Everywhere you look as a sports fan these days, gambling is there. And after a new deal that will see ESPN license\u00a0NFL RedZone from the NFL as part of a wide-ranging new partnership, former ESPN host Katie Nolan worries that\u00a0RedZone will be the latest property to succumb to the betting sharps and the degenerates.<\/p>\n
While many could argue that\u00a0RedZone has always existed for bettors and fantasy football managers, Nolan wants the industry to be careful about whether it leaves any room for non-gamblers to continue to enjoy sports.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they want to make a\u00a0gambling RedZone that, like, fully leans into what it could be, go for it,\u201d she said in an appearance this week on\u00a0the SI Media Podcast<\/a>. \u201cBut keep this one separate. Because there are just some people, I think, who just want to know all the action that happens without having to have six TVs.\u201d<\/p>\n While the NFL will maintain editorial control of\u00a0RedZone<\/a> as part of its equity deal with ESPN<\/a>, a large part of the agreement is centered on betting and fantasy content. Regardless of what commissioner Roger Goodell says<\/a>, it is not crazy to imagine a world in which ESPN works with the NFL to nudge RedZone further in the direction of its bettor audience.<\/p>\n For Nolan,\u00a0RedZone is a great way to keep up with an NFL Sunday, whether that be for her job in sports media or to keep tabs on her friends and family\u2019s favorite teams. If the show became catered to bettors, it could alienate the average fan like her.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want to have to feel like I\u2019m missing something,\u201d Nolan explained. \u201cAnd RedZone always makes you feel like, throw this on and Scott Hanson\u2019s not going to let you miss something. Anything that you need to know, even if it\u2019s a goofy catch that happened or \u2018look at this, somebody did this, I think this could be catch of the year,\u2019 they\u2019ll show you. No matter where it is on the field. I know the name is\u00a0RedZone, but they keep you [updated] on all the things that are happening at the same time. It\u2019s perfect for that.\u201d<\/p>\n Everything from podcasts to live watchalongs to game broadcasts to web articles to radio shows is funded by sportsbooks now. In just a half-decade since the Supreme Court legalized sports gambling, the sports industry has gone from avoiding it like the plague to embracing and being propped up almost entirely by it.<\/p>\n Nolan hopes that the powers that be will keep some aspects of sports fandom free from the grasp of gambling.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not that I think (RedZone) doesn\u2019t exist for that. I\u2019m saying gambling getting its f*cking hands on every single little piece of it is starting to annoy me,\u201d she said. \u201cBecause it\u2019s making me feel like I\u2019m missing out on part of sports. And I don\u2019t ever want to be bullied into gambling.\u201d<\/p>\n Beyond the irritation of being overwhelmed by gambling content as a sports fan, Nolan also worries that the simple hobby of being a sports fan is now driving people toward addictive behavior.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m fine with people gambling. I think when it comes to the actual product being consumed, I should not feel like if I don\u2019t do this in-game parlay, I\u2019m missing out,\u201d Nolan said. \u201cSports shouldn\u2019t be a pipeline to sports gambling. I think we can keep them separate.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Everywhere you look as a sports fan these days, gambling is there. And after a new deal that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,35974,514,28889,35975,82],"class_list":["post-53331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-katie-nolan","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-redzone","tag-si-media-with-jimmy-traina","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}