Every so often, the sports media world experiences an extreme power shift. Different platforms rise and throw crazy money at talent, luring them away from more legacy brands.
Jared Carrabis leaving Barstool Sports for DraftKings signals we are right in the middle of one.
The insanely popular and very online baseball opinion personality tallies over 500,000 followers on Twitter and Instagram, and is ubiquitous during MLB season. Along with the likes of Jomboy and “Pitching Ninja,” Carrabis posts a trove of viral clips on a nightly basis, and is perhaps baseball’s most influential voice for a large subset of younger fans.
He cut his teeth blogging and podcasting about the Red Sox, producing a never-ending stream of content about the hometown nine.
Now DraftKings is betting that Carrabis will take his massive audience to their platform, where they hope to convert more diehard baseball fanatics into daily fantasy diehards. Many big-name sports books are chasing after top-tier talent, including FanDuel, which enjoys a six-year partnership with Audacy.
The trend gained steam when Brent Musburger left ABC and ESPN to join VSiN, a network dedicated to sports gambling news that broadcasts in the middle of the sports book at the South Point Hotel, Casino and Spa in Vegas. Known for slipping gambling references into his broadcasts, the change seemed to befit Musburger, who invited controversy several years ago for gawking at A.J. McCarron’s now-wife in the stands of a national championship game.
The movement exploded three years later when Penn National, a gaming company, purchased Barstool for $450 million. The iconic sports bro brand is firmly in the gaming business, even boasting its own sports book.
DraftKings is reportedly paying Carrabis a healthy sum of money to jump ship.
With sports betting legal in more than two dozen states (but not here!), gaming companies are partnering with leagues and teams and pelting viewers with advertisements during games. DraftKings and FanDuel are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on marketing, the Wall Street Journal reports.
A big part of that marketing strategy is to sign huge personalities. DraftKings also has a $50 million agreement for Dan Le Batard’s podcasts and hired Mike Golic to host a podcast; FanDuel signed a deal with Pat McAfee for a whopping $30 million annually; Caesars Sportsbook brought aboard ex-ESPNers Trey Wingo and Kenny Wayne.
Sports gaming platforms now constantly create content. Audacy’s BetQL Network, for example, has expanded into 26 markets.
The next turning point in this colossal shift could happen this summer, when Adam Schefter and Adrian Wojnarowski are free agents. It would be very enticing for a sports book to sign the premier NFL or NBA Insider and have him post scoops on their channels.
There could even be some sort of package: “Play with us, and receive exclusive injury updates from Schefter every Sunday morning before anybody else is even awake."
It will be several years before we find out if this experiment worked. In the meantime, expect the money to keep flowing — in all directions.
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Different kind of MLB lockout: The Washington Post wrote a revealing story this week detailing how many national baseball reporters unapologetically sided with the players during the MLB lockout. Maybe most notably, Jeff Passan referred to one of the owners’ offers as a “s— sandwich” during an ESPN podcast, prompting the WorldWide Leader to remove the audio.
There are a couple of explanations for this shift in coverage. The labor movement is regaining steam nationwide, including inside of newsrooms, where unionization efforts are now more prevalent. On top of that, younger reporters now cover the game. Their loyalties lie more with the players, who are the labor in this case, and not billionaire owners.
It’s a refreshing change for the most part, but sometimes this journalism veers into advocacy. For example, AP reporter Barry Bloom got excoriated by colleagues for tweeting that Max Scherzer arrived to one of the meetings in a Porsche.
MLB players enjoy more power than their peers in any other sport. And they’re obstinate. Inexplicably, they’re still pushing back against the pitch clock and other mechanisms that can improve the pace of play.
There may not always be two equal sides to a story. But the other point of view usually isn’t all wrong.
Another NFL broadcasting domino falls: Kirk Herbstreit will reportedly call Thursday night games for Amazon this season. Now the question is, who’s gonna work with him?
Amazon has long targeted Al Michaels, but his status is in limbo, due to the possibility of Joe Buck joining Troy Aikman at ESPN. Longtime media writer Jim Miller recently floated the possibility of ESPN and FOX pulling off a trade for Buck.
Herbstreit will continue calling college football on ESPN.
Another bidder always means more money for everyone. Jeff Bezos is doing all he can to push high-profile NFL analysts into eight figures.
The “cool” Calvin Ridley take: It’s always easy to point at Roger Goodell’s hypocrisy. Yes, it’s messed up that Calvin Ridley got suspended for one season for betting $1,500 on his team to win during a leave of absence, while Ray Rice only received six games for pummeling his now-wife in an elevator.
But that doesn’t mean Ridley’s actions are excusable, despite what members of the cool blue checkmark crowd may say. Leagues need to take a no-tolerance approach when it comes to players betting on games. Otherwise, the whole idea is ruined.
If you want to hammer Goodell, wait to see what happens with Stephen Ross. Anything less than a full-throated investigation is inexcusable.