The sports gambling industry could be "on the verge of exploding," and former ESPN announcer Brent Musburger wants to make his Vegas Stats & Information Network the "CNBC for gamblers," according to Joe Drape of the N.Y. TIMES. Musburger and some family members founded the streaming service earlier this year, and though it may be in a "niche market," it is also perhaps a "booming one." Musburger said, "You are not stopping gambling. Learn to live with it and move on." Drape writes while networks "fill their sports broadcasts with features or opinion and fantasy draft shows," Musburger’s nephew, Brian, is targeting an "underserved audience." He said, "If you could bring people into the conversation that happens behind the scenes in the sports books, you have a different kind of sports talk. This is the nerve center. Their livelihood depends on getting credible information." Drape notes VSiN is a "growing, but frugal operation." It was launched with more than $1.6M of "mostly Musburgers and friends money." Now, with more than 80 hours of broadcast time to fill, VSiN "leans on bookmakers from around town as well as reporters and analysts from various news organizations." There are "remote look-ins and interviews from the other casinos." The net is "simulcast on SiriusXM radio, and VSiN is producing short form videos" for Yahoo. It has also "launched a subscription digital magazine." Brian Musburger is raising an additional $10M and said that VSiN will "grow tenfold on all platforms" by the end of '18 (NYTIMES.com, 10/31).
