Sports betting services to be sold

Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2003 | 11:07 a.m.

SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

SportsLine.com Inc. will sell two gambling services as part of an agreement with Viacom Inc.'s CBS to create a new college sports website.

SportsLine.com, which is 31 percent owned by CBS, said it will sell VegasInsider.com and Las Vegas Sports Consultants. The National Collegiate Athletic Association, the governing body for U.S. college sports, had criticized CBS's association with SportsLine.com because it owned the two gambling services.

"It's been an issue that we would rather not have," CBS Sports President Sean McManus said at a press conference in New York. "It removes an added annoyance."

Viacom and CBS said they'll also back the NCAA's campaign against sports gambling with television advertising.

NCAA President Myles Brand said in a statement that he was pleased by the move "to support the NCAA's position regarding sports wagering."

Michael Levy, SportsLine.com's founder and chief executive, said the company will sell the two gambling services in the next few months. VegasInsider.com provides gambling information on the Internet, and Las Vegas Sports Consultants helps casinos set betting lines. The services accounted for 10-15 percent of SportsLine.com's annual revenue, Levy said.

According to Securities and Exchange Commission filings by SportsLine, the CBS affiliate is headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and has offices in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, San Francisco, Detroit and Las Vegas.

Alex Riethmiller, a spokesman for SportsLine.com, said the Las Vegas operation, which has 15 employees, would be sold. He declined to elaborate on the status of sales negotiations.

The SEC filings say VegasInsider.com and Las Vegas Sports Consultants have been subsidiaries of SportsLine. The filing said Las Vegas Sports Consultants, which provides handicapping information and commentary to sports books operated by MGM MIRAGE, Park Place Entertainment, Boyd Gaming and Harrah's Entertainment, was acquired by VegasInsider.com in 2000 when the company acquired the DBC Sports division of Data Broadcasting Corp., which owned all the stock in Las Vegas Sports Consultants.

As a provider of gaming information, Las Vegas Sports Consultants is overseen by the state's gaming regulators.

Under its new agreement with CBS, which owns the NCAA's Internet rights, SportsLine.com will produce and manage a website that will provide information on all NCAA sports championships, including the men's basketball tournament.

The site -- ncaasports.com -- is scheduled to debut on Saturday. It will replace finalfour.net and other previous NCAA championship sports sites.

"We are very pleased that SportsLine.com will be working with CBS Sports and the NCAA on this key Internet effort," McManus said in a statement.

Financial terms of the agreement weren't disclosed. CBS acquired the NCAA's Internet rights as part of an 11-year $6 billion contract to televise the men's college basketball tournament.

Shares of SportsLine were down 1 cent to 97 cents in Nasdaq trading at 11:52 a.m. today. Viacom shares were down 25 cents at $36.41 at 12:12 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange trading.