SECAUCUS, NJ – Wayne Kimmel’s SeventySix Capital isn’t the only venture capital fund paying attention to – and investing in – the burgeoning sports tech and esports fields, but it might be the only one with a former National League MVP as a partner and a two-time Pro Bowl NFL running back as a member.
Kimmel chaired a panel on the transition from athlete to entrepreneur Tuesday at the Betting on Sports America conference with Ryan Howard, who won the NL MVP in 2006 and the World Series two years later as a member of the Philadelphia Phillies, and Brian Westbrook, who went to the Super Bowl with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2004.
Calling what’s happened in the sports betting space “amazing” since the repeal of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act last year, Kimmel cited analysts’ predictions of “30 million new customers” for the sports betting industry, a wave of new media both on television and online, and MGM Resorts International’s marketing partnerships with three of the four major U.S. sports leagues.
The genie’s out of the bottle, Kimmel said.
“We’ve got Mitch (Moss) and Pauly (Howard) on VSiN (Vegas Stats and Information Network) every day, we’ve got ESPN’s Daily Wager. There’s so much happening.”
“Sheer craziness,” Howard said. “The sky’s going to be the limit.”
“It’s exciting to see what’s happening,” Westbrook said. “It’ll never go back to the days where no one’s betting on sports, no one’s putting wagers on things. It’s almost like me and my boys – we gambled on basically everything.”
Both Howard and Westbrook said that they had no knowledge of, or interest in, lines or odds while they were playing, saying that their focus was on what it would take to win the game. Now, though, Westbrook said, players are more aware of fantasy and what their friends are saying about them.
“Guys are open to a lot of things that I never was,” he said.
Westbrook turned Kimmel’s question about whether or not he was a gambler around, saying that he gambles on his kids to do the right thing (“a losing battle so far.”) Most of his gambling now takes place with his friends on the golf course, he said, but the expansion of information in professional sports has caused him to view gambling as “a little less of a gamble.”
“That’s the kind of gambling I’m interested in,” he said. “We gamble on technology; we gamble on investments. We always want more information. That’s what the sports technology is doing now: giving you more information.”
Howard said that everyone gambles on themselves.
“Gambling’s not just placing a bet at a sportsbook,” he said. “Life, itself, is a gamble.”
Both players said that the explosion of fantasy had changed their interactions with the public. Howard said that fans had engaged with him in different, and sometimes slightly more aggressive, ways since the fantasy explosion of the mid-2000s.
“Someone would come up and say, ‘Hey, you helped me win my fantasy league!’ I’m glad I could do my part for (their) team, I guess?”
Westbrook added, “People would come up to me and say, ‘I won $20,000 in fantasy thanks to you!’ Where’s my cut?”
Westbrook said the most competitive person he’d ever known was former Eagles wide receiver Terrell Owens. “He would take a short pass every day in practice and go 80 yards down the field, just to condition himself.
“That’s what athletes and other businessmen bring to business. How do we make this company successful? How do we add value? We’re trying to transfer that (competitive) mindset to off-the-field investments. That’s how you elevate something.”
Both Howard and Westbrook are currently working as broadcasters, Howard for ESPN and Westbrook for DirecTV, NBC Sports and FOX. Westbrook said that this past season was the first time his producers went out of their way to tell the on-air personalities not to discuss lines or wagering.
“The NFL is in a weird position right now,” he said. “How do they get the NFL involved in sports betting without turning the NFL into a gambler’s (haven)? Which it’s probably already too late to do. Our producers basically told us to stay away from it.”
Westbrook said that, as sports betting grows, he can see a future in which lines and odds are discussed openly, much like game plans are now.
“The viewers want to hear that,” he said. “The networks want to give it to them.”
“ESPN has already made it known that they’re going to start talking about lines,” Howard said.
All the major sports are focused on maintaining the integrity of the game, both men said, with Westbrook saying that the leagues are particularly interested in keeping bookies away from the players. The issue now is in figuring out how all of these elements should synergize.
“You don’t want to turn all of the conversation into straight gambling,” Westbrook said.
Kimmel said that ViSN’s BetCast had the potential to eliminate some of these concerns. In contrast to standard sports broadcasts, BetCast solely concerns itself with wagering minutiae.
“We believe that there are some really interesting opportunities (in sports betting) for start-ups and entrepreneurs to do things a little differently,” Kimmel said. “This industry is looking to scale across the country.”
