O'Donnell: Vegas Stats and Info aiming to cash in on Chicago TV
What happens in Vegas continues to further impact that growing media intersection of Sports and Gaming.
And with segments of Illinois business and leisure anxiously awaiting final governmental structuring for sports betting in the state, a pioneering concern could be coming to Chicago TV much sooner than later.
Bill Adee - the COO of Vegas Stats and Info - dropped a hint that his vsin.com is well along in ground working to provide daily television product to the voracious local gambling market.
"We're bullish on adding more regional sports networks," said Adee, once an ambitious young sports aide at The Daily Herald under Renaissance man Bill Gowen.
"We announced a deal earlier this week to have our programming appear on MSG Networks, TV home of the Knicks and Rangers.
"We already had a partnership to provide programming for NESN, home of the Red Sox and Bruins."
With NBC Sports Chicago losing the Cubs to the organization's new Marquee Network this winter, the marriage of VSiN and NBCSCH would appear as natural as Michael Jordan at a blackjack table.
"Obviously, there is a lot of news in Chicago about the Cubs' interest in sports betting around Wrigley Field," said, Adee, who is partnered in the two-year-old VSiN with Brent Musburger and Brian Musburger, son of Brent's brother Todd Musburger.
"Since the Supreme Court's decision resulting in states being able to legalize sports wagering in May, the pace of interest in the sports betting industry and VSiN's role in it as a media company have accelerated beyond our wildest dreams."
So please hold all zappers.
Vegas Stats and Info to Chicago TV … dead ahead.
THE CURVING PITCH of the American women will end with their World Cup championship match vs. the Netherlands on Sunday (Fox-32, coverage begins at 9 a.m.)
Generally good, sometimes stony, Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan and team have provided textured, energizing soccer drama to fill midyear screens.
Television ratings have been solid throughout, peaking with a U.S. audience of more than 7 million for the 2-1 semifinal win over England.
Because of the unfriendly TV time difference with host France, numbers for Sunday's finale are not expected to come near the record 25.4 million who watched the U.S. beat Japan 5-2 for the 2015 title.
That game was played in prime-time and held in Vancouver.
One immediate residual: ESPN will be carrying 14 games of the second half of the National Women's Soccer League season.
The series will begin with Morgan, Marta and the Orlando Pride vs. Lindsey Horan and the Portland Thorns Sunday, July 14, on ESPNEWS.
A FINAL REMINDER ABOUT "The Life and Times of Chet Coppock" - a panel discussion sponsored by the Arlington Heights Memorial Library - at Eddie's Lounge, 10 E. Northwest Highway in Arlington Heights Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.
Tap owner Mike Taffe has promised to accommodate all who have made complimentary reservations through Neal Parker and staff at AHML.org.
The panel will include Dan Jiggetts, Cheryl Raye-Stout of WBEZ-FM (91.5) - the original producer of "Coppock on Sports" - and your humble reporter.
STREET-BEATIN': Visions of a Dodgers-Twins World Series will not go away, which immediately bring back 1965 memories of Sandy Koufax, Zoilo Versalles and "My Mother the Car." More ribald boomers such as Bruce Wolf might even remember Princess phones. … The star of young Danny Parkins continues to rise at Entercom / CBS Sports and elsewhere. He could be in for a very engaged autumn. … What a difference two weeks makes: Cubs-Sox 1.0 blew in with great baseball theater while this weekend's Crosstown Basic is more about two teams passing in the vertical. (Although it opened at 1-9 that Steve Stone, at some point, would yet again explain how James McCann sacrifices power for contact by choking up on the bat whenever he has two strikes.) … Lesley Visser minced only network executives when she told Sports Broadcast Journal that sideline reporters have "kind of become a metaphor for 'female dumping ground.' " … The Knicks are 10-1 favorites to win the NBA Summer League (ESPN channels and NBA TV through July 14). That's like hearing astronaut Michael Collins was 10-1 to jump down from the Apollo 11 command module and be the first man on the moon. … Also on the Summer League, DePaul has two in with Billy Garrett Jr. rostered by the Suns and Max Strus playing for the Celtics. … The downtown headline, "When you've lost David Kaplan, you've lost Cubs Nation" prompted gale-force spit takes, absolutely Mach Fujita. … Grand that the Bears will be giving away legacy bobbleheads at all home games this season, but where's Jack Brickhouse and Irv Kupcinet? As the amazing Kup once told a bearded colleague, " 'Da games we called were good games, sometimes great games, just not necessarily 'da game on 'da field.' " … Ray Clay - who stands as 1 or 1A alongside Little Tommy Edwards as the greatest P.A. announcer in Bulls history - has happily handed the big boom to Greg Gardner for Chicago Sky home games. Clay will continue as the courtside voice of UIC men's basketball for coach Steve McClain and the Flames next season. … And cabana sage Mike Miller, on the wriggling fortunes of the Madd-Theo blue, deadpanned: "Are the Cubs playing to get into the NBA draft lottery?"
• Jim O'Donnell's Sports & Media column appears Thursday and Sunday. Reach him at jimodonnelldh@yahoo.com.