ESPN Gambling Reporter Dave Tuley Talks Network’s Decision to Cover Sports Betting
If you've noticed an increased emphasis on sports gambling on ESPN this football season--both on television and on its website--you're not imagining things.
In previous years, NFL gambling talk on ESPN TV was generally confined to Chris Berman and Hank "The Hammer" Goldberg picking which teams would cover the pointspread in a handful of NFL games.
They continue to do so, but now if you tune in to ESPN, you're just as likely to also hear professional handicappers discussing NFL over-under wagers and which teaser bets are the week's best plays.
As for ESPN.com, it's always had some coverage of sports betting, but it's been minimal.
No more, as betting coverage of all major sports has been stepped up and is now a staple of ESPN's online presence.
So what in the name of Gary Austin is going on?
(Gary Austin, a controversial Las Vegas sports handicapper and professional sports bettor who once ran sportsbooks in Vegas and Costa Rica, had a weekly NFL handicapping show ESPN's first year on the air, back in the late 1970s. The show was cancelled after Austin got tired of flying back and forth every week between Vegas and Bristol, Connecticut, where ESPN is based.)
Gambling 911 contacted Dave Tuley, who covers sports wagering for ESPN.com, and asked him what's behind the cable sports network's sudden increased emphasis on sports betting both on the air and online.
The perpetually-busy Tuley was most gracious with his time, also answering questions about his favorite Las Vegas sportsbooks and sportsbook directors, how he got to ESPN, whether TV touts like Jim Feist and Dave Cokin are crooks and what ever happened to Gary Austin?
Here is a transcript of that interview:
Gambling 911: There appears to be an increased emphasis on gambling this football season by ESPN. On TV, you've got guys picking over-unders and making teaser bets, and online, the betting coverage is much increased. First, is there actually more emphasis on betting this year? And second, is it because your new competitor, Fox Sports 1, devotes a lot of time to football betting? Or is it because of the rise in popularity of fantasy football, or is it for some other reason? Please explain what's going on.
Dave Tuley: Without a doubt, we're seeing more open discussion of sports betting this football season, and I believe it's a good thing. Like yourself, I've long considered sports betting to be a legitimate journalistic beat. Even though it was only legal in Nevada, we've all known for a long time that sports betting was taking place all over, and while newspapers would print point spreads, it was kept mostly in shadows and talked about in mainstream media in vague or coy terms. Around the turn of the century, people would have to go to Internet posting forums to learn about sports betting or discuss strategies with like-minded folks. Social media platforms like Twitter have helped make the discussion more open. Then, you throw in the fact that Delaware resumed sports betting in 2006, though limited to parlays, and New Jersey's very public battle to get sports betting, plus NBA commissioner Adam Silver saying that legalized sports betting is inevitable, and it's made it much more acceptable to discuss these things more freely. The stigma of the degenerate sports bettor is diminishing, similar to what we saw with poker a decade ago. You mention the influence of ESPN's competitors, but it's more of an extension of ESPN's mission to serve sports fans as the demand has increased. Besides, I've been writing articles for the website since 2011 and it's increased each year, mostly for ESPN Insider, until this fall starting the ESPN Chalk page with full-fledged coverage, including a lot of free content.
G9: What is your role at ESPN.com and what do you write about? Do you ever appear on ESPN TV? And what can we look forward to seeing from you and ESPN in the future, in regards to coverage of gambling?
DT: I mostly write about pro football betting, which is obviously the biggest betting sport in this country, with four articles a week this fall--an "Opening Line Report" on Monday mornings that looks at the opening lines for the following week, "NFL Vegas Rankings" on Tuesday morning with me and handicappers Erin Rynning of sportsmemo.com and Sal Selvaggio of madduxsports.com combining our personal power ratings, a "Tuesdays With Tuley" general column on sports betting here in Vegas and "Tuley's Take" NFL picks on Friday, where I go over the weekend card. I haven't appeared on TV yet, but I did do an online video last year where I tabbed the Seahawks as my pick to win the Super Bowl and I'm doing a weekly Spreecast video podcast/chat this season on Thursdays. It is expected to be at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time but that hasn't been set in stone yet, and a 1 p.m. Eastern Time Friday chat at SportsNation, as well as a spot each Sunday morning on ESPN national radio. As for the rest of the year, I've done betting pieces for ESPN.com on Major League Baseball, the NBA, March Madness and the World Series of Poker, so I expect I'll continue to get those assignments as well as anything else they want me to do.
G9: A lot of people may be familiar with your name from your past writings for other publications. Can you tell us a little about where you previously worked and also how you got to ESPN? And do you currently write for anyone else besides ESPN.com?
