Gambling Insider Q&A: ESPN’s David Purdum Dishes on Betting Scandals, Prediction Markets & More

Tapped into sources ranging from sportsbooks to league offices and beyond, ESPN’s sports betting reporter is consistently out front breaking stores and is a must-follow, whether you make your living in the business or are a $5 same-game parlay bettor.

Aside from watching and waiting for Terry Rozier’s lawyer to make the next move in the federal case against the NBA player, Purdum said he was able to mostly disconnect from the industry craziness over the holidays. Still, being the good-natured and amiable person he is, David took some time between Christmas and the New Year to chat with us.

During a 30-minute phone call, we discussed changes he sees coming for the gambling industry, why prediction markets won’t make as big an impact as many believe, and his endeavor as a youth soccer coach.

Gambling Insider: Looking back at the last year, it was a pretty remarkable year in the industry. What’s your biggest takeaway about the gambling industry from 2025?

Purdum: When I did end-of-year stories, the previous year looking ahead, I thought there would be pushback against the industry, and there certainly was. The industry overall – the stakeholders, including the sports leagues, athletes, and sportsbooks – didn’t do themselves any favors by getting in trouble, continuing to push the advertising, and so forth. 

A couple of bills in Congress were introduced. None of them made them it very far, but I think that’s gonna continue. So I think the industry is facing a lot of backlash, and that’s going to continue throughout this next year.

Gambling Insider: What changes do you see coming out of that?

Purdum: I think eventually there will be pullback on the advertising. I don’t know if it’ll go to the extreme that it has in in in the UK, for example, where there’s a whistle-to-whistle ban. … But I do think there will be some sort of restrictions put on sports betting advertising here in the US. 

[Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii] is looking into a prop ban, somehow restricting prop bets. That seems to be a hot-button issue, including with the NCAA, so I think we’ll see more efforts to kind of restrict the betting menus.

We already saw it in Major League Baseball [a $200 limit on bets related to a single pitch]. I could see more and more of those pullbacks on the betting menus, and I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing. The advocates for the industry will say, ‘Hey, this is the industry working. We’re detecting these anomalies, whereas if it was happening offshore or with the local bookmaker, we [wouldn’t have seen them].’  

The other side of this is the betting menus. The betting limits almost incentivize these types of corruption, so I think there is some kind of concessions that need to be made from the sports betting industry.

Gambling Insider: Do you think federal lawmakers will be successful in terms of trying to get their arms around some of these things, or is it too little, too late for the federal government to get involved?

Purdum: Eventually, yes, I do think feds will get involved and some sort of rules will be put in place at the federal level. When that happens, I don’t know. From what I’m told, this bill from the Hawaii senator that’s supposed to be introduced in 2026 has support. They’re not a lot of details about it yet, but they have spoken to multiple professional sports leagues and are looking into it. 

Is that the one that finally gets [passed]? It’s so hard, it doesn’t feel like the government can get much done any time. Is it going to be the one thing they get done in sports betting? I don’t know, but eventually, I think with the rise of prediction markets and the continued scandals in the leagues, there is going to be enough will from the federal government to get involved. I just don’t know when that’s gonna be.

Also read: Gambling industry insiders offer predictions for 2026

Gambling Insider: Some of what we’re talking about you saw coming. You wrote about it at the end of the last year, in terms of some of these changes and the pushback on the industry. But what story did you find yourself covering last year that you didn’t see coming or that really surprised you?

Purdum: The Guardians thing. I remember that was right before the Fourth of July when we started hearing that. First, it was Luis Ortiz, the Guardians pitcher that got suspended. We heard that an alert had gone out from a sportsbook integrity service. They had been alerted that a sportsbook flagged some crazy bets on the first pitch from Luis Ortiz to be a ball.

When I first heard it, I was like, “No way. There’s not a way to get enough money down on a bet like that to make it worthwhile for somebody trying to fix it.” But we learned more about it, and there was.

People were getting thousands of dollars down on that type of wager, which is just absurd to me. Why are we allowing people to bet that much on something that is obviously very easily manipulated? I was stunned.

I was stunned that a Major League Baseball pitcher who makes a decent salary [$782,600 for the 2025 season] would get involved in something like that, and I was just stunned that there was a mechanism that would make it worthwhile for somebody to try to compromise that. So that was my most surprising story for sure.

