Sinclair Broadcasting to Benefit From Sports Betting

Sinclair Broadcasting's ownership of 21 regional sports networks will help the company to gain an instant foothold into the lucrative newly legalized sports betting industry in the US.

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Sinclair purchased the sports networks from Disney for $9.6 billion.

President and Chief Executive Officer Chris Ripley said Sinclair will be capitalizing on the new U.S. sports betting market, which is “a huge opportunity for this platform. The RSNs are ideally positioned in so many different ways to benefit from this mega-trend,” he said.

He told Reuters last week his company would like to potentially team up with Amazon to offer live sports, then ultimately integrate the sports wagering platform.

In addition to increased fan engagement and viewership, he expects a wave of new advertising dollars to come from what he thinks will be $1.5 billion to $2 billion of new ad revenue industry-wide “in short order,” from sportsbook operators and other companies marketing in the space.

Ripley also plans to eventually allow viewers to place bets right from their screens during live games, similar to how fans can wager in Europe now.

“If you’re interested in gaming, we’re going to add on extra stats, the ability to do prop bets in the game, pitch by pitch, play by play,” he said. “You can play along and wager while you watch.”

The in-game, on-screen wagers would be done in partnership with sportsbook operators, but Sinclair would not want to become a bookie itself.

“Our preliminary conclusion is that it doesn’t make sense to be the licensee and run the book,” he said.

Last week, Fox Sports announced a deal to partner with PokerStars parent company The Stars Group in a deal that would bring real money sports betting to households in states where the activity has been legalized.

Sinclair also owns 190 local television stations across the US.

- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com (Reuters was used for this article)