DT: Most people familiar with my career first read me when I was the Las Vegas correspondent for the Daily Racing Form from 2000 to 2007. They eliminated the position. As the only non-horseracing writer at a horseracing newspaper, I was surprised it didn't happen earlier, especially with the mutual decline of newspapers in general and the horseracing industry in particular. Fortunately, I was hired back on a regular freelance basis, weekly during the football season and every other week the rest of the year. I also started my ViewFromVegas.com website, which launched July 4, 2007. The VFV posting forums became known as offering the most comprehensive coverage of the Hilton Super Contest as well as my @ViewFromVegas Twitter account that started in 2009. Chad Millman was doing his "Behind the Bets" blog and podcast at ESPN.com and we talked a few times, and then in 2011 he hired me to do a weekly Super Contest recap and preview piece. My last Daily Racing Form column was in April as new management decided to eliminate my column again, but that's okay as I have my hands full at ESPN.com. I currently don't write for anyone else besides ESPN.com, except for my website and keeping the forums running."
G9: You live in Las Vegas and obviously know a lot of people who bet on sports. Are there really people who make their living betting on sports, and if so, are there many of them and how much do they earn from this?
DT: Absolutely. And they come in all shapes and sizes and types. Some bet their opinions, but others arbitrage or look for advantageous parlay cards. It's naive to think it's just people here in Vegas. Yes, those that are here have the best of both worlds to shop numbers offshore as well as around town, but plenty of people are able to do most of the same things anywhere there's an online connection. I've met and talked to plenty, but most of the true professionals still prefer to fly under the radar and just go about their business. I don't recall asking anyone how much they earn, and I'm not sure if I'd believe them anyway.
G9: What are some of your favorite sportsbooks in Vegas and why? Who are some of your favorite sportsbook directors and why?
DT: I guess I'm a Las Vegas shill because I love all the sportsbooks! I know they get knocked for taking low limits on a lot of things or moving on air when offshore lines move and things like that, but I can come up with a silver lining for any sportsbook, even the real dives, since I love the activity so much. For the most part, unless I'm making my rounds and chatting with different sportsbook directors, I usually just stop at a book long enough to get down a bet if I see a number I want on the Don Best screen. The exception is I'm usually found on Sundays at the Westgate, formerly the Las Vegas Hilton and still called the Hilton by many locals, watching the pro games at the free viewing party in their theater. As for sportsbook directors, I've had a great working relationship with all of them for years, but Jay Kornegay at the Westgate and John Avello at the Wynn are the most accessible and do the most innovative stuff. That's why you see them quoted the most not only in my articles but from other reporters too. The tandem of Bert Osborne and Jimmy Vaccaro at the South Point is great, as well as Bob Scucci, star of the "ScoochCast" with host Chad Millman, at Boyd Gaming, Nick Bogdanovich of William Hill and Jay Rood at MGM Resorts, to name a few others.
G9: These football handicappers we've seen on TV and the Internet selling picks on games--guys such as Jim Feist, Dave Cokin, Mike Warren, Stu Feiner and Jack Price--are they scam artists or can they actually pick winners?
DT: They can pick winners, but so can me and you. They just have better marketing plans. But, seriously, anyone can go on a hot streak and anyone can have a slump. No one wins all the time. I don't sell picks. I've always avoided the tout route, though I do use the posting name "tuleythetout" but that's with tongue firmly planted in cheek. I've always advocated for people not to follow anyone blindly, including me, and make their own picks. You have to hit 52.38% to beat the standard 11-to-win-10 vig, and even higher if paying for picks.
G9: The governor of New Jersey recently declared sports betting legal in that state, although it hasn't started yet. Delaware has parlay betting on the NFL. Do you see legal sports betting eventually spreading to most, if not all, U.S. states? Why or why not?
DT: Yes, and hopefully while we're still around to enjoy it! There is a public demand for it, plus states continue to have the need to look for more revenue, so it will happen eventually. But as we've seen in New Jersey, there is still opposition from the leagues, abeit softening from their previous hard-line stances, so it could still take several years before the Federal ban is fully overturned.
G9: What ever happened to Gary Austin, the Vegas sports bettor-turned-sportsbook operator who had an NFL handicapping show in ESPN's first year on the air?
DT: Over the years, I had heard he was running an offshore book or books and married a beauty queen, but honestly I had to Google him to get an update. He was much more visible here in the 1980s, which was before my time. He left amid scandal as he claimed that the book he was running, which was a standalone book as the casinos were just starting to put in their own race and sports books, got robbed of all his customers' money. It was a black eye for the industry, and to this day, when someone says, "at least in Vegas you know you'll always get paid if you win," there's bound to be some that say, "not always, remember Gary Austin."
By Tom Somach
Gambling911.com Staff Writer
