Sportsbooks continue to hold great influence over sports media companies.
As legal sports betting spreads across the country, sportsbooks like FanDuel and DraftKings have, in many ways, served as the financial backbone for digital media companies looking to capitalize on an influx of new revenue in the industry. Sports content companies like Dan Le Batard’s Meadowlark Media (DraftKings) and Bill Simmons’ The Ringer (FanDuel) have signed lucrative exclusive deals with sportsbooks that make up a substantial portion of their revenue.
That, of course, can create a conflict of interest from a journalistic perspective. Sports betting has become a key vertical for many sports media companies, but partnering with the biggest sportsbooks in the country can make it difficult to cover them with a critical lens.
And in some cases, the media company can go so far as to carry water for its sportsbook partner by using their platform as a megaphone to advocate for the sportsbook’s interests. That’s exactly what The Ringer did, at least temporarily, on Saturday evening.
In a since-deleted social media post on The Ringer’s official X account, the Spotify-owned company released a statement urging its followers to reject a proposal in the Illinois state legislature that would levy a tax on every bet placed in the state.
“The Illinois legislature is considering an unprecedented tax on every bet placed on online apps like FanDuel,” The Ringer’s X account blasted out to its over half-a-million followers on Saturday. “This would hurt sports fans in Illinois and potentially drive them to the illegal market. Click on this link and tell Illinois politicians to reject a tax on our bets,” the post read, linking to a page from the Sports Betting Alliance, a lobbying group backed by FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM, and Fanatics.
The post was deleted shortly after, but still was up long enough to draw criticism from several journalists on social media.
If you’re an outlet that strives to create genuine, unbiased sports journalism, as The Ringer does, publicly lobbying for a sportsbook that pays you millions of dollars per year undermines your credibility, at least when it comes to covering topics related to sports gambling. And it seems like The Ringer realized that pretty quickly, which is why the company opted to delete the post.
Still, the temporary flub highlights just how influential sportsbooks can be over some of the top sports media companies in the country. It’s difficult to imagine a company like The Ringer lobbying for the interests of any other industry, so it’s probably best to not cross that line when it comes to sports betting.
FanDuel has plenty of money to lobby the Illinois state legislature without relying on The Ringer’s social media account as a megaphone.