Elon faculty featured in FOX8 report on legalized sports betting in N.C. | Today at Elon
The report by FOX8’s Bob Buckley focused on how the expansion of legal sports betting will impact sports fans and the sport itself.
Involved:
The expansion of sports betting in North Carolina and other states fills state coffers with revenue, as well as revenue from those who bet, while giving sports fans a way to put some money behind their passion for their teams or their best instincts for any team. He will come out on top.
But is sports betting good for sports betting in general? David Bocchinoassociate professor of sport management at Elon, says no.
“I think this is going to lead to the collapse of the traditional fan base,” Bocchino told FOX8’s Bob Buckley.
Insights from Bockino and fellow faculty member Bill Squadronassistant professor of sports management, was featured in Buckley’s recent report on expanding legal sports betting in North Carolina.
“For tournaments, is it going to increase ratings and participation and all those buzzwords that they like to talk about,” Bocking said. ‘For sports as a cultural and societal entity, is it good for us as Americans to bet on sports? I think the answer is no.’ “I think it’s more fun to cheer for a team for the team.”
Bocchino has detailed how the evolution of sports betting as well as other factors have affected sports in a new book, “Game One: How sports media was born, sold out, and became a personality with billions of fans“.
Squadron equals the history of sports betting and the history of prohibition in the United States. “When the Internet became a factor, it exploded, it became global, it became offshore, it became international…and suddenly, there was no way to manage it and…the blocking model began,” Sarbidron said.
However, the detailed ways in which fans can bet on sporting competitions can affect the perception of fairness. Determining the outcome of a competition can be more difficult than the performance of an individual player or a single statistic during a competition.
“It creates the potential for manipulation in ways that make it difficult to fix the outcome of the match or at least create that doubt,” Squadron said.
Watch the full clip From the Buckley Report to learn more.
Before entering academia, Bocchino worked at ESPN for seven years in both the research and analytics and international ad sales departments, collaborating closely with ESPN’s offices in Mexico, South America, Europe, Australia and Asia. Besides “Game On”, Bocchino has written the book “The Guidebook Experiment” and the Kindle single “Greetings from Myanmar”. He has published papers in Journal of Newspaper Research, Asian Journal of Communication, Educator of Journalism and Mass Communication, and has presented papers at AEJMC, ICA and others. His teaching, writing, and research interests include media business, sports, history, and travel.
Squadron earned his law degree from UC Berkeley and was previously a partner at cable, broadcast and wireless regulatory firm Morrison & Foerster. He served as Communications Commissioner of New York City under Mayor David Dinkins, and as president of the National Association of Communications Officers and Consultants, representing all municipalities in debates over the Cable Act of 1992.
Scudron previously served as senior vice president of strategic planning at News Corp. He was named Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year for New York City in the Media category in 2001. He served as President of New Media at IMG North America from 2003 to 2006. He was President of Bloomberg Sports, a leading data services company and sports analytics, which was sold to Vista Equity Partners in 2015.
