Now that he’s no longer working at ESPN, Fox Sports radio host Colin Cowherd can be completely unfiltered in his opinions about his former employer—not that he hasn’t been critical of ESPN in the past. On Thursday, Cowherd, who was released by ESPN in July before he was scheduled to leave for Fox for making sweeping generalizations about Dominicans, peeled back the proverbial curtain on the World Wide Leader and its stance on gambling/fantasy sports. Or, more specifically, the stance of ESPN’s parent company, Disney. The launching point for Cowherd came from ESPN’s decision to do away with “Cover Alerts,” which would alert fans on point spreads for games as they happened.
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You can watch Cowherd’s full segment above, but here’s the meat of the monologue:
If I can be critical of ESPN, they have become incredibly reactionary over the last three or four years for a variety of reasons. They’re going to have 300 layoffs here. It’s incredibly sad. There are a lot of executives protecting their space and pensions, and they have become incredibly reactionary. But there are a lot of great people over there. But here’s the thing: Sports gambling isn’t going anywhere, but ESPN is in a very odd place with this because they wanted to buy DraftKings. This company [Fox] owns 10 percent of DraftKings. ESPN wanted to own 10 percent of DraftKings. They made a bid for it, Disney said ‘No you don’t.’ There is a struggle with that company, the former employer, right now about gambling. ESPN is owned by Disney and when you think of Disney you think of ‘Lion King’ and you think of ‘Frozen’ and you think of ‘Dancing with the Stars’ and you think of ‘Pocahontas’ and kids and theme parks. Their morning show ‘Mike and Mike in the Morning’—we used to call it ‘Mickey and Mickey in the Morning.’ It’s very Disney, it’s very safe, it’s very likable.
For all the criticism he invites, Cowherd is right about one thing: Gambling, especially relative to fantasy sports, isn’t going anywhere. With this niche being as big as it is—DraftKings and FanDuel are paying millions upon millions each to shove advertisements down your throat on the daily—there is an obvious impasse forming at ESPN and its parent company. It’s natural for anyone to want to get on the gambling/fantasy train and ride it straight into money town, but the interests of a parent company whose sole purpose of existence is to be family friendly can be a road block.
The whole notion of fantasy sports in the college arena is even trickier. The NCAA is taking a hard stance on college athletes using sites like FanDuel or DraftKings. College admins don’t want ads for either of those sites on ESPN’s SEC Network, either.
No media company in the sports world has the coverage or access that ESPN does. While that’s a good thing for ESPN, it can pose a problem when something as popular as gambling and fantasy meshes with something spun as pure and family-friendly.
(Via Sports Grid)
