ESPN and the sports betting business
The rise of the sports betting market is so sensational in the United States that the pay TV channel ESPN (The Walt Disney Company and Hearst Communications) has stopped considering the betting business as a mere possibility. It is now a priority. As one Disney executive put it, the issue has gone from being if ESPN could get into the sports betting business a... when occuŕ. ESPN would thus follow in DZAN's footsteps.
The betting industry is booming in the United States and presents record figures in the first months of the year. The ESPN network does not want to miss the opportunity and is studying creating its own betting space. ©Sung Shin/Unsplash
That communication is a business it shouldn't surprise anyone. There will be those who have a more purist vision of communication and information, like that German philosopher who wrote that the media, journalism in his time, are ends in themselves and not means for (read, the enrichment of) others.
The Internet didn't kill journalism, but it did mortally wound it. Newspapers have had to convert online and are barely surviving in a medium in which information is no longer a scarce commodity. A good sample is the sports media's interest in betting .
Marca is an example in our country with its own online operator Marca Apuestas . The problem is not the right to the free exercise of business, but the question of whether the information has ceased to be objective in order to feed the operator's predictions. It's a legitimate question. And this is what the German philosopher was referring to earlier. Private interests should not take precedence over the public right to objective and quality information.
Sports media can no longer live without betting
Brand operates with bets, although the Garzón legislation has restricted the space that betting occupies in the digital medium . These must be properly marked as sports betting information and it can only be accessed if you are over 18 years of age. It seems logical.
ESPN's interest in betting is not new. In fact, his relationship with gambling is, shall we say, intense . The daily podcast Daily Wager it informs about the most important events of the betting calendar. It regularly publishes odds and odds on the networks and maintains partnerships with digital platforms where the ESPN audience can place their bets. It also maintains a studio in Las Vegas in collaboration with Caesars Entertainment, and Disney, the owner of ESPN, owns a 6% stake in DraftKings, one of the leading digital operators in the United States.
But now ESPN wants to take a step forward and stop being the friendly network of the bookmakers to become part of the business. DZAN, the service of streaming deportivo internacional, he also wants to do the same . And it is that what sports betting promises in the United States is not little , as recently we could see in New York .
A Disney executive warned that people's opinion of sports betting has changed in recent years. Great part of his audience would see it as the most logical thing for ESPN to switch to betting . It's something everyone would be waiting for.
Whether this will take away some credibility from the sports network remains to be seen. The market is capricious and what it gives you it also takes away from you. And although the business is not without risks, the truth is that the opportunity presents itself now . It's now or never . ESPN seems to have it straight.
