Weekly Roundup – January 9th, 2024

"The North Carolina Sports Betting Committee met on Thursday for the first time in the year that sports betting will come to the state.
The committee originally hoped to have sports betting up and running before the Super Bowl, but that will no longer happen. Officials now have until June 14 to figure everything out but are aiming to get things running before then.
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On Thursday, they announced the seven operators who have already applied for mobile sports betting licenses. Bet MGM, Draft Kings, ESPN BET, Fanatics, and Fanduel to name a few."

"ESPN and the NCAA have agreed to an 8-year media rights deal, extending a run for college sports that began in 1979 when the all-sports cable network was in its infancy.
The pact, which takes effect September 1, was valued at $920 million in multiple media reports. ESPN declined to comment on the financial terms when contacted by Deadline.
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Men’s championships covered by the deal include soccer, football (FCS, DII & DIII), cross country, water polo, indoor track & field, swimming & diving, wrestling, ice hockey, gymnastics, fencing, volleyball, lacrosse, outdoor track & field, tennis, baseball and basketball (including DII semifinals & DIII semifinals and championship). Women’s championships include soccer, field hockey, volleyball (including DII & DIII), cross country, indoor track & field, swimming & diving, basketball (including DII & DIII), ice hockey, bowling, gymnastics, fencing, beach volleyball, lacrosse, outdoor track & field, tennis, softball, and water polo."

"Inaccurate reporting during the free-agency saga of MLB superstar Shohei Ohtani in December again put on full display the slippery slope that exists between sports journalism and the sports betting industry.
Ultimately inaccurate information reported by two respected baseball writers shifted World Series odds on the Toronto Blue Jays, including intel from a reporter working for a league-owned network.
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With professional sports leagues taking millions in sports betting partnership dollars, experts believe safeguards must be implemented to ensure integrity exists in both the sports journalism and sports betting industries.
“The Ohtani situation shows the tightrope that leagues are walking when it comes to balancing news reporting and commercial relationships. Both of which are essential aspects of leagues’ business models,” gaming legal expert John Holden told LSR.
“It’s going to be important that the leagues continue to ensure not only that these two areas remain separate (which they are), but that it is clear to the public, and the public believes, they are being kept separate. The Ohtani situation is only the latest in a string of similar-type incidents where reporting, either right or wrong, moves markets.”

"GroupM, the large media-buying unit of European ad conglomerate WPP. is launching a group that aims to make the process of buying and placing ads in streaming environments easier for marketers. GroupM has formed a partnership with media owners Disney, Roku, NBCUniversal and YouTube, along with ad-tech firms including KERV, BrightLine; and Telly. This consortium aims to press for new advertising formats on streaming services, which attract a coterie of viewers who are eager to avoid commercials as much as possible, and then will urge for standardized measurement elements that can be used no matter the platform on which the ad appears."

"A new poll indicates former US president Donald Trump is gaining ground among Latino voters, wiping out incumbent Joe Biden’s lead among the crucial, but diverse, voting bloc.
A USA Today and Suffolk University survey showed Trump was ahead with 39% support among Latino voters surveyed, compared with Biden’s 34%, signaling a slump since 2020, when Biden garnered 65% of the approval from Latino voters.
The data also highlights a broader trend of decreasing support for Biden among various key demographic groups, including young voters. The decline in support among Latinos is seen as a canary in the coalmine for Democrats, signaling potential challenges in retaining a key part of the electoral coalition that built Biden’s election victory in 2020."

"Edison Research’s latest findings reveal a significant trend in digital audio consumption: binge-listening. According to their Q3 2023 report, 77% of U.S. weekly podcast listeners aged 13 and above have consumed multiple episodes of a podcast in a single sitting.
Key findings show that Fiction podcast fans have an incredibly high binge-listening rate of 93%. True Crime podcasts also have some of the highest one-sitting consumption rates, given the cliff-hanger nature of the genre.
Conversely, listeners of News or Technology podcasts are less likely to engage in this behavior, although the percentages for these genres – 73% and 72%, respectively – still highlight the overall high engagement of podcast listeners."