From Al Michaels to Brent Musburger, there is a long tradition of broadcasters coyly alluding to betting lines amidst staid telecasts of North American sports. The references always have been made via word play and done on the sly, so as not to upset the bedrock norms of sports, gambling, and the law.
That, of course, began to change a year ago when the Supreme Court ruling in Murphy v. NCAA permitted states to begin legalizing sports betting. Since then, every publisher has been scrambling to discern the best approach to the new billion-dollar industry materializing almost overnight.