Former FS1 and WFAN host Craig Carton is calling for ESPN to divest their interest in ESPN BET. This comes within days of the FBI arrests of Portland Trailblazers head coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier.
ESPN’s conflict of interest
ESPN was heavily criticized for how they covered the story, or the lack thereof on the topic, as well as the conflict of interest in being objective in a subject like this, considering that they have a partnership with ESPN BET.
As the story broke on Thursday’s edition of Get Up on ESPN, Mike Greenberg was reacting to the news, as the network removed a graphic promoting ESPN BET in real-time as the discussion was happening.
The situation hits close to home for Carton, who served his entire three and a half years sentence in prison, a halfway house, and ultimately to home confinement following his arrest for securities and wire fraud related to gambling issues.
Carton sounds off
Carton stated on Friday’s edition of The Craig Carton Show, “ESPN needs to divest immediately from ESPN Bet, and here’s why. The NFL owns a piece of ESPN, meaning by default, they own a piece of the sportsbook. Well, you can’t have it both ways, because if the NFL benefits from you losing your wager, then they’re incentivized to control the outcome of games because it means more money in their pockets.”
He added, “Meaning they have a financially vested interest now in you losing whatever wager you make on NFL games. Meaning it’s more likely for someone to say, ‘Hey, if there’s a gazillion dollars on Team X to cover, it’s in our best interest that they don’t cover. Make sure the referees call a game a certain way.’ Now, I’m taking liberties there, of course, but that’s the problem. When you want people to never question your integrity, you can’t own a piece of a sportsbook, and they do.”
Carton didn’t stop there either, also stating, “Number two, if you’re an on-air personality at ESPN, you should not be allowed to market picks or suggest people follow your picks because as an employee of now the NFL, you have access to inside information. Your employer does better when they make more money, giving you a chance to make more money. So you’re now vested in people following your pics and losing.”
Do ESPN and the NFL own a sportsbook?
While Carton makes some fair points, there are a few things that need to be cleared up from his comments. Carton refers to the NFL’s 10% ownership stake in ESPN, but that has not received regulatory approval yet from the FCC.
Secondly, ESPN does not own ESPN BET, as it is actually owned by Penn Entertainment. The agreement with Penn is a branding deal, as Penn is paying $1.5 billion to license the ESPN brand for 10 years, and provide ESPN with $500,000,000 in stock options. So contrary to Carton’s comments, ESPN and the NFL both do not own a sportsbook.
With that said though, as long as ESPN and Penn Entertainment are working together, then it is within the best interest of ESPN and the NFL for ESPN BET to succeed. There is a belief among many that the deal between ESPN and the NFL is already enough of a conflict of interest, and adding the involvement of ESPN BET to the equation could be seen as over-the-top, and bad optics at the very least.
