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Welcome back to The Varsity. As this hits your inbox, I’ll be watching UFC president and
C.E.O. Dana White receive the Meridian Global Leadership Award in my hometown, the Swamp, in advance of the league’s descent onto the White House lawn. I’ll be White’s undercard, interviewing TKO president Mark Shapiro and the PGA Tour’s Brian Rolapp onstage before he gets his award tonight.
Pod alert: Fresh from attending the Monaco Grand Prix, Axios media reporter Sara Fischer joins The Varsity this
weekend. Also, make sure to download yesterday’s episode, where LightShed’s Rich Greenfield handicapped the NFL’s media negotiations. Listen here and here.
In tonight’s issue, I bring you the latest on the cold war between Fox and the
NFL, where league officials are increasingly nonplussed over Team Rupert’s campaign to put the league’s antitrust exemption in the congressional crosshairs. As usual, Thursday’s private email is available exclusively to Inner Circle members. Upgrade here if you haven’t already. (And if you experience any trouble doing so, email Fritz@puck.news for help.)
Also mentioned in this issue: Jim Jordan, Jamie Raskin, Anna Gomez, OG Anunoby, Tom Brady, Eric Shanks, Jimmy Pitaro, Roger Bennett, Betty Glover, Zohran Mamdani, Brendan Sorsby, Ken Paxton, James
Talarico, Brett Yormark, Clay Travis, Curtis LeGeyt, Roger Goodell, John Skipper, Becca Balint, Lachlan Murdoch, Stephen A. Smith, Pat McAfee, and more. |
Player of the Week: Eric Shanks
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Congrats to Fox Sports C.E.O. Eric Shanks. The World Cup is finally here, which
means—at least, if history is any guide—that all the stories of visa problems, ticket prices, and FIFA dysfunction will fade into the background as the focus turns to the pitch. |
Player of the Week (Honorable Mention): Jimmy
Pitaro
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The two most-viewed live sports telecasts last week (June 1 to 7) were from the NBA Finals, per
Nielsen. The next three came from the NHL Stanley Cup Final. All five games anchored ABC’s primetime on five consecutive nights. It’s been a good month to be Jimmy Pitaro. |
Down to the J.V.: James Dolan
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The Knicks and Rangers owner squandered a historic surplus of civic goodwill in New York by a)
inviting Donald Trump to Game 3 of the NBA Finals, turning the streets surrounding MSG into an open air T.S.A. security maze, and b) pulling the plug on an outdoor watch party at the Garden for Game 4. Dolan really owes OG Anunoby a solid for turning the page on all of this. |
- The World Cup bet-a-thon: The World Cup is expected to draw $60 billion in wagers through legal sportsbooks globally, according to estimates from H2 Gambling Capital and MoffettNathanson. That’s a 71 percent increase from the last tournament, in 2022, and a 185 percent increase from the 2018 edition—a pretty pure distillation of the decade in which sports betting went from a mostly illegal vice to an inescapable American pastime. This go-round, the U.S. is expected
to account for $3 billion in wagers; FanDuel is predicted to book $1.2 billion in bets, and DraftKings is figuring to log $1 billion.
Incredibly, none of those figures even include the younger prediction markets, like Kalshi and Polymarket, which have mostly been able to skirt lawmakers in the 20 or so states that still prohibit the gambling apps. In May, Kalshi’s total trading volume hit $18 billion, including $10 billion on sports event contracts for the first time.
The World Cup
arrives at an interesting moment for these markets. While regulators have shown increasing appetite to clamp down on them, they’re still exploding in popularity. FanDuel and DraftKings have both taken notice, launching their own predictions products. As MoffettNathanson’s analysts noted, “Both operators have pointed to the World Cup as a key milestone for scaling their nascent offerings.” - Roger Bennett’s YouTube road trip: It’s the first day of the
World Cup, so I checked in with Roger Bennett, the founder and C.E.O. of Men in Blazers Media Network, to hear about his next 39 days. He’s got quite an itinerary: Rog and his Home Depot–sponsored bus will head to several American host cities for College GameDay–style shows to post on YouTube. He’ll be on the Santa Monica Pier tomorrow night in advance of the first USMNT game, then he’ll drive up to Seattle, then back to Los Angeles before heading for the East
Coast. “We built a business around a young, hungry, passionate audience,” he said. “We built this business out of these types of live activations.”
