Now The NBA Wants Federal Oversight For Betting

This is funny. A day after news of new NBA TV rights deals comes out, the league quietly pushes for federal gambling frameworks, which would undoubtedly impact marketing and advertising spends on the very networks that are paying to broadcast the games.

$76 Billion from a collective of TV deals and, BOOM, lets get the feds involved in gambling oversight.

Is Adam Silver trying to bookend the regulation of online sports betting in the U.S.?

It's a lukewarm push at the movement, but things have shaken out nearly perfectly for the Association:

Step 1: be an early advocate of legalized gambling

Step 2: maximize partnerships and sponsorship

Step 3: negotiate massive TV rights deal, undoubtedly supported by large influx of gambling cash

Step 4: OK, maybe we should slow things down to maintain integrity of the game

In short, inflate the market, cash in, then de-risk.

Agreed, this is not a full page op-ed in the NY Times from Silver, but the CYA process is beginning. It’s only a matter of time before the NFL and MLB join the chorus of federal intervention. To be clear, the feds getting involved in the gambling industry is NOT good a thing. Increased hands in the pot will kill all innovation and growth.

I would normally say the off-shore books will be the big winner, but states have begun to look at ways to turn off that faucet.

I’ll say this— I had Sixers President Scott O’Neil on my podcast in around 2014, and he was plugged into the NBA talking points, obviously. He mentioned then that legal gambling was a near certainty. 3 years out. Around then, Silver did his op ed. My guess is the deputy commissioner is prescient in the same way O’Neil was back then— 3 years from now this may happen.

Here’s how I would expect it to shake out: lobbyists for BIG GAMBLING will have a say and force feds to concurrently go after offshore books (probably through payment ramps) at the same time, so at least the regulated books can’t lose. Every state will want its most conservative sticking point covered in regulation. Meaning you’ll have an environment with limited marketing abilities, no competition, and very little room for innovation. ie BORING

And guess what continues to stay on the sidelines? Online casino growth.

You know what they say Kyle…..give a man $4 billion to spend and watch him turn it into complete chaos…..or something like that. PENN’s Jay Snowden appears to have struck again.

As you know, I am very modest and take no pride in being right after the fact. None. Zero. Really modest guy. With that in mind, I present to you my Tweet from August 9, 2023:

Somehow, ESPN Bet has gone LESS WELL than expected. It is 5th place in Ohio!

Sadly, we are familiar with massive stock dives similar to PENN going from $130 to $17. Ultimately, the biggest winner here is Jay Snowden and his comp plan that appears to be the size of your ego.

The losers are of course PENN shareholders. Earnings&More positioned the Hard Rock as a likely suitor for PENN, which makes sense. Hard Rock has not done much outside of Florida and is sitting on a pile of cash.

I’m not qualified to speak on the synergies of their land-based efforts, but it seems to me both Hard Rock and Penn lack the digital DNA to be relevant against DraftKings, FanDuel, and perhaps Fanatics… which has the digital DNA but could use some gambling DNA. Hmmmmmmmmmm.

I have two views on this:

View 1: Gambling regulators are going to have a difficult time getting their head around “video influencers”, whether they be Twitch streamers or ESPN hosts. It’s so hard to police the fire hose of spoken and filmed content.

View 2: Regulators need to lighten up. Yes, ESPN’s name is on a gambling app. No, every ESPN talking head who appears on their air shouldn’t need to memorize the Massachusetts Gaming Commission’s Rules and Regulations 205 CMR 256. It was an offhand comment and a joke.

I am shocked that the Massachusetts Gaming Commission is reviewing this “incident”. What happens if they decide to take action? Would each state with legal online sports betting follow suit with a fine against PENN?

The REAL problem here is that gambling is the rare industry that attracts attention from the GOP and Democrats for all of the wrong reasons. Republicans love the “click a mouse, lose your house” concerns and the Dems see a big cash grab.

Things will not be getting easier for sportsbook and casino operators.

Yeah but everything is on mobile these days. Perhaps it should be “tap a thumb, lose your bum.” Maybe I’ll be a political propagandist.

Tap a screen, lose your dreams…..I call copyright!

You win.

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