Launch of ESPN Bet Gives Penn Access to Unprecedented On-Air Promotion, Raises Ethics Questions for Network

On an earnings call earlier this month, Penn CEO Jay Snowden touted an addition to its app that will allow it to put bets recommended by ESPN talent front and center.

“We now have a featured bet on our home page which is fantastic in that we can start to drive behavior differently than we were in the past around some of the integrated betting options with ESPN — the personalities and same-game parlays,” Snowden said. “We can do that dynamically throughout a given day or weekend.”

What's the deal?

To protect editorial integrity and assuage concerns of gambling regulators who typically bar sportsbook employees from recommending bets, ESPN created guidelines around who can make picks on-air and promote them on ESPN Bet. Insiders, such as Adrian “Woj” Wojnarowski and Adam Schefter, are obvious hard passes. “SportsCenter” hosts Van Pelt and Elle Duncan, who will appear in an ESPN Bet ad campaign that breaks this week, are logical early choices to show up in picks promoted on the app. 

The bottom line:

The stakes are particularly high for Penn, which has committed to spend $150 million annually for the next 10 years advertising with ESPN and expects to spend about that amount on other channels, betting that the network’s unmatched megaphone will lift it from the bottom tier of the U.S. sportsbook pecking order.

Read: SBJ

Media Coverage For Women’s Sports Has Nearly Tripled

“We really set out to uncover the true percentage of coverage that women’s sports receives, understanding that the definition of coverage has changed with the advent and proliferation of digital and social media as well as streaming,” Thayer Lavielle, Executive Vice President of The Collective, the Women’s Division of Wasserman said in the report.

 The average share of sports media coverage across broadcasts, streaming, social media, and digital publications has risen to 15% for 2022, based on their report. In contrast, previous longitudinal insights have reported coverage averages landing at only 5.7% for the popular sports news show ESPN’s SportsCenter, and at 5.1% for TV news through 2019.

Read: Forbes

The NHL Leverages AI To Power Real-Time Content Access

Today’s sports fans aren’t waiting around for content. They want to see immersive and exclusive moments as soon as they happen.

The National Hockey League (NHL)’s Live Social Contributor (LSC) Program fuels this fandom. LSCs are mobile-first correspondents stationed at each arena who capture rinkside and behind-the-scenes “all-access” content for digital and social channels.

“Every second counts within the NHL’s Live Social Contributor Program. Fans want their content fast,” says Heidi Browning, the Chief Marketing Officer of the NHL.

To boost LSC content delivery speed and access, the NHL tapped Greenfly’s +AI Vision for the real-time automated analysis and tagging of these digital videos and photos—going beyond facial recognition and identifying Players and teams in the context of specific types of scenes.

Learn how AI helped NHL Players and prospects download 1605% more photos and videos year-over-year to share more unforgettable moments with fans—in seconds.

*Brought to you by Greenfly, the real-time digital content solution for 14 of the top 15 sports leagues in the world.

Netflix Takes a Swing at Live Sport

From Korean horror to Palestinian romance, Netflix covers every genre—almost. Among tens of thousands of hours of video on its servers, the world’s largest streaming platform has long ignored the category that draws bigger audiences to television than anything else: live sport.

That changed at 3pm on November 14th in Las Vegas with the Netflix Cup, a celebrity golf tournament which was streamed live to the company’s 250m subscribers. The unconventional show, featuring teams made up of professional golfers and Formula One racing drivers, was billed as a one-off. It may turn out to be a warm-up for something bigger.

Read: The Economist

Monumental, Owning Teams and a Network, Charts New Course for Sports TV

Zach Leonsis stared up at an unfinished wall in an unfinished two-story studio next to Capital One Arena and imagined the possibilities. Just a few months from now, there would be cameras and boom microphones and personalities breaking down the latest Washington Capitals and Wizards games in a space that would be the envy of regional sports television outlets everywhere.

“They’re running around the studio on TNT because it’s so big,” Leonsis said. “I wanted that major league quality feel.”

Read: Washington Post