ESPN has fully embraced sports betting, and Craig Carton accuses the Worldwide Leader of attracting and grooming children to become future gamblers.
ESPN recently published a rudimentary betting guide to teach prospective gamblers about point spreads, moneylines, and parlays. But Carton’s biggest issue with the guide is that it’s a cartoon, which makes it seem geared specifically toward kids. And according to Carton, a recovering gambling addict who counsels families and speaks at high schools about the dangers of betting, this is an example of ESPN attempting to manipulate children.
“ESPN is, next to The Trump Organization, probably the only organization in the history of mankind to be unsuccessful by running a gambling company,” he said on a recent episode of The Craig Carton Show for Outkick.
Carton cited the company’s failed ESPN Bet venture, where the sportsbook captured just 3% of the betting market share, well short of their goal of 20%. Since ESPN Bet shuttered last December, ESPN has pivoted from operating its own sportsbook to partnering with DraftKings.
“They’re desperate,” Carton said of ESPN. “When you’re desperate, you don’t care about the viewing public that supports all your programming; you do a deal with the devil. That’s exactly what ESPN just unleashed on the American public… create a betting guide for the American public in the form of a cartoon. ESPN put out a gambling guide for beginning gamblers in the form of a cartoon.”
The betting guide is a colorful cartoon that teaches prospective gamblers things like what plus and minus mean in a point spread. Carton called out the guide for scrolling through about 10 slides before mentioning the dangers of gambling, and questioned whether a person in their 30s who has never gambled before would be convinced to do so by a cartoon.
“The answer is obviously not,” Carton answered. “ESPN decided, because they’re the devil, that the best way to increase market share and get bang for their buck is to appeal to the children in their audience. High school kids, junior high school kids, by creating a betting guide that is centered around a cartoon.”
Carton compared it to Juul vaping, which was forced to pay over $1 billion in lawsuit settlements after being accused of marketing its product to children.
“ESPN made a calculated decision to promote beginning gambling via a cartoon,” he continued. “That is a concerted effort to appeal to children who like cartoons to start wagering. It’s sick. It’s effed up that that’s how desperate they are to pry you and your children away from your hard-earned money. But that’s the decision ESPN made.”
Carton has similarly condemned some betting ads airing on platforms that host his show, previously admitting he didn’t like WFAN promoting tout services on the station. But specifically crafting a betting ad to target children isn’t just a moral issue; it’s a legal one.
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