Disney, ESPN gambling partnership with Penn is unholy
Well, well, well, look who is diving headfirst into the gambling business.
It’s none other than the “family-friendly” Walt Disney Co. and it’s designated bookie ESPN.
In case you missed it, in a troubling deal announced earlier this week, casino owner Penn Entertainment is reportedly paying Disney for the exclusive rights to put the ESPN name on Penn’s existing sports-betting app. The app will be known as “ESPN Bet” and will go into effect this fall in the 16 legalized betting states where Penn Entertainment is licensed.
Can you say hypocrisy?
Can you say conflict of interest?
Can you say unholy alliance?
Let’s start with the hypocrisy of Disney, which has been using its massive political and financial clout for years to keep the palatial casino gambling hotels out of our state in order to protect the Mouse’s own multi-billion-dollar theme park and hotel business in Central Florida.
Disney always argued that casino gambling in Florida would taint our state’s family-friendly reputation, and now Disney itself is going into the gambling business with a casino company to bring sports betting to every possible iPhone across the country.
Disney subsidiary ESPN getting involved in the gambling business is even more eyebrow-raising. I’ve often said ESPN is the major sports influencer and opinion-maker in this country. In many ways, the four-letter network dictates what fans watch, what they talk about and, now, what they bet on.
ESPN broadcasts sporting events, it reports on sporting events and now the company is going to have its own betting app (via Penn Entertainment) to set the lines on sporting events. You don’t think ESPN can move the betting lines based on the information they choose to report (or not report) on an upcoming game? I’m not saying they would do it. I’m just saying they could do it. And that, my friends, is a massive conflict of interest.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not against sports betting. I think Florida has frittered away billions of dollars over the last few years by not legalizing sports betting and taxing the bejabbers out of it. However, I think it’s disturbing that “family-friendly” Disney and the country’s premier sports network ESPN are now nothing more than high-priced sports bookies.
Coming soon: Mickey Mouse himself smoking a cigar, wearing a fedora and standing at Cinderella’s Castle explaining to dad in a Don Corleone voice how he can win back the family’s entry fee to the park by simply hitting the Magic Kingdom Featured Parlay of the Day.
Walt Disney himself once told us, “If you can dream it, you can do it.”
Who knew he was talking about hitting a five-team teaser on the ESPN betting app?
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Last word: In honor of my big brother James (we called him Moochie) who passed away earlier this week: “The happiest days of my youth were when my brother and I would run through the woods and feel quite safe.” — Rachel Weisz
Email me at [email protected]. Hit me up on Twitter @BianchiWrites and listen to my Open Mike radio show every weekday from 6 to 9:30 a.m. on FM 96.9, AM 740 and HD 101.1-2