Gambling Insider: Some of the people I’ve talked to in the industry about these scandals, their hope and expectation is that these athletes, coaches, whoever has access to inside information, would learn from these things and realize that they’re going to get caught if there’s like an abnormal amount of money bet on these [prop] markets. The hope is that they’ll learn from these situations and eventually these scandals will kind of subside. Do you see it that way?

Purdum: I definitely think there’s a deterrence factor in there to see this happening, to see people lose their careers. I definitely think that is a good deterrent. 

Did we have to ever take that amount of money on those type of bets to where this happened in the first place? I don’t think so. 

I look back at the Jontay Porter thing that was two years ago. There was an $80,000 parlay bet on Jontay Porter under assists/Jontay Porter under points/Jontay Porter under rebounds. $80,000 on that type of bet, that seemed absurd to me. Why would ever even allow that type of wager to be placed? They flagged it, didn’t pay it out, and it ended up costing the people [involved]. 

But if that type of limit is not extended on that type of wager, does that scheme ever come to fruition? Does anybody ever even try it? 

Gambling Insider: Other than the stuff we just talked about, was there another story that particularly resonated with your audience?

Purdum: Prediction markets were a hot-button topic throughout the year. Even more recently, when Kalshi filed to self-certify betting on whether a college player would enter the transfer portal, people were dumbfounded and shocked by that. 

It turned out Kalshi said, ‘Yeah, we got it self-certified, but we weren’t necessarily going to offer it.’ I don’t know what the legitimacy of that position is, or did they throw it out there as kind of a trial balloon, see that there was massive, massive backlash, and say, ‘We were never gonna really do that anyway.’? 

That and the continued aggressiveness of the prediction markets — from their social media, to the kinds of things that they’re offering on their platforms — that has been a hot-button topic for sure, something that has resonated with readers.

Gambling Insider: Does the ascent of prediction markets make it more or less likely that more states will legalize sports betting, or does it have no effect?

Purdum: Good question. It’s got to be part of the thinking, at least something else to consider from your Californias, from your Texases, from your Georgias. It has to be part of the thinking. 

So I would say that it does increase at least the incentive to legalize sports betting in those states — simply because if the reason you weren’t going to allow sports betting is for moral reasons, or protecting society for some of the ills that come from sports betting, well, sports betting is going to be happening regardless of what you do. So you can either get tax money from it, or you can watch it happen and not get any tax money from it.

So I would think that the rise of prediction markets is a small incentive to legalize sports betting.

Gambling Insider: I wonder if the DraftKings and FanDuels are now less incentivized to lobby in states like California and Texas, because they’re choosing the prediction market route and they can circumvent taxation and regulation Do you see it that way?

Purdum: No, I don’t, because the prediction market model is so less profitable than the sportsbook model. That’s proven out in the UK for a long time. 

In fact, not only is it less profitable, it’s less popular. [UK-based exchange] Betfair is far less popular and less profitable for the sportsbook operators over there. It’s shown over time that the betting public, the general public, prefers the sportsbook model over an exchange, and I think that will eventually play out here in the US.

Gambling Insider: Most people’s eyes are on California and Texas, but you live in Georgia, the third-largest state that has yet to legalize. So [how about] some local perspective? There’s been a lot of efforts there already that have failed. Do you see any optimism for legalization to occur this year or in the near future?

Purdum: I don’t see any kind of increased optimism, but it’s close. It’s been close every year to getting a little farther along the legislative process, and it’s just come up short. 

Will something be a tipping point? Potentially, and maybe it’s the prediction markets that come into play and the legislature decides that, ‘Hey, we’re, we’re gonna go ahead and do this.’ It’s been close. I always put the odds about 50/50.

They’re gonna continue to try, and I think each time, it’ll get a little bit closer and eventually the dam will break. Will that be in 2026? I don’t know, but eventually it’ll get here.

Gambling Insider: Five years from now, if we’re talking after Christmas in 2030, will sports event contracts still be available on prediction markets?

Purdum: I’m gonna say yes. I will say that there are some sort of betting exchanges that include sports. How they will be regulated, and who will run them, I don’t know. But I will say, yes, sports event contracts will still be available in an exchange model. 

