ESPN Bet and PENN Entertainment could face a punishment in Massachusetts following poorly worded comments from Rece Davis on College GameDay last year in which he referred to betting analyst Erin Dolan’s NCAA tournament pick as a “risk-free investment.”
The Massachusetts Gaming Commission held a hearing this week on the comments from Davis back in March 2024, and if the commission rules against the Worldwide Leader, ESPN Bet and PENN could be fined or lose their sports betting license.
While Davis later clarified his comments on The Pat McAfee Show in an effort to clean up the mess, the MGC took issue with Davis’ claim that nobody watching would actually believe Dolan’s pick was “risk-free.”
“We’ve had this conversation before, to define ‘reasonable person.’ My concern is, there’s the reasonable person who is familiar with betting, with sports, and the banter, and there’s the reasonable person outside the industry,” said MGC commissioner Eileen O’Brien at the hearing, per Sports Betting Dime. “I think the standard should be the reasonable person who may not be sophisticated in the industry.”
However, the MGC commissioner praised ESPN for self-reporting and giving Davis immediate guidance against such comments, per Sports Betting Dime, calling the network’s response the “best you can do in the circumstances” on live TV. And the MGC chair praised ESPN for its “swift action.”
While adjudicating this case with Davis, the MGC and other state commissions could look to a previous incident with Dan “Big Cat” Katz of Barstool Sports. In 2023, the MGC called for the removal of a parlay on the Barstool Sportsbook app called the “Can’t Lose Parlay.”
Massachusetts is one of 22 states in which ESPN Bet operates through a partnership between PENN and Disney. If ESPN self-reported Davis’ infraction to the MGC, it likely did so with every state in which it operates.
These hearings represent initial steps toward determining if Davis’ comments were damaging enough that the commission would choose to cut ties with the operator.
