Last month’s announcement that long-time sports broadcasting icon Brent Musburger would be leaving his home at ESPN was met with awe as fans around the world quickly paid tribute to the man who spent nearly 50 years as host and play-by-play commentator for the likes of the Super Bowl, College Football Championship, Final Four, Masters, Rose Bowl, Little League World Series, FIFA World Cup, Indianapolis 500, NBA Finals, MLB Playoffs, US Open tennis, Belmont Stakes and more. A day before calling his final event, Musburger again made waves with the announcement that he would be launching his own media network, called VSiN (Vegas Stats & Information Network), dedicated to sports gambling. The new role would see now see him broadcast live from a custom-built studio at the city’s South Point Hotel, Casino and Spa, joining boxing announcer Al Bernstein, with additional talent that would include oddsmakers from around Las Vegas. In addition, the network is also launching a national radio channel on SiriusXM, beginning Feb. 27 on Sirius channel 215/XM channel 204, with Musburger offering a taste of the content on Super Bowl Sunday.

Cynopsis Sports asked Musburger about his career move, building a brand and the growing acceptance of gambling by the leagues.

On leaving ESPN: I love the game and all the people I’ve met and have worked with but it was time to not be running for airplanes every weekend. But I love to watch sporting events my wife has put up with that for fifty-some years and its nice. But I think the fact that is a family business with my nephew and brother jumping in was the first attraction, because my family has always been very close. If I can help them out in some way, than that’s great. We have properties up in Montana where I grew up, but we were thinking of moving to Las Vegas anyway so when this opportunity presented itself, we saw the chance to finally make the move.

On launching VSiN: The younger generation, certainly not my generation, gets so much of their information digitally, that we saw an opportunity to stream a brand new website aimed directly at the sports gambling world. I became involved because I knew people in Las Vegas and I immediately jumped on some of my bookmaker friends who I knew where working at South Point. The idea was simply driven by the streaming world and along the way, SirusXM Radio jumped on board.

On the reaction: It’s interesting to me the amount of reaction I’ve gotten about this. It was so positive from people all around the country. I always knew there was a large body of bettors out there who were looking for information. I also was aware that there were a lot of 900 and 800 numbers from people trying to sell picks. I’m not the world’s greatest handicapper, but I always thought that maybe those picks weren’t any better than my picks. But I like information and to hear what other people think about games. So the feedback that I’ve gotten has been tremendous so I guess we struck at the right time for that and it will be up to all of us to move it forward.

On building a brand from scratch: You start from scratch with an idea. If you look around, the digital universe that we now operate in has changed the landscape of media completely. If this idea had been hatched 20 years ago, you would have had to go to a television network or a major company that was involved in broadcasting to see if they could find space for you. With the availability of streaming, you now have the tools, almost like a skyscraper that comes pre-built for you and you put the elevator in it. So you have all of these things that you never had in the old days. You can narrowcast, and while we will be primary talking to people who are interested in the numbers for gambling on a sporting event. The fringe audiences that will drift in are probably more curious about understanding what to do and how the money flows.

On bringing gambling in from underground: The attitudes toward gambling have changed dramatically. In the 70s, when we brought Jimmy the Greek into The NFL Today. He was already known as an oddsmaker and in the meetings with NFL Commissioner Pete Rozell, who was a friend I had known for a long time, Rozell asked us specifically to not say something like “The Chicago Bears are a three-point underdog to the Packers,” for example. We said that was fine, so we developed a checkboard and people who know gambling saw that the Greek had way more checks on the Green Bay side so the Packers would be on top of that spread. We went about our business, and in all the years I worked with the Greek, I don’t remember anyone on the NFL side coming up and complaining to me.

Deep down, if you and I were talking to Mr. Jones or Mr. Kraft, they would both openly say to us that gambling and point spreads are an accepted part of what’s going on with the NFL. I think the fact that some of these operators actually bought parts of the fantasy world a year ago shows that, because I laugh when somebody tries to tell me that fantasy football is different from taking the Atlanta Falcons and the points.

Meanwhile, Thursday’s North Carolina/Duke showdown on ESPN notched a total live audience of 3,184,000 viewers to rank as the most-watched weekday college basketball game of the year on any network. Meanwhile, Oregon/UCLA on the channel delivered a total live audience of 1,709,000 viewers and now stands as ESPN’s most-watched Pac-12 conference regular season game on record.

FOX Sports takes on the 141st Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show with nearly 30 combined hours on FS1, FOX Sports GO and Nat Geo WILD during Westminster Week. Contents runs through tomorrow, when for the first time ever on FS1, the Westminster Kennel Club crowns its “Best in Show” with coverage tonight and tomorrow at 8p. Gail Miller Bisher provides expert analysis of the breeds alongside FOX Sports veteran announcer Chris Myers, while backstage correspondent Katie Nolan, reporter Karyn Bryant and host Jenny Taft also contribute to the network’s coverage of the event.
 
