Former ESPN producer quit over gambling coverage she says the network buried

Nicole Noren had watched sports gambling consume her own family. Her grandfather, father and brother had lives she said were “destroyed by sports gambling addiction”, and her brother died homeless on the streets of Las Vegas at age 36. When ESPN moved further into the betting business, Noren said she could no longer remain at the network. “I was out. I'm not going to work for a gambling company and have blood on my hands.”

Noren left ESPN in 2023 after 24 years as a producer, much of that work on Outside the Lines, where her stories won Emmy, Murrow and Peabody awards. Her resignation came shortly after ESPN launched ESPN Bet, its branded sportsbook app operated by Penn Entertainment.

During her time at ESPN, Noren pitched numerous stories that would have examined gambling companies and addiction more closely. None was approved, she said. ESPN’s approach to sports betting had shifted in less than a decade, from treating it as a faux pas to fully embracing it by 2026.

In an interview with the Columbia Journalism Review published on Wednesday by Danny Funt, the author of Everybody Loses, Noren said she resigned in protest at ESPN’s betting coverage. She described investigative coverage of the gambling industry as “neutered”, saying the network had its “head buried in the sand” about the dangers of addiction.

One gambling programme did make it to air, Noren said. “They ended up doing a show on it around that time, but it became very neutered. Some of the people involved intended to make it much more hard-hitting and hold the gambling companies accountable. Let's just say the final product didn't end up doing that.”

Noren said ESPN executives and employees had behaved as though they were “putting their heads in the sand”. “What bothered me most was a seeming disregard for the dangers and not thinking about the ramifications of ESPN normalizing gambling for an audience that looks to ESPN as sort of their sports guide.” She also asked: “How did no one in this entire process say, "What are we doing? This is wrong."”

ESPN said its editorial decisions were independent of other considerations. “ESPN remains committed to journalism that serves sports fans, holds powerful interests accountable and earns our audience's trust. Our editorial decisions are guided by news judgment and journalistic integrity, and we demonstrate this every day through the award-winning content we produce across our platforms”.

David Purdum, ESPN’s sports betting reporter, has covered the industry for almost 20 years and joined the network in 2014. In a social-media post on October 15, 2026, he said: “I have covered addiction, athlete harassment and betting scandals with support and encouragement from our team of editors at ESPN. Neutered betting / gambling coverage is not something I've experienced.”

The NFL owns 10% of ESPN.