With nearly every sports team and league looking to partner with a sports betting provider, Mike Francesa noted how improbable that might have seemed even a short while ago.
Francesa opened his mailbag version of The Mike Francesa Podcast with a question about sports leagues embracing gambling as heartily as they have.
“It is one of the great reversals of all time. When you realize how adamantly that the NFL fought gambling for years. Pete Rozelle detested gambling. There’s the old remark Rozelle said at one of the Super Bowl press conferences that only two-percent of our fans wager, and the late Beano Cook had the great line ‘Well they all live on my block’. We know what nonsense that is.
“Now, because this was something where there were dollars to be made, the owners rushed in to bankroll these companies in many regards. And be partners with these companies. They are partners with these companies. They aren’t just grudgingly saying ‘Ok, we’ll let you be sponsors’ or something. They are partners now in these companies. It is one of the great about faces of all time. And it shows it’s all about the buck. If there’s a way to make a buck, they’ll find a way to make anything work.”
The former WFAN host said he believes sports franchise owners will someday lobby to make it legal to place sports bets inside stadiums to ensure fans continue to buy tickets and attend sporting events.
Francesa made his comments on the BetRivers Network, a digital content platform operated by a sports betting company.
