contract that both sides will have to do what’s in their best interests. And so that’s always out there.”
You might have seen the folly of Scott Van Pelt complaining about money losses in his “Bad Beats” segments. His casualties have replaced actual live events as the network’s most visible symbolism. I don’t care about Van Pelt or his pocket square and why he’s so lame at age 58 to bet on his alma mater, Maryland, before the Terrapins lose to Michigan State. He’s an overgrown frat boy whose head should be flushed in a toilet.
“What a shot. I have to go to work now. Hahaha. Cool,” he wrote.
And this is why the Supreme Court allows FanDuel and DraftKings to pummel us with advertising? And control what one attorney described to ESPN.com — isn’t that perfect? — as a “predator and prey” relationship?
In a few weeks, ESPN begins a direct-to-consumer strategy. It will cost between $25 and $30 a month. Pitaro’s operation is associated with crime, you might say. Who wants to spend such money on low-rent activity? College players are more apt to swindle when they have no chance of reaching the NBA level.
Yet ESPN is front and center on nightly coverage of the kids. Pitaro went down a sleazy path that saw Penn Entertainment pay $1 to Dave Portnoy.
Bob Ley.
Dave Portnoy.
Do you watch the network? I do occasionally, when a good game is on, except I’d like to block the screen when an ESPN Bet ad appears. It will disappear soon enough.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.