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Wagering on Views: The Economics, Culture, and Ethics of Sports Gambling in Live Media Part 1

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By: Timothy Herring, Brady Nolin , Natasha Pawar, Alon Stein and Jahir Valencia

This study was completed as part of a Capstone Project for the Master of Entertainment Industry Management program at Carnegie Mellon University.

The purpose of this study is to examine how FanDuel Sports Network (FDSN) can grow and retain its subscriber base across both linear broadcasts and its direct-to-consumer (DTC) streaming platform. As cord-cutting accelerates and the streaming landscape becomes increasingly saturated, regional sports networks (RSNs) must find new ways to differentiate themselves and capture consumers’ limited attention. A defining challenge for FDSN is determining whether its naming-rights partnership with FanDuel Sportsbook and the broader integration of gambling-related content into live broadcasts can meaningfully drive audience discovery and engagement. At the same time, the network must assess whether this strategy poses a risk of alienating more traditional viewers.

Our research examined how audiences discover FDSN’s content, how gambling integrations influence viewer engagement and retention, and how different audiences respond to betting-related content at a time when public skepticism toward legalized sports betting is rising (Gramlich, 2025). Through a combination of secondary research, executive interviews, and a consumer survey, our findings indicated that reactions to gambling integrations vary across demographics. Gamblers constitute a small share of the viewers overall, but react positively to the integration of betting elements. The majority of the viewing population does not bet and would prefer the option to minimize or opt out of betting-related content. These findings suggest FDSN should implement strategies that address these differences in order to appeal to a broader audience.

FDSN’s place in a rapidly changing industry

FanDuel Sports Network (FDSN), a group of regional sports networks (RSNs) commissioned this capstone project. FDSN, owned by Main Street Sports Group (MSSG), broadcasts professional, collegiate, and high school sports across 33 states. RSNs are television channels that broadcast regional or local sports broadcasts. RSNs operate through distribution agreements with multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) such as cable and satellite providers, which enable consumer access within geographic boundaries (Moss, 2008). This market exclusivity, designed to protect local broadcasting rights and monetize viewership in each region, allows RSNs to hold long-term rights to sports teams in that market, rather than bidding against national broadcasters for primetime rights (Reddy, 2024). However, increased cord-cutting poses a significant challenge to RSNs’ traditional distribution model, forcing the networks to develop direct-to-consumer (DTC) streaming strategies to grow their businesses (Armato, 2023).

FDSN also develops in-house sports content through partnerships with production companies. While FDSN possesses a naming rights partnership with FanDuel Sportsbook, the network is a separate entity and does not receive revenue from the sportsbook business (Diamond Sports Group & FanDuel, 2024). Instead, FDSN’s focus is on expanding its business by acquiring viewers for their broadcasts and subscribers for their streaming services.

FanDuel Sports Network has a clear understanding of its audience’s demographics and psychographics, but integrating gambling elements into live sports content remains a nascent concept, introduced only in October 2024 when Bally Sports rebranded to FanDuel Sports Network. Similar businesses, such as NBC’s RSNs, followed suit, integrating gambling elements into their broadcasts at about the same time. National sports broadcasters, like ESPN, began airing gambling content earlier in the fall of 2023.

FanDuel Sports Network (FDSN) finds itself in a precarious position as it continues to weather financial losses stemming from widespread cord-cutting and the transition of regional sports networks (RSNs) to direct-to-consumer (DTC) streaming offerings. After exiting bankruptcy and rebranding in 2024 to FDSN via a naming rights deal with FanDuel Sportsbook, FDSN has worked to update its content for the streaming age, increasing in-house content production in addition to its core work of broadcasting local games to fans within a given region. At the same time, FDSN has increasingly integrated gambling elements from FanDuel Sportsbook into its live broadcasts, suggesting that the allure of sports betting will lead to increased viewership, subscriptions, and advertising revenue for the network.

“One day, I saw a TV commercial for a betting app, and for whatever reason, I downloaded it on my phone…I made the worst mistake of my life.”
— Calvin Ridley, Tennessee Titans Wide Receiver, on his one-year suspension for sports betting (Funt, 2026)

Consumers’ reactions to incorporating gambling in sports programming have been both positive and negative, as 43% of US adults say that legalizing betting on games is bad for society (Gramlich, 2025). Since assimilation of gambling into sports content is relatively new, its overall impact on audience engagement is unclear. However, gambling’s relationship to sports continues to grow, with some leagues and sports media companies earning over $1 billion annually from gambling partnerships (Isidore, 2025).

Though MSSG announced it would cease operations after the NBA and NHL seasons in spring 2026, closing FDSN carriage of their games, the research team feels these findings remain important. Rather than diminishing the study’s relevance, this development underscores the value of the insights obtained for navigating the shifting sports media landscape.

