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The strange situation sports media finds itself in nba gambling scandal This was put on full display Thursday when a famous basketball podcaster lamented how prop bets were an “absolute threat” — right after urging his listeners to sign up for a sports betting app so they could “customize players’ props.”
Zach Lowe, a veteran sports writer who now hosts a twice-weekly podcast for The Ringer, Thursday’s episode opened With an advertisement reading from the show’s sponsor – gambling website FanDuel.
“Welcome to the Zach Lowe Show presented by FanDuel,” Lowe said. “This NBA season, put the power of the sportsbook in your hands with FanDuel’s ‘Your Way’. ‘Your Way’ lets you place bets you can’t get anywhere else. You can set up your own lines and customize player props, and you’ll find new odds in no time!”
Concluding the top-broadcast advertisement, Lowe urged his listeners to “download the FanDuel app” to place bets, and said that residents of a certain number of US states were ineligible.
Following approval from his event sponsor, Lowe then went to sports journalist David Purdum – who writes about gaming and sports betting for ESPN – to discuss. surprise arrests The FBI’s multi-year mafia-related gambling investigation involves Miami Heat star Terry Rozier and Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups. In total, 34 people were convicted and arrested by the federal government.
According to federal indictments, Billups – a Basketball Hall of Famer and five-time NBA All-Star – acted as a so-called “face card” in a poker game run by the underground mob to help lure wealthy participants. The “fish” that Billups had attracted had no chance of winning, as the game used rigid poker chip trays, card-shuffling machines, and even special contact lenses that could read playing cards.
Rozier, meanwhile, has been accused of participating in a game-fixing conspiracy that involved placing prop bets on his playing time and availability. In one instance, according to investigators, Rozier shared inside information that he would take himself out of the game after only nine minutes, prompting his co-conspirators to bet on the under and win $200,000.
Meanwhile, just a minute after asking his viewers to sign up for FanDuel’s prop-betting features, Lowe lamented that player props were ruining pro basketball.
“We have two separate indictments today. I’ve read them both. No. 1 charges a whole group of people — including Terry Rozier — with an insider betting scheme involving prop bets in the NBA,” Lowe told Purdum. “You and I talked about prop bets about a year ago, about Jonte Porter, about how these prop bets are an absolute menace.”
Porter was banned by the NBA last year for “disclosing confidential information to sports bettors, limiting his participation in one or more games for betting purposes, and betting on NBA games.” He would later be convicted on federal charges in the betting scam. finally admitted his guilt For conspiracy to commit wire fraud. He is scheduled to be sentenced in December.
With FanDuel graphics being prominently displayed in broadcasts of his show along with their sponsor advertising, Lowe acknowledged his role in promoting the sports betting industry, which has become ubiquitous in sports leagues and media organizations since widespread legalization across the country.
“Everyone is in cahoots with the sports betting companies… we’re all in on this,” he said during Thursday’s broadcast.
Meanwhile, like Washington Post’s ben strauss saw“Nowhere is this tightrope walking more evident than at ESPN.”
Shortly after news of the indictments broke Thursday morning, ESPN host Mike Greenberg appeared stunned and told the sports network’s viewers that he would be busy covering the scandal all day.
Greenberg declared, “Sports gambling… was something the league stayed away from.” “This was something that networks like ESPN would stay far away from. Those days are clearly behind us.”
The network removed the on-screen promo by the time Greenberg finished his thoughts. However, screenshots of the graphic went viral on social mediaaccording to Washington PostThe ESPN Bet promo disappeared during Greenberg’s comments because “the show’s producers were trying to be discreet when discussing a sensitive topic.”
Making the situation even more awkward, e.g. pointed towards the terrible announcementGreenberg has close ties to the network’s sports betting system.
“ESPN is to pay Penn Entertainment $1.5 billion over 10 years under an ESPN Bet licensing agreement that launches in November 2023,” the site reported. “Greenberg is one of the network’s primary faces for the sportsbook, appearing in several ESPN Bet commercials and having Odds Boost named after him.”