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NFL Broadcasting Partner Prints Sports Betting Picks
BRISTOL, CONNECTICUT --
Despite the NFL's claim to have ostrich-head-in-the-sand awareness of the situation, sports betting in the US is ubiquitous. In fact, while the NFL was preventing Delaware from depriving organized crime of some of its massive sports gambling revenue, one of the football league's main television partners is publishing picks of NFL games against the betting line.
Television networks have long played to the audience, which even the NFL knows is comprised largely of gambling fans who have placed bets on the contests. So they have had "experts" pick games for years. A winking nod to the league's anti-gambling position is paid by not mentioning the lines, although the implication is that the picks may have been made with the spread in mind.
Now ESPN.com carries a regular sports gambling blog and weekly column, by writer Chad Millman. Millman's writing is often articulate and incisive, but what really stands out is that he advises readers with his NFL picks against the betting line.
The column, "Behind the Bets," helps novice and mid-level gamblers figure out the realities behind sports betting, and demonstrates in-depth ways to handicap games and place winning sports bets. And the blog offers gambling news as it occurs, along with Millman's personal choices of best bets in the NFL.
In his August 31st notes, Millman writes, "Also, according to the wise guys, Texans coach Gary Kubiak is a safe preseason bet against the spread."
Millman agrees, picking the Texans over the Vikings. He notes his pick is for the ESPN streak betting contest, but everything in the blog acknowledges the gambling spread and trying to beat it.
ESPN columnist Bill Simmons has an ongoing weekly contest the past several years to out pick his wife against the NFL lines. Certainly ESPN is aware of the popularity of sports betting; if only they'd tell their friends at the NFL.
The NFL may continue to fight legalized sports betting, but ESPN is only the latest breakdown in the league's dike holding back the tide of gambling. Columnists and writers across the country awoke to shred the league's disingenuous attitude in the Delaware case, and respected names like George Will and Mort Zuckerman have called for an end to the sports gambling ban.
Not only is the NFL almost alone on its island, the island is shrinking.
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