(EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second of a three-part series on St. Bonaventure’s Dick Joyce Sports Symposium, held last Thursday afternoon at the Quick Center for the Arts/Rigas Family Theater. The final segment will be Thursday.)
ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — The most recent St. Bonaventure Dick Joyce Sports Symposium focused on a particularly timely subject.
The session was entitled Fast and Furious: The Evolving Business of Sports Media.
Last Friday’s piece dealt with “Cutting the Cord” and the number of consumers who are leaving cable television in favor of streaming services.
Today, the focus is on “Legalized Sports Betting.”
The panel was moderated by former Bona basketball star Donna Ditota, now an award-winning sports writer for the Syracuse Media Group.
Her sources were three SBU alums: Chris LaPlaca, ESPN Senior VP of Corporate Communications; Eric Fisher, U.S. Editor of Sports Business, Brian Matthews, NFL Senior Vice President of Media Sales and the final panelist was St. Bonaventure athletic director, Joe Manhertz.
On this particular subject, Manhertz offered only limited input because the discussion dealt mostly with pro sports.
Here are their individual responses chronologically as the subject unfolded:
MATTHEWS: “Gambling is legalized now, but it’s been around forever. In my opinion, the fact that it’s out so much in the open that, at least from the NFL perspective, we have multiple partners with Caesars, Draft Kings and Fan Duel. I would say there’s a big initiative to make sure legalized sports betting is done in a responsible way.
“I know people were feeling like they were being bombarded with commercials throughout the year. But you also saw, as the season went on, the Manning brothers (Peyton and Eli) and Archie (their dad) were doing responsible gambling types of initiatives … there’s a lot of programs that the NFL has held to make sure there’s responsible gambling.
“I came at it from the fact that this is now out in the open and done in a legalized way. “Back in the day when it was done through bookies and sort of an underground work, that was a little more dangerous. The way it’s set up now, if you’re a player from any league you’ll be flagged immediately. The stakes are so much higher, the contracts these players have, if they bet on one of those gamblinfg platforms, they’re going to get flagged. There’s ways around that, of course, but if they create an account and are betting on games, they’re going to get caught for the most part.”
FISHER: “There are partners that support the leagues with the data operations and they work with all these sports books. One of the key things that has arisen in the last couple of years is they have these entire integrity divisions, using machine learning and a lot of advanced computing power to look for this stuff and flag it when it arises.
“On the flip side, and you’re seeing this more and more with the guaranteed contracts in the NFL and certainly the other sports, the money is such that if they’re getting paid enough it takes away some of the temptation to participate in this because they should be making enough money both on and off the field.”
LaPLACA: “Fantasy has had that effect (of drawing viewers) for sure … people have been betting for a long time, underground, or what have you. So those folks are absolutely engaged sports fans and they’re going to watch whatever game they bet on. So we have seen that impact. Fantasy has absolutely demonstrated that people who have another reason to watch a game are very sticky and media networks and companies want stickiness and so do leagues and sponsors. And as long as it’s done in the right way, it can be a really good thing. I remember the very first meeting we ever had three or four years ago — sports betting is coming — and we were getting ready for that. But our chairman said, ‘If we’re going to do this, we’re going to lean in on responsible betting because we can’t be any place else but there. I have faith in the people running the different operations (at ESPN) to do the right thing and I guess we’ll see.”
MATTHEWS: “From the NFL perspective, national ads (for gambling) are six per game … you don’t go beyond that. Where it gets dicey, if I’m watching a game on WNBC in New York, there are also local ads that come into play. When hard alcohol (advertising) came in a couple of years ago, we’d only take three or four ads per broadcast. But all of us consume so much different media, if I’m watching a game and flip to another network and flip back and get a local break you’ll see more (gambling ads).
“Also, in the case of legalized sports betting partners, in this stage where states are just being approved — there are 30 right now — it’s all about customer acquisition. So in this first year where betting becomes legal, they’re going to try to get you into their system pretty early on. But once this becomes a little more mainstream you’re probably not going to see as much (advertising) as you do today.
(Thursday, escalating popularity of women’s sports)
