ESPN’s business reporter may be setting up shop elsewhere very soon. A report from CNN’s Brian Stelter indicates that sporting actuary Darren Rovell may take his talents to a sports betting network, as the legalization of nationwide sports wagering continues to have interesting effects on the landscape.
Rovell got his start at ESPN, where he was a writer out of college. But he became the industry name he is today while working at CNBC. Rovell covered sports branding deals and had a distinctly business interest in the games rather than in the box scores or personalities of the players. One of the first reporters to recognize the value of covering The Brand, he changed the way sports fans look at how sports works.
Rovell is a sports business reporter who often rubs people the wrong way with how he covers sports. He’s also willing to put himself into positions where people can poke fun at him. But he’s clearly a smart guy and now it seems he’s betting big on, well, gambling, and how it will impact the sports landscape in the future.
I hear ESPN sports business reporter @darrenrovell is leaving ESPN… He's close to a deal with sports betting startup @ActionNetworkHQ to cover the business of betting and help with content strategy…
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) November 26, 2018
You would think Rovell knows the sports landscape better than anyone — it’s his job to, after all — so moving on to another position isn’t that much of a surprise. If Rovell were covering himself there would probably be some numbers attached to the move and how it will impact the value of his personal brand. But that’s more his thing than ours. What Rovell jumping to a sports betting website means more than anything is that he sees huge potential in covering sports from that perspective, and it probably better aligns with how he sees the industry than the traditional fan.
What’s caught Rovell so much heat in the past is his view of sports that often feels completely impersonal. It seems from the outside like the people in the business are not as important to Rovell as the dollar signs they come to represent. It’s a brutal economy of numbers over people, and in that way covering sports betting is a perfect vehicle for what he does best.
