The multi-billion dollar deal between ESPN and Penn Entertainment raised plenty of eyebrows in the sports media world last week. One writer that couldn’t help but take notice was NBC’s Peter King.
In his Football Morning in America column on Monday, King commended Vox’s Peter Kafka’s column about the story highlighting Disney’s history of opposing gambling.
“It’s a striking about-face for Disney CEO Bob Iger, who spent years insisting that his company should avoid anything to do with gambling,” Kafka wrote.
King credited Kafka for his blunt headline: “Disney used to hate gambling. Now it’s doing a $2 billion sports betting deal.” He also noted ESPN used to be a part of Disney’s carefully curated, family-friendly image.
“ESPN is like so many companies: virtuous until you see how much money can be made by being un-virtuous,” King wrote.
As a company, Disney has a history of shunning gambling. When it entered the cruise business in 1995, Disney made a point of not having casinos, an industry staple, on board any of its ships.
ESPN has embraced sports betting since the Supreme Court ruled that states could decide whether or not to legalize the practice for themselves. Previous Disney CEO Bob Chapek made no secret of his desire to launch a partnership like the one the company has now with Penn.
ESPN is far from the only network to do such a thing. Plenty of networks and leagues launched official gambling partnerships. It lead King to a simple conclusion.
“In 10 years, Gamblers Anonymous will have more people to counsel than Alcoholics Anonymous.”
