ESPN Bet
It's gross, obviously, but there are some interesting comparisons to games.ESPN has a a huge stake in online gambling now, and ESPN programming is the Trojan horse to get you involved. The ESPN Bet program was originally showing on the ESPN sub-channels, but now it's on ESPN at times, and it will become more and more prominent.
It reminds me of every game that's ever had microtransactions.
One microtransactions creeped into games, they rapidly became all that mattered to big publishers. Game content was designed to push you to buy additional content, and the microtransaction revenue numbers were what guided future development.
It's the same thing with ESPN. Now that they're an online sportsbook, nothing else matters. Every scrap of ESPN content is going to have only one goal: push you to bet. The revenue numbers from the gambling operation are going to 100% determine which sports get covered and how.
It's depressing, and there's no way to stop it.
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