Bill Simmons Rips ESPN For Entering The Gambling Space Too Late
ESPN has finally entered the gambling space. ESPN struck a deal with Penn Entertainment. However, Bill Simmons thinks it’s too little too late. Simmons, a former ESPN employee, blasted ESPN for entering the gambling space way too late.
“They should have been in the forefront,” Simmons told host Jimmy Traina. “They should have bought DraftKings. They should have been on the ground floor. They’re way late, and I really think they’ve handled it badly.”
I’m not a Simmons fan, but he’s not wrong. Years ago Bob Iger admitted that ESPN would never enter the gambling realm. He took his words back, obviously, but looked foolish doing it. ESPN would be in a far better spot had they taken gambling seriously on day one that it became legalized. Not sure what makes Iger so special but that was really, really dumb on his part.
There is enormous risk in this Penn deal for both parties. Most of the market share has already been gobbled up by DraftKings and FanDuel. Simmons’ network, The Ringer, is sponsored by FanDuel. Best case scenario, ESPN is shooting for third place. That’s a best case. No guarantee they even leap Caesars or MGM. That’s not even diving into the Penn side of things who lost an insane amount of money investing in Barstool.
In that same interview, criticized ESPN for entering fantasy football too late. He’s not wrong there either. They have absolutely no clue what they’re doing fantasy wise either and the only reason ESPN is relevant in that space is because of the work Matthew Berry did. And… he’s not even good at fantasy as we’re proving this year.