Importance of the Study

Our analysis comes at an inflection point for the integration of legalized gambling in live sports broadcasts, media, and leagues. According to a Pew Research Center survey conducted between July and August 2025, 43% of U.S. adults view legal sports betting as negative for society, up from 34% in 2022 (Gramlich, 2025). Additionally, 47% of men under 30, the group most likely to report having placed a bet in the last year, report the same negative perception, up from 22% two years prior (Gramlich, 2025). Since that summer of 2025 survey, the NBA and MLB shocked the sports world with high-profile gambling scandals involving players and coaches in October and November 2025, respectively (Passan, 2025; Purdum, 2025).

While negative consumer sentiments have grown, sports media companies have increasingly aligned themselves with gambling interests through naming rights, advertising, and content deals. In 2021, Meadowlark Media, a sports content studio formed by former ESPN president John Skipper, began licensing its content to DraftKings, the U.S.’s largest sportsbook (Mullin, 2021). Two years later, DraftKings launched DraftKings Network, its own 24/7 free ad-supported television (FAST) channel filled with Meadowlark’s content (Bucholtz, 2023). In 2023, ESPN launched its own gambling app with Penn Entertainment, rebranding Penn’s existing sportsbook as ESPN Bet (Rizzo, 2025). This deal ceased at the end of December 2025, at which point DraftKings took over as the “official sportsbook and odds provider” for ESPN (Rizzo 2025, para. 2).

Definition of Terms

Given the specialized nature of RSNs and the sports betting industry, several key terms require explanation. This section provides precise definitions of these terms, citing industry sources and reputable academic literature.

  • Cord-Cutting: Switching from cable, satellite, or landline to a wireless connection to access television or phone service. (Dictionary.com, n.d.)

  • Direct-to-Consumer (DTC): A business strategy where businesses sell directly to consumers, without brokers. (O’Neal & Doshi, 2024)

  • Multichannel Video Programming Distributors (MVPD): A person or company, such as a cable provider, satellite service, or similar distributor, that sells multiple channels of video programming to subscribers or customers. (Legal Information Institute, n.d.).

  • Regional Sports Network (RSN): Sports-oriented TV channels dedicated to a local market or geographic area. The primary purpose of an RSN is to broadcast live sporting events involving teams within its coverage area. (Kujawa, 2022).

  • Sportsbook: A place, either a website or building, that accepts bets on sporting events (Webber, n.d.).

Using data to discover new opportunities for rSNs

As RSNs navigate the evolving media landscape marked by cord-cutting and the rise of DTC streaming, FDSN faces the central challenge of growing its subscriber base. One strategy that the company is implementing to achieve this growth and raise its revenue is the integration of gambling-related content into its broadcasts. Our team examined how audiences discover FDSN’s content and whether incorporating gambling elements influences viewer discovery and engagement. While this integration is relatively new across the industry and carries both opportunities and limitations, our research provides FDSN with four actionable insights to navigate this shifting landscape.

This study utilized several data assets to support our analysis. These included a regional coverage list of teams by league and market, as well as demographic audience profiles across three leagues, Major League Baseball (MLB), National Basketball Association (NBA), and National Hockey League (NHL), that captured variables such as genre preferences, income, and age. Additional data included team-level psychographic summaries of viewer habits and mindsets, as well as linear cable viewership and streaming performance metrics from Playfly Sports.

This study also incorporated insights from relevant industry reports, articles, and trade publications, as well as a previous Carnegie Mellon University capstone published in spring 2023 that examined Bally Sports Regional Networks, the RSN that eventually became FDSN in October 2024.

The Current State of RSNs

Traditional RSNs are facing several converging challenges to their business models, particularly the continued rise in cord-cutting among consumers and the resulting subscriber, viewership, and ad revenue losses. To adapt, RSNs have been forced to update their business models, adopt DTC streaming strategies, and renegotiate their distribution agreements. While RSNs continue to account for a substantial share of sports viewership, accounting for nearly 80% of consumption and 25% of team revenues for the MLB alone, leagues have begun to explore alternative distribution models (Cahillane, 2026).

Most notable is MLB’s current strategy. As the league with the highest volume of locally broadcast games, the MLB’s local media rights have been a cornerstone of RSNs’ business models (Ourand, 2026). However, the MLB has begun exploring a league-wide bundling of local and national broadcast rights upon the expiration of its current national media agreements in 2028. At that time, MLB would package these rights collectively for sale to major streamers, effectively bypassing traditional RSNs (Ourand, 2026). MLB has already begun showing local games for seven teams via its own league-operated streaming service, MLB.tv, first broadcasting San Diego Padres games in 2023 (Gonzalez, 2026; Reedy, 2023).

