You knew this was coming.
The entire sporting world was rocked Thursday morning when it was announced that the FBI arrested Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier as part of a sweeping federal probe into sports betting and an illegal poker ring with ties to organized crime.
The news dominated the airwaves all morning, including on ESPN’s “Get Up,” the worldwide leader’s breakfast TV show.
But in a sign of the state of sports these days, when sports betting ads are ubiquitous and inescapable, ESPN had a promo for its sportsbook, ESPN Bet, on the screen as the panel discussed the NBA scandal.
Adding to the absurdity of the situation was the fact that the graphic was present, in the lower-third of the screen, during a segment of the show when host Mike Greenberg was outlining how much the sporting landscape has changed since PASPA was overturned in 2018.
The graphic was taken down during Greenberg’s spiel, in which he was trying to be upfront about the potential hypocrisy of covering the scandal while also working for a company that has gone all-in on sports betting in the past few years.
Like many other sporting conglomerates, ESPN has made no bones about joining the sports betting boom.
Greenberg was trying to nod to that as he kicked off a serious discussion about the shadowy side of betting, but it was still quite the look to have the promo on screen as he was explaining how gambling used to be taboo.
Follow noti.group’s latest on the gambling scandal rocking the NBA:
“[Sports gambling] was something that leagues stayed far away from. It was something that networks like ESPN stayed away from,” Greenberg noted. “Those days are obviously long behind us.
“…We put this all out there as a preamble because it might be in the back of people’s minds, and we acknowledge that this is a different time and place.”
The intention was honorable, and there’s no way the longtime host could have known there was a promo advertising a “Bet $10, get $100 in bonus bets” on the screen during his genuine acknowledgment, but the clip now serves as an unfortunate reminder of the state of things in sports these days.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
