Sports Betting Promises Big Changes for RSNs Regional sports networks are positioned to take advantage of new opportunities By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Tuesday, July 16, 2019 - 10:00 am
Print This Story
Story Highlights
The U.S. sports-betting landscape is in the midst of a radical transformation following the 2018 Supreme Court decision that allowed sportsbooks across the country. Eight states currently allow sports betting, and another five are poised to allow it. And, although 18 states have rejected gambling legislation, there is plenty of interest among the others.
Sports betting has moved from taboo to mainstream, said Shawn Oleksiak, VP/EP, live events, NBC Sports Philadelphia. It's here, it's not going away, and it's big money.
The questions facing the industry are numerous, but there are some key things broadcast networks looking to be successful will need to address. Many of those things were addressed during a sports-gambling panel at the recent SVG RSN Summit in Denver (Colorado voters will vote on the matter in November). Here's a look at advice and observations offered.
Start Your Strategic Conversations Early
Oleksiak said his team has been discussing how to approach gambling-related content on a daily basis since 2018. Serving three states - New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware - that have passed gambling legislation, the network wanted to make sure it was ready.
From left: STATS' Aaron Charlton, NBC Sports Philadelphia's Shawn Oleksiak, and VSiN's Stephan Shelanski at SVG's RSN Summit in Denver
The result is a new viewer experience that takes a clean feed of the telecast and adds graphics offering various sports-betting odds and events. It was rolled out for Philadelphia 76er regular-season and playoff games beginning in March.
We also had separate talent and, for the entire game, added graphics like the over/under, the spread, and others during each quarter, Oleksiak said.
The chemistry of the talent matters, and great content will be very important. It needs to be fun, accurate, and timely, and things like latency are going to be a big issue to be overcome.
The tone of the talent has to be that the game is a backdrop that can't be ignored or disrespected, Oleksiak advised. They are still doing a game, and the storylines will change every play.
Stephan Shelanski, EVP, distribution and strategy, VSiN (Vegas Stats & Information Network), discussed VSiN's efforts as, currently, the only dedicated 24-hour live sports-betting channel. Veteran sports broadcaster Brent Musburger hosts a three-hour show Monday to Friday that embraces sports betting and leverages his decades of experience.
A lot of people watched football and liked to bet on sports, Shelanski said, but Brent saw they wanted more info and wanted to launch a channel that would give people who are interested in sports betting all of the data and analytics they would want. And our studio is in Las Vegas at a 24-hour sportsbook, so it's like CNBC being on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. It gives us access to talent like the guys who are the originators of the betting lines, and they can explain why the spread was the way it was and where the money is going.
He gave one bit of advice: avoid touts and focus instead on information and statistics that can help bettors make more-informed bets. Often, touts are simply selling their own picks, and the goal is to make sure you build a relationship with viewers that increases their trust in the talent, who delivers honest, timely, and unbiased information.
RSNs Are Poised To Lead the Industry
National sports networks are offering sports-gambling programs, but, with betting still not legal across the entire nation, those efforts have been limited. However, an RSN whose core audience is in a market with legalized gambling is primed to exploit new opportunities.
Regional sports networks are in a wonderful position to tailor content to the fan base, said Shelanski. On a regional basis, there is so much activity and more passion for sports betting. And then, you can tailor things like the line in your region and take advantage of that. There is great upside.
In terms of programming strategies Shelanski said that bettors are always wanting to look forward and to the next game.
They aren't too interested in dwelling and seeing highlights, he said. They want as much information they can get and as early as they can get it. And they also want the first shot at things like football lines when they are announced on a Sunday, as there are opportunities there before the lines adjust as bets come in. It's very similar to a stock market where sharp bettors can glean information.
Be Sure To Meet the Needs of Both Pros and Joes'
One challenge is figuring out how to produce a broadcast that teaches the vernacular (terms like over/under, point spread, and push) to sports-betting newcomers but doesn't turn off the seasoned sports bettor. Lower-third graphics can go a long way towards quickly educating the newbie without losing the experts. And the tone of the talent and the excitement they bring to the broadcast can make both pros and joes feel comfortable.
Sportradar's Steve Byrd: You need to make the programming as broad as possible and have to be on top of everything for pros. That can get very complicated, but you need to educate the average bettor as well.
Steve Byrd, head of global strategic partnerships, Sportradar, noted that serving both requires a fine balance.
You need to make the programming as broad as possible and have to be on top of everything for pros, as they will catch you if you get something wrong, he said. You have to be on your game but also broadly appealing for people who are just starting. You need to go very deep. That can get
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
31/08/2025
Legrand | AV, a global specialist and industry leader in audiovisual solutions, returns to CEDIA Expo 2025, taking place Sept. 4-6 in Denver, with a powerful li...
31/08/2025
Global media technology company Backlight will unveil new capabilities in its Iconik, Wildmoka, and Zype product lines at IBC2025 (booth #1.D09), September 12 1...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
Sports Betting Promises Big Changes for RSNs Regional sports networks are positioned to take advantage of new opportunities By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director 
