Odds Favor Skip Bayless Leaving Fox for DAZN
- Sportsbooks are offering odds on the future destination for sports broadcaster Skip Bayless, whose contract with FOX expires in September
- Is DAZN his destination? The streaming service rates them as the +150 favorites to land Bayless
- Where else might he skip out to? Read on view all the odds
Is Skip Bayless about to skip out on Fox Sports? The controversial sports talk show host’s contract with Fox is set to expire in September.
Sportsbooks have established odds on the next destination where Bayless might take his outlandish takes, and Fox is bringing up the rear in this betting market.
DAZN is sportbooks’ +150 favorite to land Bayless. ESPN, his former employer, is a close second at odds of +175.
Odds on Skip Bayless’ Next TV Contract
| Network | Odds |
|---|---|
| DAZN | +150 |
| ESPN | +175 |
| Fox | +200 |
Odds taken Feb. 24th
Fox is listed with a betting line of +200 to be able to retain the services of Bayless.
Bayless Fox’s Undisputed Champion
Fox shelled out for a four-year, $25-million contract to lure Bayless away from ESPN in 2016. He stars on the talk show Undisputed alongside former Denver Broncos tight end Shannon Sharpe.
Sharpe, who frequently serves as the counterpoint to the wild, often off-the-wall opinions of Bayless, signed a new multi-year deal with Fox in September of last year.
Every weekday morning, Undisputed, with Jenny Taft serving as moderator, goes head-to-head with ESPN’s First Take cast of Stephen A. Smith, Max Kellerman and Molly Qerim in the battle for ratings.
Undisputed has steadily lost that duel to First Take, a show on which Bayless was a panelist for 12 years before leaving for Fox.
Skip to ESPN Unlikely
They say you can never go home again, and in the case of Bayless, that axiom appears to be appropriate.
Even though ESPN is offered at slightly better odds than Fox, such a move by Bayless would go against his ever-burgeoning ego. It would be admitting defeat, and accepting that he should’ve stayed with ESPN.
Anyone even remotely familiar with Bayless knows that not only does he perpetuate bad takes, he doubles down on them even when it’s obvious there’s no chance of his theory coming to fruition. Consider, for example, his endless commentary that Dak Prescott is a better quarterback than Patrick Mahomes or Lamar Jackson.
As much as a reunion of Bayless and Smith would provide compelling TV, by returning to ESPN, Bayless would be admitting he was wrong to leave. He does that about as easily as Arthur Fonzarelli did on Happy Days.
DAZN Makes Most Sense
DAZN (pronounced Da-zone) has spent its brief existence throwing money at sports organizations to compile live sports programming.
The subscription-only channel, owned by Ukranian billionaire Len Blavatnik, acquired broadcasting rights to English Premier League games and some NFL games in Canada, as well as a three-year, $300 million digital rights partnership with Major League Baseball in the USA.
"I'm close with a guy who's very close to LeBron…He texted me and said 'LeBron is really considering running for President of the United States and he was wayyyyy before Boogie came out with it.'"@RealSkipBayless pic.twitter.com/4i4vffYClN
— UNDISPUTED (@undisputed) February 24, 2020
They’ve also landed the rights to numerous major boxing events, including an exclusive deal to carry all of Canelo Alvarez’s fights.
What they lack is the type of debate-style daytime programming that populates the airwaves at both Fox and ESPN.
DAZN Offers Familiarity to Bayless
During Super Bowl week, Bayless was seen with Jamie Horowitz, DAZN’s executive vice president of content. It was Horowitz who worked with Bayless at EPSN on First Take and helped him develop the controversial character he’s known now for portraying on TV.
DAZN will probably offer Skip Bayless a $300 million deal any day now. https://t.co/92A2mXIGOa
— Damon Martin (@DamonMartin) May 3, 2019
Former ESPN president John Skipper is DAZN’s Executive Chairman. There’s familiarity all around DAZN for Bayless. And the star of Undisputed would be DAZN’s undisputed star.
That’s why this move makes the most sense.
Pick: DAZN (+150)
An industry veteran, Bob literally taught the course on the history of sports at Elder College. He has worked as a Sports Columnist for Postmedia, appeared as a guest on several radio stations, was the Vice President of the Society For International Hockey Research in Ontario, and written 25 books.
