This Friday night's NBA game between the Washington Wizards and the Milwaukee Bucks, while by itself unremarkable, might nonetheless represent the future of sports wagering. NBC Sports Washington Plus will be airing a betting-friendly version of the matchup in addition to its traditional telecast, ESPN reports.
The broadcast will feature a free-to-play, running contest at the bottom of the screen — ("Will Trevor Ariza score 10+ in the first half? YES/NO") — that viewers will be able to play on the network's website for a $500 prize. Other gambling information, such as odds, point spreads, and updating player statistics, will fill the right side of the screen.
"We've been lucky because sports betting has rolled out in a way that has overlapped with our [regional sports networks]," David Preschlack, president of NBC Sports Regional Networks, told SportsBusiness Daily, referring to a wave of sports-betting legislation that culminated with a 2018 Supreme Court ruling that effectively legalized sports wagering nationwide. "We're trying to figure out ways to appeal to casual sports bettors to make the games more interesting."
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Zach Leonsis, senior vice president of strategic initiatives at Monumental Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Wizards, told SportsBusiness Daily that this and future such broadcasts are "the 1.0 version of where we're ultimately going." Of course, all that interactive gambling action will also be a helpful distraction from the Wizards themselves, who are 16-24 and mired in 11th place in the Eastern Division.
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