<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by ppeter:
Winky, you mean all the employees do at ESPN is gamble? lol Did you get good inside info there?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
things may have changed some in 12 years - but they still gamble on ANYTHING you can imagine. when the san jose sharks played their first-ever game, 18 of us got into a contest to see who would score their first-ever goal (chris berman won it - he got steve coxe - i will never forget it).
as for inside info - what do you think? i'll never forget the day i was upstairs in the newsroom. it was about 12:30Pish. peter gammons is sitting right across from me. he is on the phone. i hear what he is saying only in passing. as he hangs up the phone, i CLEARLY hear him say, "thanks jim - good luck against the (i forget the team they were playing)." he hangs up the phone and goes about his business. turns out less than 30 minutes before the game he was talking to (then) pirates manager jim leyland.
think about how many contacts people like mortensen, clayton, gammons, etc. all have. how much of what they know is inside info? i'd say about 99% of it. i am NOT saying they use it to gamble - reality is probably the opposite - but they do pass along some of what they know to others there - so "YES" - people at espn do get TONS of inside info.
when i was there i got good stuff a few times and i was only a lowly PA - there for 10 months - so you can imagine what producers and exec producers get for inside info! and i know some of the latter from whan i was there and I KNOW they use their inside info to place bets.
as for the biggest gamblers there - berman really didn't do much at all. it was mostly the exec producers (the ones who make the most $$$$$) and the PAs (the ones who make the leats and can afford to lose the least - they gamble to try and supplement the meager salary they make).