An ESPN “salary cap casualty” who channeled his inner CeeLo Green during his final appearance on SportsCenter, longtime sportscaster Kenny Mayne has found himself a new home next to a familiar face.
Approximately one month after it was announced former ESPN journalist Trey Wingo would be joining Caesars Sportsbook as a chief trends officer and brand ambassador, America’s largest casino-entertainment company has inked Mayne to come aboard as a content contributor and brand ambassador.
A former quarterback at UNLV, Mayne worked as an usher at Caesars Palace in Sin City for the 1980 Larry Holmes-Muhammad Ali heavyweight championship bout.
“Now I’m back at Caesars,” Mayne said. “It’s like one of those stories you read about on the Internet about a dog that gets lost and finds his way back thousands of miles on foot. Who doesn’t love dogs? Who doesn’t love home dogs?”
In addition to making appearances on behalf of Caesars, Mayne will write, produce and deliver original sports betting content that will be shared across the sportsbook’s media channels.
“I am truly excited about this opportunity with Caesars,” Mayne said. “I don’t think anyone could have written a better job description for what I’ll be doing. In fact, I got to help write the job description. Our intent is to do some fun things related to Caesars Sportsbook, the history of Caesars, and the sports bettors who engage with Caesars.”
There’s no way to know for sure, but we’d bet the deals with Wingo and Mayne will be the first of many between Caesars and well-known traditional sports personalities.
“We believe one way of treating our sports bettors as royalty is to give them the content they are craving. We are thrilled to make someone as talented and respected as Trey part of the Caesars Sportsbook team,” Caesars Digital co-president Eric Hession said after Wingo was signed. “Few sports media personalities can match Trey’s combination of sports experience, insightful analysis, and ability to deliver content in an entertaining way. We are proud to welcome him to the Empire.”
Long before Mayne and Wingo made the leap from The Worldwide Leader into the world of sports betting, longtime ESPN sports business reporter Darren Rovell left the network for a role as a senior executive producer at the sports gambling start-up media company the Action Network.
“ESPN does a great job covering gambling, but winners in spaces today are the ones in the niches, not generalists,” Rovell told The Washington Post in 2018. “People aspire to go to organizations that are specialists. You feel good watching CNBC because all they do is business. All Action does is gambling.”
Gambling, it appears, is winning.
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