Rick Pitino coached Terry Rozier during the combo guard’s college career at Louisville. So it’s no surprise that the now-St. John’s head coach has his own thoughts on the sports gambling scandal that led to the Miami Heat guard’s arrest last month.
Appearing on Dan Dakich Unfiltered earlier this week, Pitino reacted to the charges against Rozier, in which he has been accused of participating in an illegal sports betting scheme using insider information. And while noting the prevalence of sports gambling in today’s society, the 73-year-old singled out ESPN for its role in propping up the industry through promotional practices.
“I don’t like these prop bets where players get so many rebounds, so many assists, so many steals. I don’t think that’s good for the game,” Pitino said. “But you know, everybody says it’s bad. ESPN will be on TV, and they’re arguing over these things happening. But let’s break away now for FanDuel, let’s break away for MGM. So it’s not the best marketing tool for stopping it.”
If Pitino thinks that’s bad, then just wait until he finds out about ESPN Bet, the ESPN-branded sportsbook that the network opted to remove a banner for in the middle of a segment covering the breaking news of Rozier’s arrest. In the weeks since, the Worldwide Leader in Sports has announced that it will remove its name from the Penn Entertainment sportsbook on Dec. 1, bringing an end to what was originally supposed to be a 10-year deal after just two years.
ESPN, however, isn’t leaving the sports gambling space altogether, as the network has already announced a new wide-ranging sponsorship deal with DraftKings, which will go into effect on the same day the Penn agreement is now set to expire. For better or worse, the reality is there’s simply too much endorsement money available for companies like ESPN to pass up, even if it leads to critics like Pitino occasionally pointing out its potential conflict of interest.