NEW YORK - Stephen A. Smith has a clear opinion on nearly everything. 

Just ask. 

When it comes to the emerging role of legal sports betting in the sports ecosystem, he sums it up in one word.

"Money." 

Smith brings a similar clarity whether he's talking about his hated Dallas Cowboys, Tyreek Hill’s run-in with police in South Florida, the 2024 election, his own production company, his podcast, his role on “General Hospital” or his future with ESPN.

On that final point, Smith’s contract with the Worldwide Leader expires in June. After listening to Smith and ESPN President of Content Burke Magnus speak (separately) at the Front Office Sports Tuned In summit on Tuesday, it’s clear the sides are separated by that same issue: "Money."

“I want to get paid,” Smith told the audience at The Times Center. While ESPN won’t be shy about offering Smith serious money to stay, how much they need to offer him to do so remains a hidden secret. 

Smith Doing TV Spots For The ESPN BET App

Smith told his audience he wants to do whatever helps him, and his bosses at ESPN, make money.  Lately, that includes TV spots for the ESPN BET app.

The PENN-owned online sportsbook continues to struggle to hold the same market share it had during its days under the Barstool pirate ship flag. When the ESPN-PENN deal was announced last year, PENN committed to spend $150 million per year for 10 years to have ESPN brand and market its app. The deal has an out after three years, and another after seven. This will be the first full NFL and college football season in which the ESPN BET app has operated. So the totals for Q4 and January through the Feb. 9 Super Bowl could be make-or-break. 

PENN CEO Jay Snowden spoke of mid-double-digit market shares for ESPN BET in the states where PENN operates a year ago. The app has yet to crack the double-digit market share barrier anywhere. It’s number overall in terms of market share was at 3.2% in the second quarter.  While Smith’s fortunes are not tied directly to the app, he knows that every little bit helps. 

Some States Where ESPN BET Operates:

Q&A With Stephen A. Smith

Smith spoke exclusively to bookies.com after his presentation at the Tuned In summit about sports betting and its emerging role in across sports and sports media.

Here is that conversation. Some questions and answers have been edited for brevity. 

Bookies: “Where do you see sports betting fitting in the overall sports space, and more specifically on ESPN?”

Stephen A. Smith: “It's going to play a very, very pivotal role. And the reason why is because money makes the world go around and they're willing to dole out a lot of dollars that most folks would not be able be willing to dole out. And so you have the advent of podcasting that has taken place. You got these guys sponsoring most of the podcast. You look at folks like ESPN BET, Fanatics, FanDuel, DraftKings, Prize Picks, all of these folks, they're clearly going in that direction and it's not going away ever since the Supreme Court ruled that it was something that could be ingratiated into the world of sports. Everybody has jumped on it because they know how much money is involved. You got to think about the money, the billions of dollars that existed in Vegas alone, for example, because of betting. Now you can do it anywhere. And so everybody has jumped into the fray. It's become something that's very, very popular for sports owners because it's popular for them. If they get a piece of the action, everybody else has jumped into it and that's why I don't see it going anywhere."

Bookies: “You've been around long enough to see the crossover from where you couldn't mention Las Vegas, during NFL telecasts, and now it's integrated everywhere.”

Stephen A. Smith. “Look at that. The Raiders are there. A basketball team may be there. The baseball team, the A’s are going to be there in a few years. Think about that for a second. Once upon a time, you’d never dream of a sports team being in Vegas. It was a nightmare because of gambling, because of the casinos, because of sports betting. You wanted no parts of it and the leagues didn't want any part of it. And they avoided it like the plague. Now they're embracing it. The NBA had its All-Star Game there. We had the in0season tournament in Vegas. A Super Bowl in Vegas. OK, these are the kind of things that's taking place. It's all over now. It's changed.”

Bookies: “You cover sports, politics, culture. How does gambling content fit into your space now?”

Stephen A. Smith. “Really doesn't in terms of reporting on it. Because before you reported on it, because you were looking for the salacious story and the headlines that came with it. That somehow, some way somebody, engaged in gambling. They gambled on the sport, et cetera, et cetera. Now that's not as prevalent. Now the leagues have rules and regulations that they can enforce. We've seen players in the National Football League suspended because they bet on games, whatever, but they didn't bet on their own team, stuff like that. But the bottom line is that it's so ingratiated in the world of sports. It's almost a non-story. In this day and age. Before it was a huge story, and you were looking for it. You had spies sifting through the terrain trying to find out who violated what rules and regulations took place or were violated in football, basketball, baseball. Definitely with Pete Rose. Now no one cares anymore to that stronger degree. It's embraced and accepted as a byproduct of the world of sports. It's here to stay. The money is too big, too prolific to ignore. And as a result of that, it's not going away.”

Bookies: “There’s been criticism about how tightly gambling has become intertwined with sports, not only with ESPN Bet, but gambling in general. And there’s been concerns expressed about integrity of the game following the Jontay Porter incident. Does that pose a concern?”

Stephen A. Smith: “There's always going to be cases where you have culprits people who step beyond the pale and violate of course, and you sift them out. Leagues have a responsibility to sift them out. And the criticism that the leagues will incur because they may have dropped the ball in that regard is well deserved. They know that you can't have somebody betting on baseball. You can't have somebody that's betting for their team to lose or anything like that. You don't want anything like that. So you have to guard against that. But assuming those barriers are put in place to prevent such things, sports, gaming, sports, gambling is here to stay. It's too much money involved, and everybody wants a piece of it. Here’s all that you need to know. When the whole Colin Kaepernick situation took place, if you remember the owners were complaining about the financial effect his protests were going to have on their game that year. They each received a check for $246 million. Each NFL owner got that from the TV rights deal. All of a sudden that noise went out the window. They were still complaining about the money even though they had already got $246 million to put in their pocket. So if you're complaining even after that happens, what are you saying? You're saying that what you care about most is the money. And since sports gaming is showing you there's billions of dollars in that business, is what it's going to be.” 

Bookies: “Does gambling push the audience, or does the audience push the gambling?”

Stephen A. Smith: “Combination of both. Because no matter what gambling pushes, if there wasn't an audience, it doesn't matter.”