Would Sports Betting Save US Newspapers?
from the there's-a-gamble dept
This one is from a few weeks back, but I just saw it. Apparently, Mort Zuckerman, owner of the NY Daily News has an interesting (and somewhat different) idea on how to save newspapers: have them be able to take sports bets via their websites. This isn't currently legal, but he thinks it would work:There is something that can be done, and the federal government ought to do it: allow sports betting on newspaper Web sites. That would save every newspaper in America. The New York Times.com could do it. Plenty of British papers do this; for them it's a crucial part of their net revenue stream. I know a major newspaper in London that makes $15 million a year from sports betting alone.I think it's a lot better of an idea than a paywall (though, Zuckerman likes the paywall idea, but tellingly notes, "I'll be the second or third to do it. Not the first."), but I'm not sure why a newspaper is any better at doing it than other sites. Perhaps because they have the sports reporting, but it's not clear how that's really unique to them. On top of that, given the way the US gov't treats online gambling as being something somewhat close to pure evil, combined with the powerful casino lobby, it's difficult to see this actually getting anywhere.
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Filed Under: business models, mort zuckerman, newspapers, sports betting
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That's why they would have a good shot at sports betting in my opinion.
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hmm?
I mean hey, I think the online ban is ridiculous, but this isn't a solution either really.
I'd read paper newspapers again if they started fact-checking, reporting on events without bias, and actually doing things the right way (you know, using their freedom of speech, fighting for the people, etc). However, that'll never happen and hasn't for years, so good riddance.
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Would only work if...
I can't imagine how this could be enforced as newspapers being the only ones allowed to take bets. If that was tried, other sites would spring up that barely meet whatever requirements need to be met to be considered a newspaper.
Newspapers have a natural advantage in that they are a traditional source of news about sports. However, do they have the ability to build and hold a community? History suggests that this is not something that they are good at.
In addition, if one area is generating most of the revenue, management is going to shift its resources into supporting that area. In the long term newspapers would become little more than sports rags, and they probably would spend even less than they do now on investigative reporting and local news.
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They're not going to be any better at these things than anybody else, and probably worse since they'd have to shed their existing organizational inertia.
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Misleading Staw Man
There is a http://www.sunbingo.co.uk/
but there's no http://www.guardianbingo.co.uk/
People who gamble online are largely the same demographic that read the tabloid newspapers, not the demographic that read the New York Times. If the Guardian started an online gambling site it would probably damage it's core reputation as a serious newspaper.
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Nope
That won't matter. Zuckerman is wining and dining with policy makers as a member of both the CFR and Trilateral Commission. Plus you can see the telltale signs of eventual American adoption of the program by it being tested out in Britain first, somewhat successfully, followed by its use as an example to the American people.
This isn't a possibility. If Zuckerman is talking about it like this, he's doing the litmus(sp?) test to make sure EVERYONE doesn't freak out at the notion. I give it a year before you see this program piloted after being pushed through by one of the elected or appointed government officials in the same groups as Zuckerman.
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Re: Nope
The other good thing about this if it happens is that it will open the door for allowing online gambling.
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Re:
Well, it'd give them a government-protected monopoly, which is all they seem to want.
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i know how to save the RIAA
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Don't see it
Poker will be the first to become legal, as with the help of ESPN and other media outlets, poker is now viewed as a game of skill and chance, and doesn't include the social outcasts of sports betting. The World Series of Sports Handicapping or the Hilton Contest needs to be placed on TV and viewed to the world, showing a different side of sports bettors. Only then will betting on sports begin to become socially acceptable.
Chris
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Sports Betting is Good For The Environment
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not fit to happen anytime soon
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