The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association "must eventually break its ties with the cable television network soon to be previously known as Fox Sports Wisconsin" due to an incoming affiliation with Bally's sportsbook, according to Art Kabelowsky of the WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL. The WIAA has had an agreement to "carry almost all its state tournaments" on the RSN, but Sinclair Broadcast Group has reached a 10-year, $85M deal to rename multiple RSNs after Bally's. The WIAA is "very clear about its rules." Its policies state that it "strictly prohibits the sponsorship, advertising, selling, encouraging, promoting or condoning" lottery/gambling and a slew of other "activities that are illegal for minors." So, to carry a WIAA tournament event on "Bally's Sports Wisconsin" would "seem to violate at least the spirit of that policy." The WIAA "faces a decision -- one that could cost it even more money in this second school year of no high-ticket-sales state tournaments and many low-ticket-sales 'culminating events.'" The body "must decide what's more important, the money and exposure that comes from having its tournaments (and its required public-service announcements) carried on Fox Sports Wisconsin, or its stance against promotion of gambling" (WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL, 11/30).
MATTER OF TIME: In St. Louis, Benjamin Hochman writes watching a baseball telecast "always has been an almost sacred experience -- and the baseball broadcast always was a safer place, especially for those watching with their kids." But with interactive gambling coming to MLB coverage via Sinclair and Bally's tie-in, the broadcast "won't just be promoting gambling, but encouraging it." Legal sports gambling is the "next generation of the fan experience," and "it's happening." Hochman: "Here's simply hoping that those sports fans who read this column -- and those involved with the Cardinals, Fox Sports Midwest, Sinclair and Bally's -- handle the addiction side of gambling delicately and with some integrity" (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 12/1).
