NBC Sports Washington will produce an "alternate game telecast focused on gambling" for Friday's Bucks-Wizards game, according to John Ourand in this week's SPORTS BUSINESS JOURNAL. An "interactive, alternate telecast" of the game will air on NBC Sports Washington Plus, the "first of eight similar games it will produce this season." The screen will "look like a cross between CNBC and ESPNews, complete with statistics, odds and point spreads that run alongside game action." Game announcers and ad breaks will be the "same as the RSN's normal feed." Initially, the "betting applications will be rudimentary." A "Predict the Game" sweepstakes will "involve simple questions about, for example, how many points a specific player will score in a quarter or how many assists a player will have in a half." Fans can "visit NBC Sports Washington's website to answer the questions for a chance to win $500." Ultimately, these "free games are expected to give way to a system in which viewers can make bets directly through the broadcast." The Wizards and NBC Sports Washington "developed the alternate feed to attract casual bettors, making the game more akin to fantasy football than hard-core sports betting" (SPORTS BUSINESS JOURNAL, 1/7 issue).
EVER IMPROVING THE PRODUCT: NBC Sports Washington GM Damon Phillips said he has "always been intrigued by how do you make the television viewing experience better." Phillips: "How do you make it more engaging? What can you do on screen, what can you do off screen to enhance the viewing experience? This is a combination of being able to take what people do offline and integrating it into a television broadcast." Monumental Sports & Entertainment Senior VP/Strategic Initiatives & GM Zach Leonsis said of the alternate feed, "It's free to play, so it's not sports betting, per se, but it is based on asking the audience questions. It's really meant to drive fan engagement, see how people react to it, and I think it's a great first step toward a much larger and really exciting rollout of sports betting in the DMV." Leonsis added that he could "envision the augmented, alternate broadcast being offered on a second channel for every Wizards and Capitals game in the future," but there are no plans to "mess with the traditional broadcast" (WASHINGTON POST, 1/9).