Beyond pregame shows, he’s also planning morning shows hosted by BBC correspondent Betty Glover—and, starting tonight, a nightly show called Night Cup, with NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani as the first guest. “I know this sounds very emotional at this moment, but it feels incredibly
powerful,” Bennett said. “There’s a level of profound excitement—the same excitement I had as a kid. I always feel it.” - The Sorsby mess: Need another example of how little weight the NCAA carries these days? College administrators across the country were furious after a judge ruled that Brendan Sorsby, the itinerant college QB who bet on his own games at Indiana, could play for Texas Tech this fall. Then, word leaked that the Big 12
would consider imposing sanctions on Texas Tech if Sorsby actually does end up playing for the Red Raiders.
In response, Texas A.G. Ken Paxton, a complex character and Trump ally who is also running for Senate against James Talarico, sent a sternly worded letter to Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark. “We are aware that the Big 12 is considering invoking Bylaw 3.6 of the Big 12’s Bylaws to sanction Texas Tech for respecting
the Order and continuing its support of Mr. Sorsby as a student-athlete,” Paxton wrote. “This letter serves to notify the Big 12 that any such action would be unlawful and would expose the Conference to substantial liability.” ESPN has a good write-up of the drama.
The whole back-and-forth begs the question: What
is the purpose of the NCAA if it can’t even punish a college football player who bet on his own games? For schools, the message is clear: NCAA edicts can crumble in the face of legal scrutiny.
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As the NFL continues to draw congressional heat, it’s growing increasingly tired
with Rupert Murdoch for instigating the fuss. With the league’s coveted antitrust exemption theoretically in the crosshairs, might Fox have bitten the hand that feeds it? |
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In recent months, sports fans everywhere have been inundated with newsletters, radio segments, and
TV spots about the arcane Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961—the law that allows leagues, including the NFL, to bypass certain antitrust laws when selling media rights. The man behind this obscure legislation’s ascent into the cultural zeitgeist, of course, is Rupert Murdoch, the 95-year-old Fox Corp founder. Murdoch has watched for years as the streamers have become bigger players in the existential battle for NFL rights—a direct threat to the lucrative NFL portfolio that
Fox has amassed over the past three decades. After his Wall Street Journal reported that he had personally lobbied President Trump on the issue, NFL officials have focused on Murdoch as the driving force behind Congress’s rising appetite to curtail the league’s exemption.
This week, those efforts culminated in a House
Judiciary Committee report, “The Sports Broadcasting Act: A Special-Interest Antitrust Exemption Gone Awry,” delivered by chairman Jim Jordan. During a committee hearing on Wednesday, Murdoch was cited several times. According to Rep. Jamie Raskin, “The D.O.J.’s investigation,
like this hearing, appear to be all about helping Mr. Murdoch get a better broadcast deal for Fox.” Meanwhile, F.C.C. commissioner Anna Gomez said the push “appears to be driven less by a genuine interest in protecting fans, and more by the influence of powerful media companies with close ties to this administration that stand to benefit financially from the outcome.”
Obviously, none of this was news in the NFL offices. Officials realized that Murdoch and Fox were
behind this push—as well as the F.C.C. and D.O.J. investigations—back in the fall, when several politicians and their staffers told them about their meetings. Moreover, NFL sources said it wasn’t lost on anyone at Fifth Avenue that two of the witnesses on Wednesday have Fox ties: Clay Travis, the OutKick founder and Fox News contributor, and the NAB’s Curtis LeGeyt, whose association, of course, represents Fox. The committee also asked Roger
Goodell to testify, but sources told me the request blindsided the league. The commissioner declined, citing the NFL’s ongoing legal case with Sunday Ticket.
