CBS Sports launched “SportsLine Edge”, a new show dedicated to sports betting and daily fantasy.
Echoing the growth of the sports betting industry in America, the show was released before the NFL season opener last week on Thursday. The CBS aims to shape SportsLine Edge as the go-to show for weekly betting tips and fantasy choices.
“The show will be a valuable destination for sports fans leading up to and in between the marquee matchups of the day, providing picks against the spread, analysis of line movement, and daily fantasy lineups.”
SportsLine Edge is essentially an extension of of SportsLine.com, a website established 3 years ago by CBS when America first started to explore sports betting. Subscribers of SportsLine.com, which does have a paywall, grew 171% in 2018 thanks to the legalisation of sports betting in the United States. As the website continues to grow, CBS came to the conclusion that a TV show was worth a shot. Jeff Gerttula, EVP/GM of CBS Sports Digital, said:
“In that time slot, we’ve been doing a lot of sports gambling oriented content where we were talking about lines and bringing in experts and we had seen a good response from our audience. Seeing the success and knowing that the audience was that ‘invested fan’ we decided it was a good place for us to invest more, thus the show. We’re going to brand it, we’re going to put more resources towards it, and really continue to invest in that pregame window where our audience is very interested in this kind of content.”
CBS stated in its press release that they aimed to extend SportsLine Edge to an everyday show. Hosted by CBS Sports anchor Nick Kostos and featuring Todd Fuhrman, former Caesars Palace oddsmaker, SportsLine Edge offers computer simulations, long-term fantasy advice and expert analysis on lines through the week.
CBS is not the first in America to produce their own betting show. Before CBS made its move, Barstool Sports has already aired “Barstool Sports Advisors” on local TV in New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago. Back in late May, ESPN streamed their own gambling show “I’ll Take That Bet”, produced by The Action Network.
CBS is nevertheless the first to air a full hour plus show dedicated to sports betting. Barstool Sports Advisors is only 30 minutes long, and I’ll Take That Bet is half that time.
