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Noticeably absent from the Jets-Patriots NFL game late Sunday afternoon was CBS’ promotion of a segment on famed sports bettor Billy Walters.
Conspiracy theorists among us suspect that NFL applied pressure on CBS not to promote the piece. The National Football League, for those of you not keeping score, is dead set against gambling on its games.
Oddly enough (and you must forgive the pun), the odds are getting more mention these days than in any previous season during broadcast games. We at Gambling911.com have observed routine mention of the “point spread” and specific lines on teams such as “Team X came into this matchup as a 3-point underdog”.
It is easy to see why one might believe the NFL stepped in to prevent any mention of Billy Walters during their Divisional Playoffs broadcast. He’s the most feared sports bettor in the world and a rather large chunk of viewers would have tuned into 60 Minutes to watch….and – Heaven forbid – become sports bettors.
The rather obvious clue of an intrusion: The Billy Walters segment was the last to air among the three 60 Minutes stories. This is a common technique used to get viewers to watch the entire program.
Just a quick note: The segment did not mention the offshore books where Walters beards place the vast majority of his wagers. Few, if any of the Vegas books, would actually take the bets mentioned in this piece.
- Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