I don’t think they’ll be nearly as popular as they are now. I think eventually we will follow what’s happened in the UK, the evolution that’s already been there for decades, where prediction markets are still there, betting exchanges are still there — Betfair — but they’re a niche product, not the mainstream sportsbook product.

Gambling Insider: Let’s talk about the 90% gambling loss deduction cap. Do you see that being repealed?

Purdum: … Eventually, there’s gonna be some sort of takeback on that. It just doesn’t make sense the way it is. Why would you get taxed on something you haven’t earned? It doesn’t make any sense. So yes, I will say that gets repealed. 

Gambling Insider: if you were sports betting commissioner for a day, what would be your first act? if you could press a button or sign an executive order and make one change to the industry, what would you do?

Purdum: I think that I would figure out a way to require the sportsbooks to be more aggressive and transparent in combating harassment of athletes from bettors. The industry could do more in that aspect, and I don’t know exactly what the approach would be, but I think I would form some sort of commission to address that issue.

Gambling Insider: You’ve fashioned a second career as a youth soccer coach. Tell me a little bit about that journey.

Purdum: I coached my daughter. She’s now the starting goalkeeper on the high school team.

She outgrew me, and I found that I just really enjoyed working with the kids, so I continued to coach. I was not a high-level soccer player by any means. I was a basketball player when I was younger, but I got back into playing soccer and coaching soccer. I went through the licensing process and became an academy coach here in Georgia. 

And I’ll tell you what, as you know, as a reporter, your job can be very encompassing, and you’re always thinking ‘what’s the next story’, you’re always on alert for what’s going to happen next. When I’m out there on the soccer field coaching those kids, that’s one of the only times I’m not thinking about that. I can get away from it, and it’s been a really great life balancer for me.

Gambling Insider: That’s cool, and I bet your kids are pretty impressed that their coach is a star on ESPN.

Purdum: I wouldn’t say a star, but they say, ‘I googled you, Coach, or I saw you on TV!’

One of the most memorable moments was, going back to that Guardians thing, the indictment came out on a Sunday. I was actually in the middle of a game coaching, and I put my phone on the bench and set the timer so the kids can watch how much time is left in the half and when they may or may not go back in, and all of a sudden my phone started blowing up.

[The kids start asking], ‘What’s going on, Coach? Why are you getting so many text messages?’

I couldn’t do anything at that time, but I’m very lucky that while ESPN is a very news-driven organization, they’re also very fair with your time away from work. They know that you can’t be there all the time, and so while they were calling me, ‘Hey, we need you on TV, we need you to do this [and that, I said], ‘Look, I’m in the middle of coaching a game. I’m not gonna be able to do this today until I get home much later.’ They were very OK with that, so I’m very happy about that.

Gambling Insider: You’re pretty busy breaking stories, coaching youth soccer. Do you find any time to read books, discover new music? I know you’re a big music guy. Were there any albums caught your attention this year or any new bands, or what books did you read that really stood out?

Purdum: Yes, I’m a big music guy. My favorite artist currently is Jack White, formerly of the White Stripes and Raconteurs. We actually have come to the contrarian spring break. Instead of going to the south or to the beach, we drove across the Midwest, and ended up in Omaha, Nebraska, for a Jack White concert. So that was really a memorable moment.

His [most recent] album [‘No Name’] actually came out in July of 2024. It was very good album, and I still listen to it.

I’m currently reading “Inverting the Pyramid [: The History of Soccer Tactics],” which is a classic soccer book that talks about how soccer formations kind of came to life. They changed over the years.

Gambling Insider: Give me a Super Bowl prediction [editor’s note: We spoke with Dave before the Seahawks and Broncos secured the No 1 seeds in their respective conferences].

Purdum: Seahawks, [from the NFC]. I think the AFC is just wide open. I’m not gonna go the Bills. I’ll go Broncos. Seahawks-Broncos.

Gambling Insider: Hopefully it’s a better version than when those teams played [in Super Bowl XLVIII] in New York [when the Seahawks rolled over Denver, 43-8].

Purdum: Yeah, the first play of the game was a missed snap for a safety.

Gambling Insider: I remember that well. It was a big sports betting story.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.