Exclusive: Sports gambling scandals are "one-offs," RedBird's Cardinale says
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Gerry Cardinale, founder of RedBird Capital Partners, at the Axios BFD Summit. Screenshot: Axios.
Recent gambling scandals in pro sports leagues are "one-offs," and don't undermine the positives of sports betting, Gerry Cardinale, founder and managing partner of RedBird Capital Partners, said at the Axios BFD Summit on Tuesday.
Why it matters: Recent sports gambling scandals have cast a growing shadow over the integrity of betting on professional sports.
- Multiple players in the MLB and NBA have been accused of potentially manipulating scores and games.
- Some lawmakers have already pushed for federal restrictions on sports betting.
What he said: "Sports gambling, betting is great for fan engagement," Cardinale said. "These predictive market models are really interesting. It's all gonna be about fan engagement."
- Cardinale said recent gambling scandals in the NBA, MLB and European soccer leagues are "one-offs" and that regulations and oversight will provide fixes.
- "That happens. As these things go through these learning curves and these growth spurts, you're gonna have stuff like that, but I don't worry about the integrity of the activity."
Zoom out: Cardinale has spent many years investing in the sports world. He helped create the YES Network alongside New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner. He's also invested in the United Football League and the pro soccer club AC Milan
- Cardinale's RedBird helped finance part of the $8 billion merger between Paramount Global and Skydance Media. Paramount has emerged as a sports streaming behemoth, showing the UEFA Champions League and, beginning next year, the UFC.
- Similarly, RedBird joined with Abu Dhabi-based International Media Investments to form RedBird IMI, which invested in the sports business news outlet Front Office Sports.
Cardinale has been cautious about sports investments as of late. He told CNBC in May that team valuations had soared high enough to reach bubble status.
- "If you're a student of history, you know that always going up is not is not a great arbiter for making an investment," he said. "There needs to be some normalization in what I see as a bit of an asset bubble."
- At the BFD event, Cardinale said if "somebody's willing to pay those prices," then that is the value of the team.