Individual teams have also begun leaving RSNs for a combination of over-the-air broadcasting and streaming. In the summer of 2024, the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers and NHL’s Seattle Kraken left RSN Root Sports, opting for a combined over-the-air and streaming strategy that three other NBA teams had recently adopted (Fisher, 2024). Root Sports shut down in the fall of 2025 after the Seattle Mariners left to join MLB.TV (Fisher, 2025). Elsewhere, the NHL’s Dallas Stars and Anaheim Ducks began showing their local games through Victory+, a free ad-supported television (FAST) streaming service (Lerner, 2026). The introduction of FAST channels represents an additional competitive challenge for RSNs, alongside standard premium streamers, league-owned services, and over-the-air affiliates.

These changes in the media environment for live sports programming have resulted in serious financial and operational challenges for RSNs. MSG Networks, for example, had to refinance $800 million of debt in April 2025 and reduce rights fees to teams by as much as 28% after nearing bankruptcy (Vorkunov, 2025a). Chicago Sports Network struggled to get distribution across the 2024-25 season despite being co-owned by the NBA’s Chicago Bulls (Vorkunov, 2025b).

There remains time for RSNs to adapt, however, and despite financial hardships, there have been some encouraging signs. For instance, FDSN significantly increased viewership during the 2025 MLB season, and reportedly saw similar numbers in their NBA and NHL broadcasts in the final months of 2025 (Fisher, 2026). RSNs will need to continue to be nimble and inventive to ensure success moving forward.

The Shifting Sports Media Landscape

For nearly two decades, sports media has been reshaped by shifts from traditional linear television toward models prioritizing DTC consumption. This transition has resulted in a highly fragmented ecosystem, with more than 200 streaming platforms available. Data from July 2025 indicate that approximately 83% of U.S. adults subscribe to at least one streaming service, while only 36% maintain a cable or satellite TV subscription (Park, 2025). Major players such as ESPN, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Paramount+, and Peacock have all launched DTC live sports offerings. RSNs now face a shrinking cable subscriber base that once provided reliable carriage-fee revenue, as well as intensifying competition from national broadcasters with larger budgets and broader content offerings (Hanlon, 2026).

In response to intensifying competition and limited avenues for growth, streaming platforms have embraced gambling integrations through partnerships and content strategy. These collaborations with sportsbooks come at a precarious time, as public sentiment towards legalized sports betting remains mixed. While media companies and leagues have partnered with sportsbooks since sports betting was legalized in 2018, the integration of gambling elements directly into broadcast content represents a recent shift in how live sports are presented and consumed (Purdum, 2018). In addition, the anxiety, guilt, addiction, and financial loss associated with sports betting have prompted uncertainty about whether media companies should profit from content that may normalize risky behavior among their audiences (Dziemianko, 2025).

Beyond the moral complexities of gambling integration lies the fundamental challenge of audience discovery. The cable bundles that once guaranteed RSN visibility have diminished, forcing viewers to actively seek out content rather than encounter it passively. Unlike national broadcasters with established brand recognition and plentiful resources, RSNs lack the mechanisms that drive discovery in the streaming era. Consequently, FDSN and others in the industry are betting on the draw of gambling content, boosting audience acquisition and retention, though this remains largely untested.

The uncertainty of audience acquisition is compounded by competing stakeholder interests. FDSN relies on gambling partnerships for revenue, sportsbooks seek audience reach, and viewers are divided between those who value integrating gambling content and those who object to it. Navigating these competing pressures while maintaining audience trust and platform growth is a central challenge for RSNs in the streaming era.

Summary

The RSN model, and sports media in general, has experienced severe disruption from the streaming revolution. Cord-cutting has led large sports broadcasters to adapt DTC services, causing principal financial loss and an oversaturation in the marketplace, with consumers needing to hold multiple subscriptions to access certain games. Leagues like the MLB, meanwhile, consider either consolidating local and national broadcasting rights to sell to streaming services or building proprietary streaming infrastructure themselves. Teams across multiple leagues have abandoned RSNs in favor of various streaming models, leaving RSNs in financial jeopardy.

Despite ongoing struggles, some RSNs, such as FDSN, have pivoted to a DTC model with relative success, yielding audience growth and offering the potential for financial recovery.

Simultaneously, RSNs have explored other innovative ways to increase revenue, including partnerships with sportsbooks. These partnerships, however, remain relatively recent, and their effectiveness is unproven. Balancing the financial benefits of these partnerships with their mixed viewer sentiment and unclear effects on subscriber acquisition presents additional challenges as these networks struggle to maintain visibility and relevance in an increasingly competitive marketplace. In Part II, our research team will present data and findings from our research, and reflect on their implications for FDSN’s content strategy and audience growth objectives.