ESPN and other media entities risk their credibility with sports betting deals By Tom Hoffarth, Los Angeles Times May 20, 2019 at 11:41 am There are slippery slopes to continually sidestep on the sports media landscape. And then there’s the bedazzled Las Vegas Slip ’N Slide that ESPN just went barreling down last week, head over billfold. If all the other crazy kids are taking this crap shoot into the green-tainted pool, what’s the problem? They’ve tried to at least present some transparency of this business transaction — the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network is more than just entertaining the idea to work with Caesars Entertainment, building an actual branded studio inside the sports book at the Linq Hotel & Casino on the Strip. In exchange, ESPN gets Caesars’ data and branding across all its programming.