Fox Sports’ Golden Boot

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0:54Congratulations! You made the Varsity Podcast. My name is John Miranda and I am Puck's sports correspondent and host of this pod. And today, I'm really happy to welcome Eric Shanks to the Varsity. Eric is the CEO and executive producer of Fox Sports, and he's in the middle of an amazing run with the World Cup. We're almost three weeks into a World Cup that has been a runaway success by nearly every measure, so we're going to spend a lot of time talking about the tournament. But before we get to Eric, today is Wednesday, July 1st, and here's what I'm watching. It's another week. It's another gambling scandal.

1:30This time, it's NBA players Malik Beasley and Ed Davis, who are indicted by federal prosecutors on Monday on sports gambling charges. This dates back to January 2024, when the Bucs played the Cleveland Cavaliers. A prop bet for that game had Beasley collecting three and a half rebounds. People in the know took the under. He ended up with only three rebounds, the under. It was the same story about a month later when the Bucks played the Hornets. Beasley's associates bet the under on points and the over on rebounds. He scored six points, the under, the prop bet was at 12, and he had four rebounds, the over, the prop bet was at 3.5.

2:12Now, sports betting proponents will say that the sunshine afforded by legalized sports betting makes it easier and quicker to discover Beasley's illegal activity. Even sports betting detractors will admit that it's impossible to put the toothpaste back in the tube, as it were, and make sports betting illegal. But something more really needs to be done on these prop bets, which seem to be so easy to manipulate. Betting companies love prop bets. After all, it increases engagement. But leagues should do something to put more guardrails on these types of bets. Okay, now, let's get to Fox Sports' CEO, Eric Shanks.

2:49Eric Shanks, thank you very much for joining the Varsity Podcast, especially during this busy time for you, the World Cup, which has taken over just the media. You see full stadiums. You see, like, just my social feeds are filled with things. First time the World Cup has been in the States since you've held the rights. What surprised you so far about this? uh well first of all john thanks for having me it's great to see you um and you know i i would say we knew this was going to be big um and we knew that it was going to kind of like creep up on the country it's a big country to get excited about something it takes a lot of work um but i would say you're right there have been some surprising things that probably have made this exceed expectations.

3:44I would say that, you know, every part of the company here has put everything into it, whether it's, you know, us here at Fox Sports or Fox News, the stations, Tubi, Fox One. But the thing that has probably, you know, besides the ratings, which have been tremendous, we could probably go into more about that in a minute, I would say, to me, it really has been how obsessed the rest of the world is with coming and visiting america i think it's kind of taken over all of our feeds like you said and like that has fed people into their social media and then back into wanting to watch you know why are all these people from all over the world coming to watch soccer in the united states and enjoy their time here as well do you have a favorite of those social things.

4:36Mine is either the guy in the Mexican restaurant that got the free chips or the guy, the Brit that tried his first Philly cheesesteak in Philadelphia. Yeah, there was one about, there was a guy that was eating his first biscuits and gravy, which was amazing, and it stopped him in his tracks. And then I think it was, there was a group from South Korea that was eating their first beef rib. And the beef rib was about as big as the guy. Right. And it was absolutely incredible. And then how about all the people going to Buc-ee's? They can't imagine Buc-ee's. Exactly. So in the run up to the World Cup, because the World Cup, like this is happening and it happened in Qatar and it happened in Russia and it happens every four years.

5:28What can you do as a network to sort of help to amplify this? Yeah, so I think this is the first – this is our sixth World Cup. It's the first one where I feel like we really have surrounded the tournament even before it started to every day with being always on. So, for example, by the time you publish this, we will have reached 5 billion views on social media across all of our platforms. And that's going to obliterate really the consumption of any sporting event in this country ever. So I think this always on mentality and knowing what to do for each and every platform. I also think the power of broadcast television, along with all the assets that Fox has, whether it's, you know, all sports are local, having this kind of always on local presence, having Fox News, having Tubi with their AVOD World Cup hub, and then Fox One being out there being the home of streaming for the World Cup.

6:37I think all of those parts of the engine, you know, have contributed to this, along with our great partnership at FIFA. You know, I think all of the things leading up, you know, even starting with the draw and putting that on broadcast television, you know, from Washington, D.C., starts that engine going. And now we're seeing it really kind of almost, not quite, but hit its peak. so i'm not going to say i'm surprised but i think that there were some questions when they expanded the tournament to have this first round with you know countries that you know some people have never heard of so that that are playing and you know it's you're not seeing that the the top matches happening it was a there was a big question about what these uh ratings were going to be and the and the the ratings as as you referenced already are kind of through the roof what were you expecting are they hitting your expectations are they above your expectations what were you expecting from this first round because i think we all know as a knockout stages progress what what's going to happen with the with the viewership yeah i to be honest that is probably one of the biggest surprising things to me is the expansion of the tournament means that you're adding 16 countries that just wouldn't have qualified before so they're they're they're not the the top 16 and about a week or 10 days into the tournament, I texted Gianni and I said, I'm sorry, I was apprehensive that we might have some big blowouts, but these countries in the expanded tournament have really shown up and we have had just darlings of Cape Verde and Ivory Coast come in and kind of capture the nation's attention and they're very competitive.

