The current contract between Adam Schefter and ESPN ends next summer. Although the Senior NFL Insider may be in the middle of some bad publicity right now, there will likely be no shortage of suitors if he hits the open market.
Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports reports that one of those likely suitors could be Caesars Sportsbook. He also says not to rule out FanDuel and DraftKings as potential landing spots for Schefter.
Caesars is getting aggressive in talent acquisition. The company already has two former ESPN stars on its roster: Kenny Mayne and Trey Wingo.
Both ESPN and Caesers declined to comment on McCarthy’s report. One source told him that ESPN will likely not let Adam Schefter get away so easily.
“ESPN absolutely wants to keep Schefty,” the said. “If you notice, they’ve been expanding his purview, even allowing him to dabble in NBA coverage if he wants.”
Sportsbooks have been very active in acquiring content creators. If Caesars does go after Adam Schefter, it would be the company’s first league insider. That would not be a new phenomenon though. Earlier this year, Action Network lured Brett McMurphy away from Stadium.
This is a moment plenty of reporters are paying attention to. McCarthy writes that Adrian Wojnarowski could also be on sportsbooks’ radars, and if Schefter leaves a network for a gambling company, it could spark a trend with other league insiders at other networks. All of that likely means there is more money on the table for reporters than there has ever been before. It is something BSM’s Ryan Glasspiegel predicted earlier this year, noting that while the trend could come with its own set of moral and even legal questions, it seems inevitable.
