Fanduel network shows an industry bought and paid for by gambling
IIn the equivalent of a sports broadcast turning from red to blue mid-season, Diamond Sports Group, a bankrupt operator of 16 regional sports networks, last month rebranded its channels as FanDuel Sports Network.
The former name was already linked to gambling; Bally’s owned the trademark rights for three years. But FanDuel is a new partner with a higher profile and a much larger parent company. Flutter, headquartered in New York and created from the Irish-British merger of Paddy Power and Betfair, is the the world’s largest online gambling company.
If Bally’s is a brand that evokes Las Vegas-style gambling in a brick-and-mortar casino, FanDuel looks more like the future: younger, fast-growing, built for the smartphone age, and blurring the lines between the media and the gambling industry.
In 2022, it launched FanDuel TV, a channel offering live action and original sports chat from veteran broadcasters and through a partnership with Bill Simmons’ podcast network The Ringer. Now FanDuel has its fingerprint on a broadcaster that has regional rights to thirteen NBA teams, eight NFL teams and a yet to be determined number of MLB clubs. It plans to air the FanDuel TV show on the FanDuel Sports Network.
Amid the normalization of gambling, gambling companies are becoming similar to broadcasters and vice versa. Convergence is happening as gambling companies embed themselves in the sports media landscape, while traditional media add gambling content, both capitalizing on and sustaining demand.
As a result, reporting is quickly becoming a tangled web of vested interests. It is becoming increasingly difficult for fans to find a mainstream provider that has no stake in the gambling industry, whether they consume content directly produced or sponsored by a gaming company, created by a traditional media company with a gambling business, or official linked to competitions. and ploughing. The major US leagues and many teams have gaming partners.
The partnership between Diamond and FanDuel “is a more direct connection to mobile sports betting, an evolution” of Bally’s deal, said Patrick Crakes, a media consultant and former Fox Sports executive. “It leverages the people that are there and adds a new level of engagement that can generate revenue. For some people, this will be the main reason why they are involved… the only reason they are watching a game is because they are playing.”
Regional sports networks (RSNs) attract loyal fans who watch their teams religiously. According to Crakes, that makes them attractive targets: “The gaming companies need daily gamblers. I’ve always thought it’s a good place to partner with the RSNs on the gaming side. Because a lot of the people you want to reach if you’re a sports gaming company are probably watching those games.”
The Diamond deal is the latest salvo in a battle between FanDuel and its main rival, DraftKings, for the largest share of the fast-growing U.S. legal sports betting market, with sports betting now allowed in 38 states after a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowed states to make their own laws.
The digital DraftKings Network offers TV and movie reviews, as well as sports news, betting advice and a programming schedule anchored by star podcaster Dan Le Batard, formerly of ESPN. In 2021 DraftKings reportedly beat the interest rate from radio network SiriusXM by agreeing to pay Le Batard’s media company at least $50 million over three years in a distribution, revenue and sponsorship deal. It also sponsors podcasts on a network founded by another popular personality, Colin Cowherd.
As traditional media companies struggle to retain their audiences and remain profitable in the age of cord-cutting and online news, DraftKings and FanDuel growing turnover quickly and have the marketing budgets to spend heavily on companies that supplement their advertising blitzes. (DraftKings is loss-making but expect to make a profit soon.)
“To our fans: know that DraftKings is the reason you are not behind a paywall, and I promise you that the money will not change the show or corrupt us in any way,” Le Batard said in a statement in 2021. anticipated to an obvious problem: bias.
Shilling for an insurance company or supermarket chain is unlikely to have life-changing consequences for listeners or raise ethical questions for outlets. However, as the number of online sports betting increases sharply, problems arise at the betting hotlines detect increases in the volume and severity of calls, with support services and regulations struggling to keep pace with a boom that is putting young people in particular at risk.
Although responsible gambling advice is a routine part of programming, it is usually perfunctory. And ubiquitous sponsorships and industry-generated content mean fewer sources without potential conflicts of interest. “Betting controversies have spread throughout the sport,” An said ESPN website story examining the risks to leagues and players in March. Mentioned in passing in the middle of the article was the fact that ESPN made a deal with a gaming operator last year to create a sportsbook called ESPN BET.
Reporting on players embroiled in scandals is inevitable: the media can hardly ignore the fact that a Toronto Raptors player is being banned from the NBA for life. But addiction is a public health problem and examines the role of the sports and media industries in it disorder that affects approximately 1% of ordinary, non-famous and less obviously newsworthy Americans, requires more proactive and tougher editorial choices.
“Sports media companies in general may have previously played a watchdog role when it comes to the negative effects gambling could have on sports, gambling addiction or players’ shaving points,” said Stephen Shapiro, professor at New York University’s Department of Sports and Entertainment Management . University of South Carolina. “Some of the traditional ways of covering gambling will change as companies like ESPN get into gaming. Over time, does this erode some of the journalistic credibility that the media might have when it comes to sports reporting?”
ESPN betting is one minor player and ESPN emphasizes that journalistic integrity is crucial to its brand. Still, breaking news such as player injuries and coaching hirings have the potential to impact the betting markets.
In 2021 the Athletic and BetMGM announced an “exclusive partnership” and promised to “seamlessly combine media, analytics and betting”. Last year, NBA insider Shams Charania, then a reporter at the Athletic, now at ESPN, sent a tweet about the draft that moved the odds on FanDuel – who coincidentally paid him to appear on FanDuel TV. Like ESPN, The Athletic has done just that ethical rules about gambling by its journalists, which are intended to avoid actual or perceived conflicts of interest.
The Associated Press, a telephone service that praises his independencesigned A agreement in 2021 to make FanDuel the exclusive sports betting provider. In 2021, the AP gave staffers who worked on the FanDuel deal a internal performance award for “[turning] sports opportunities into an exciting revenue opportunity” that is “the kind of business growth that is essential to AP’s future.” This year, the AP switched its odds provider to BetMGM and even publishes columns offered by BetMGM, of which there is one recently appear online in the Washington Post.
Media companies “know the revenue opportunities and are therefore willing to take a calculated risk that consumers will not be as affected by the potential clash between promoting sports gambling and providing media coverage of those same sports,” Shapiro says. . “I certainly think the credibility of a media organization can be called into question if they are part of these partnerships and also report on issues related to sports gambling.”
For broadcast networks, betting links add a revenue stream that works in synergy with live and pre-game betting. “Sports gambling is a complementary activity to the core product, making it ideal for use on a second screen,” says Shapiro. “What we saw in our research is that individuals are still traditionally fans of a team, but they are clearly consuming at a higher level: they consume more games, consume games for a longer period of time, the more they consume. involved in gambling.”
More research needs to be done, Shapiro adds. “Are sports fans who gamble more interested in watching parts of games rather than games in their entirety? Are they more interested in the beginning of a game or the end of a game? Are they more interested in players than real teams? I think this is the next phase in studying the impact of gambling on sports.”
It is not difficult to imagine algorithm-driven future scenarios. Maybe you’re watching your baseball team on television and they’re down four runs heading into the ninth inning. You’re about to switch out, but then an enticing in-game betting promotion pops up on the screen. You pick up your phone or remote control, place the bet and keep watching: profit for the broadcaster, the betting company and the competition, regardless of the final score.