USATF unveiled a new media rights deal with sports marketing agency Lagardere Sports, which will now sell the worldwide media rights to a number of USATF premier events, including the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix  Boston (part of IAAF World Indoor Tour), NYRR Millrose Games, Drake Relays and USATF Outdoor Championships. Meanwhile, the NGB also announced its lineup of USATF programming on NBC Sports and its properties that will see NBC will air portions of Nike Prefontaine Classic and USATF Outdoor Championships. Penn Relays, USA vs the World at Penn Relays, Drake Relays presented by Hy-Vee, Adidas Boost Boston Games, and remaining coverage of Nike Prefontaine Classic and USATF Outdoor Championships will air on NBCSN.

In other deals, B.A.S.S. and ESPN renewed and expanded their agreement to air Bassmaster tournaments on ESPN beginning with the Bassmaster Elite at Cherokee Lake on Bassmaster.com and WatchESPN. This multi-year agreement includes the innovative Bassmaster LIVE and Classic LIVE on-the-water video programs. The agreement provides for 30 hours of programming from the Bassmaster Elite Series and the GEICO Bassmaster Classic presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods to be aired on ESPN2. Show encores will air on ESPN Classic on select Sundays beginning July 9.

The NFL issued a warning to Texas on Friday over its “bathroom bill” targeting transgender people, suggesting for the first time that the state would risk losing out on hosting another Super Bowl if the proposal is enacted. “If a proposal that is discriminatory or inconsistent with our values were to become law there, that would certainly be a factor considered when thinking about awarding future events,” league spokesman Brian McCarthy told the AP.

For the third consecutive year, FOX Sports will serve up a rotation of prominent Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers as guest analysts for its 2017 NASCAR Xfnity Series race telecasts, beginning with the season opener at Daytona. Faces will include Chase Elliott (one race) and Jamie McMurray (one), who join Kevin Harvick (five), Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano (two each).

Speaking of racing, IMSA and FOX Sports announced additional TV coverage and schedule updates for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. In addition, IMSA and FOX Sports announced that the IMSA Prototype Challenge Presented by Mazda will have FS2 television coverage throughout the 2017 season. Programming updates now include the  Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida on March 18 receiving an additional 90 minutes of live FS1 coverage, with the race broadcast now beginning at 12:30p. IMSA also unveiled the 10-race FS1 broadcast schedule for the Continental Tire Challenge with each race running tape-delayed on FS1 throughout the season.

RIP to Mike Ilitch, who founded the Little Caesars pizza empire and served as owner of both the Detroit Red Wings and the Detroit Tigers. NHL Commissioner  Gary Bettman, released a statement on his passing, noting "With the passing of Mike Ilitch, the Red Wings have lost the consummate owner, the National Hockey League has lost a cherished friend and passionate builder, Detroit sports has lost a legend and the city of Detroit has lost not only a devoted native son but a visionary and driving force in the rebirth of downtown," Commissioner Bettman said.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

Nintendo continues to plot the map for Splatoon 2 to serve as an esport, announcing that the upcoming title will support LAN Play and feature a new Private Battle Spectator View option. The spectator view will let non-players observe an eight-player Private Battle, and allow them to “act as camera operators” in order to check out the action.

President Donald Trump’s executive order barring immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries may see Valve move its annual Dota 2 tournament, The International, out of the US. At a press event, Valve’s Erik Johnson noted that any new restrictions on visitor visas would likely have a negative effect on the tournament, which has been held in Seattle.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

Answer to Our Last Sports Trivia Question: Viacom announced the Spike will be rebranded as The Paramount Network. What was Spike previously called? Answer: TNN (any version). Kudos: John Baghdassarian-Olympusat/Berlin; Charmaine Leary-NBCUniversal Content Distribution/NY; Marc Wollis-Cadent Network/NY; Mike Lee-Blue 449/NY; Frank Hamilton-Tennis Channel/NY; Patrick McOwen-Comcast Spotlight/North Wales; Christopher Hall-Comcast Spotlight/Miramar; Jesse Demastrie-gmmb/DC; Jerehmy White-BusyBuddy Books/Glen Rock; Beth Ray-KHBS/KHOG-TV/Rogers; John Kukla-KDFW/KDFI/Dallas; Aaron Paquette-Maru/Matchbox/Fort Worth; Rick Pike-InterMedia Advertising/Woodland Hills; Lisa S. Tyler-GfK/Burbank; Judie Henninger-Valentine Productions/Santa Monica; Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA.

Later — Chris
Chris Pursell for Cynopsis | Sports @VegasandVine
02.13.17

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