The fight is only going to get more bruising. The committee report appears to be a precursor to a bill designed to slow down the migration of NFL games to streaming services. In fact, sources on all sides expect some sort of legislation to be introduced within the next few weeks. |
In many ways, Murdoch’s feverish campaign is understandable. When the NFL exercises an
out in its media deals at the end of the decade (or sooner), it’s expected to use competition from the likes of Netflix and YouTube to drive up bids. Fox currently pays the NFL an average of $2.1 billion per year; there’s no telling how much more a streamer would pay for Fox’s Sunday afternoon schedule. NFL executives have been open about their desire to engage streamers in the next round of rights negotiations, which has put more financial pressure on the broadcasters. That was a
reason why BofA analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich downgraded Fox back in February, calling it “the most exposed stock in our coverage to the upcoming NFL renewal.”
Fox is hoping that regulators will see the light, and either enforce the S.B.A. as written or revise it to guarantee that a certain number of games will stay on broadcast TV.
But the sports industry runs on strong relationships, and several NFL sources believe Murdoch’s strategy could damage Fox’s business
with the country’s most powerful league. To wit, ESPN’s relationship with the NFL reached a nadir around a decade ago, when the league believed the network’s then-president, John Skipper, was prioritizing other sports. For his part, Skipper chafed at the NFL’s sense of entitlement—but, as a result, ESPN’s Monday Night Football schedule generally featured bad teams and terrible matchups. The schedule noticeably improved after Jimmy Pitaro took over and
unleashed a charm offensive.
So far, Fox hasn’t gone the way of Skipper’s ESPN. Sources pointed out that there’s been no evidence that the NFL was reprimanding Fox when it released the network’s schedule last month. Moreover, I’m told that Fox really wanted the Packers–Patriots game on November 8—Tom Brady’s return to Foxborough as a broadcaster—and got it. The NFL also awarded Fox top holiday games (Eagles–Cowboys on Thanksgiving and Rams–Seahawks on Christmas) as well
as two extra games next season: a Saturday game in Week 15 (Seahawks–Eagles) and a Week 10 Germany game (Patriots–Lions). Plus, just two days before Wednesday’s hearing, Fox and the NFL announced a deal in Mexico.
Still, sources on all sides expect this issue to stick around for a while, partly because of bipartisan support. During the hearing, it was striking to hear Becca Balint, a Democrat from Vermont, largely agree with Jordan when it came to revising the
S.B.A. I guess we’ll see what happens next month in Sun Valley, where Rupert, Lachlan Murdoch, and Roger Goodell will all be in attendance. |
On ESPN salaries: “If Stephen A. Smith is going to be lapped in
salary by Pat McAfee, I can only assume we are doomed to a promotion to a starring role on General Hospital. Sigh. He’s not gonna like this situation. However, I will revel in it.” —A Varsity subscriber
On crisp (not tart) sancerre: “I’m really getting tired of your cheeky comments regarding where you are, what you’re doing, and whether Marchand should get you another sancerre. Your occasional inside jokes are fun. Every day,
not so much.” —A Varsity subscriber who could use a glass of sancerre |
Have a great weekend. See you Monday.
John |
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Puck founding partner Matt Belloni takes you inside the business of Hollywood, using exclusive reporting and insight
to explain the backstories on everything from Marvel movies to the streaming wars. |
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Ace media reporter Dylan Byers brings readers into the C-suite as he chronicles the biggest stories in the industry:
the future of cable news in the streaming era, the transformation of legacy publishers, the tech giants remaking the market, and all the egos involved. Also featuring a weekly dispatch from Puck’s crack streaming/media analyst, Julia Alexander. |
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