A longtime ESPN producer who lost her brother to gambling addiction resigned from the network after 24 years due to its pivot into sports betting.
Nicole Noren—winner of multiple Emmy, Murrow, and Peabody awards—told the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) this week that ESPN’s business priorities have overtaken its journalistic responsibilities.
The breaking point, Noren said, was the sports network’s decision to license its name to the ESPN Bet app in 2023. “I was out,” Noren told CJR. “I’m not going to work for a gambling company and have blood on my hands.”
Nicole Noren appears at the Santa Barbara Film Festival in March 2022. She is now an independent filmmaker who is working with journalists, nonprofits, and public‑health groups on a new initiative aimed at educating young audiences about gambling addiction. (Image: Rebecca Sapp/Getty)
Noren’s objections were deeply personal. She detailed how gambling addiction devastated three generations of her family—her grandfather, father, and brother—describing a childhood spent inside sportsbooks rather than typical family spaces.
“I grew up in a sportsbook… dragged to Las Vegas in the ’80s and hanging out in the Hilton and Caesars sportsbooks,” she said. Her brother ultimately died homeless on a downtown Las Vegas sidewalk at age 36.
“Addiction dictated every part of our life,” she said.
Decades of Distance
For years, ESPN kept sports gambling at arm’s length, even after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the federal sports betting ban in 2018. But Noren said the network’s internal culture shifted dramatically as corporate leadership changed and gambling partnerships became increasingly lucrative.
She noted that investigative pitches examining gambling addiction or scrutinizing major betting operators were no longer welcome. “None of those stories was greenlit,” she said, adding that one investigative project designed to hold gambling operators accountable was “neutered” before airing.
The launch of ESPN Bet—which the network later abandoned in favor of a major partnership with DraftKings—convinced Noren that the sports media giant had crossed an ethical line. She argued that ESPN’s editorial independence steadily eroded as commercial interests took priority, accusing executives of “putting their heads in the sand” regarding addiction risks.
“They care more about their 401(k) than they care about journalism,” Noren said.
When a colleague showed her an ESPN interactive explainer on sports wagering that featured bright, cartoonish animations, Noren said it left her visibly shaken.
“It literally made me sick to my stomach,” she recalled. “We’re helping kids and young people figure out how to do something that could be incredibly detrimental to their health.”
ESPN Fires Back
ESPN firmly disputed Noren’s characterization of its newsroom operations. In a statement to sports media outlet Awful Announcing, the network stated that it “remains committed to journalism that serves sports fans, holds powerful interests accountable and earns our audience’s trust.”
ESPN sports gambling reporter David Payne Purdum also defended the network’s editorial record, noting publicly that he has consistently covered problem gambling and industry scandals “with support and encouragement” from senior editors.