A longtime ESPN producer who lost her brother to gambling addiction resigned from the network after 24 years due to its pivot into sports betting. Nicole Noren—winner of multiple Emmy, Murrow, and Peabody awards—told the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) this week that ESPN’s business priorities have overtaken its journalistic responsibilities.

The breaking point, Noren said, was the sports network’s decision to license its name to the ESPN Bet app in 2023. “I was out,” Noren told CJR. “I’m not going to work for a gambling company and have blood on my hands.”

Noren’s objections were personal. She said gambling addiction devastated her grandfather, father, and brother, describing a childhood spent in sportsbooks rather than typical family spaces.

“I grew up in a sportsbook… dragged to Las Vegas in the ’80s and hanging out in the Hilton and Caesars sportsbooks,” she said. Her brother ultimately died homeless on a downtown Las Vegas sidewalk at age 36.

“Addiction dictated every part of our life,” she said.

For years, ESPN kept sports gambling at arm’s length, even after the Supreme Court struck down the federal ban in 2018. But Noren said the network’s internal culture shifted as leadership changed and betting partnerships became more lucrative.

She said she noticed that stories examining gambling addiction or scrutinizing betting companies were no longer welcome. “None of those stories was greenlit,” she said, adding that one project meant to hold gambling operators accountable was “neutered” before airing.

The launch of ESPN Bet—which later collapsed and was replaced by a DraftKings partnership—convinced Noren that the network had crossed a line. She said ESPN’s editorial independence eroded as business interests grew, describing executives as “putting their heads in the sand” about addiction risks.

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