Red Sox-Owned Network NSEN Lines Up Six Hours of Sports Betting Content Every Morning in New England

Posted on: March 19, 2019, 02:01h. 

Last updated on: March 19, 2019, 02:01h.

Philip Conneller @casinoorgphilc Read More
Expertise: Gaming Business, Regulation, Tribal Gaming.

You may only be able to gamble legally on sports in one tiny corner of New England but that hasn’t stopped the entire region from getting its own TV show devoted to sports betting discussion — three hours of it, every weekday morning.

NESN
Paul Howard (left) and Mitch Moss hosting Follow the Money, which began airing on NESN on Monday, despite legal sports betting in New England being confined to Rhode Island — for now. (Image: VSiN)

From April, the show will be repeated immediately after it finishes, so that’s six hours.

On Monday, the New England Sports Network (NESN) — one of the largest regional sports networks in the US — began running Follow The Money, which promises to mix “betting information with irreverent commentary, humor and legendary stories” from hosts Mitch Moss and Paul Howard, according to a media release.

Follow The Money is produced by Las Vegas-based online broadcaster, the Vegas Stats & Information Network (VSiN), and has existed for some time as a radio and internet-streaming programme, but Monday was its debut on cable and satellite TV.

Fenway Teams With MGM

Massachusetts-based NESN is joint venture between the Fenway sports group — which owns the Boston Red Sox and EPL soccer club Liverpool FC — and Delaware North, which owns the Boston Bruins, along with several gaming interests in states beyond New England, in New York, Illinois, Arkansas, and Ohio.

Both are poised to gain from the liberalization of the US sports betting market. Earlier this month, the Red Sox signed a five-year sponsorship deal with MGM Resorts, which recently opened a casino resort in Springfield, Massachusetts.

It’s not legal here yet, but everyone seems to be in favor of it,” Rich Jaffe, NESN’s Vice President of Programming, told The Washington Post. “This is our way of being part of a phenomenon that is only going to grow and grow.”

Rhode Island launched sports betting last year at its two Twin Rivers casinos and passed a bill to authorize full-scale online wagering last week, but Massachusetts is hotly tipped to follow suit this year.

Baker’s Bill a Favorite

Governor Charlie Baker introduced a bill in January that would authorize retail and mobile sports betting at the state’s three licensed casinos — only one of which is open — along with the Plainridge Park slots parlor.

Lawmakers in Connecticut, Maine, and New Hampshire are also considering legislation this year.

Jaffe told The Post that, were Massachusetts to legalize sports betting, he would be interested in broadcasting the show from a casino within the state — which would almost certainly be the MGM Springfield, even though the Encore Boston Harbor is scheduled to open this summer.  The show is currently broadcast live from the South Point Hotel in Las Vegas.

ESPN and Fox Sports 1 have already begun airing sports betting shows, while there’s evidence that NBC is at least toying with the idea of launching its own sports betting platform that might one day be integrated with future sports broadcasts. The company recently registered a number of domain names, including NBCSportbook, NBCSportsBet, and variations thereof.