RADIO WARS: Sean Brace Will Head Up FOX Sports 102.5 FM Station Which Will Focus Heavily on Sports Betting
Adding on to this Tweet from Matt Mullin of Philly Voice:
SCOOP: Hearing from a source that there’s a new sports talk radio station coming to Philly that will focus largely on sports gambling. It will be headed by @Sean_Brace and will feature several other big national names. Expect a formal announcement in coming days.
— Matt Mullin (@matt_mullin) August 22, 2019
A Little Birdie tells maestro that FOX Sports will be taking over Star 102.5 FM, which currently airs… um, I don’t know what they air, with sports and betting content this fall.
This is a tie-in as FOX will be launching FOX Bet in Pennsylvania and New Jersey very soon. We recently posted about job opportunities in Cherry Hill related to the product, as well.
Per Birdie, the station will be mostly nationally syndicated content, presumably from national FOX Sports folks like Jason McIntyre and Todd Fuhrman (my guess), with Sean Brace being the local flavor in drive time.
The focus on betting would not be surprising. 97.5 The Fanatic and 94.1 WIP have only dipped their toe into betting insofar as 97.5 lets Anthony Gargano do his Parx thing and play up the Fredo angle, while both stations cash checks from all of the local sportsbooks delirious to gain market share. I know at least one local program director doesn’t want to go to deep when it comes to betting coverage. So a local station that focuses heavily on it is hardly surprising.
Brace, however, is as he hasn’t been on sports radio with any regularity and has been focusing more on the Union and some FOX Philly work. Most of the national sports betting coverage from FOX is reasonably analytical and thoughtful and tries to steer clear of the “STONE COLD LOCKS” culture from when betting was in the shadows and which has dominated most Philly sports betting talk over the years.
Sean’s tweeted a bit about betting lately, though:
If you laid the -750… how you feeling?! #OutYoMind pic.twitter.com/qzl0lQpsQP
— Fox PHL Gambler.com (@Sean_Brace) August 22, 2019
PLENTY of -300+ favs have won. It aint that easy. The Astros did lose to the O's earlier in the year… +390.
No way would I have bet the game tonight. Not worth it.
— Fox PHL Gambler.com (@Sean_Brace) August 22, 2019
So there you have it. Announcement likely soon, with heavy FOX Bet tie-in, and presumably some sponsorship from other sportsbooks as well.