8:23uh and so i said that you know sorry for being apprehensive i doubted you and he just texted back and said don't ever doubt me again uh and i probably won't because this tournament has been absolutely fantastic it really is like march madness having 15 versus two and going to a draw and that's the great thing about soccer is you still get a point for a draw and it feels like a win to some of these to some of these countries that come in and play against spain and get a draw and get their first ever world cup point so it's um i would say it's been a smashing success and probably that has been one of the biggest pleasant surprises for me yeah and uh and it's dominated front pages and press clippings although like every time eric comes on this pod i always bring up his ownership of the Ojai Valley News.

9:17And I went there right before. No mention of the World Cup. You're not putting the finger on the scale there. You're talking more about the architecture or the agricultural revenue coming in this summer, projections. Well, as you know, if it doesn't happen in Ojai, we don't print it. And so two big stories going on right now in Ojai that you probably saw on the front page. So the town is captivated, not only by the World Cup, but by the shenanigans of the city council. Yeah, set those guys right, Eric. Absolutely. There is, because it's been, the World Cup has been so popular, so many people are writing about it.

9:58And I know you, you own a newspaper, you've been in production for a while, you read pretty much everything. How does it affect you? Like when you sort of read reviews, this is my entry into the Zlatan Alexei and all of the sort of criticisms around that?

10:22Yeah, I'm not obsessed with reading about it because I think you have to have the power of your conviction that you're putting the right group together. And that, you know, I would say I feel like we have put together an amazing team. We have a pretty good tradition here of our studio shows being a big part of our brand, whether it's Fox NFL Sunday, the World Series team that we put together with Derek and Poppy and Alex and Kevin, Big Noon Kickoff. getting that chemistry right is hard, right? And so when we put this group together, we think that it's a great blend throughout the day of American voices and top international stars.

11:12And a big part of what I think makes great television is that you take the sport seriously, but you don't take yourselves too seriously. And before we even started rehearsals, you know the blending different cultures together from around the world you know the one thing that you have in common is locker rooms are pretty much the same around the world there's a lot of busting chops there's a lot of one-upping each other and that's the beauty of being able to work in sports is you get to see these athletes that are at the top of their game kind of poking each other and i think that that is what we were hoping for with the world cup uh studio show with Thierry Henry and Zlatan and Lex and bringing over Rebecca Lowe.

11:56Thank you very much to Rick for letting us borrow her for the World Cup. But it's a lot of fun, right? I mean, these guys are having a ton of fun. And whether it's in the avocado room, which is our green room, or on air, it's all the same, right? And they're just having a laugh, and it's great. So we enjoy it. It seems like the country is enjoying it. it's getting a ton. Let's see, I would say that during the World Cup, I think Zlatan's reposting of the things that have happened in the studio have generated almost 360 million views. So it's definitely, you know, having the effect that we wanted it to.

12:40So you're not in there telling them, like, don't pay attention to this, keep doing what they're doing. They're just doing what they're doing because that's been the context from the very beginning oh yeah i nobody tells them to pay attention or to say any interesting thing any individual thing i think we we try to set them up to actually have fun in their own voice um whether it's latan or thierry they all have their own you know personality uh and you know the producers the other day did something really fun which was gives latan the employee of the month which we knew would kind of get a reaction out of everybody on the stage.

13:18And I thought it was particularly funny that they gave him the employee of the month, and we were only two weeks into June. So there was no shot that anybody else could be employee of the month. So I think that Zlatan may be in line for some promotions coming up later on. Senior analyst, maybe, or something like that.

13:46Alexi is somebody, Alexi Lala, somebody that has been with Fox for a while. He's a known quantity at Fox. How did you, like, go back a couple of months, how did you get Zlatan and Terry Henry? How did you identify them as people that would sort of work well on a studio show like this? Yeah, you know, first you mentioned Lex. You know, Lex has been the cornerstone of our soccer coverage, no matter what the tournament has been for as long as I can remember. And so he's the he's the the straw that stirs the drink. And he's going to be the cornerstone of our coverage for many years to come. And I think that his ability to kind of go out and be the mainstay whenever we have U.S.

14:35games out on site or then to come back in and be a part of the studio crew with Rebecca, Thierry and Zlatan has been fantastic. As far as it relates to Zlatan, I didn't really know him. uh jerry carton now had a dinner i guess a little over a year ago now and you know he works with jerry at ac milan and uh standing outside of the the the dinner at the valet line i started talking to him and we were just having a great time and jerry said you know he should work for you and so over a course of uh a lot of months uh recruited uh because he had never done television didn't want to do television. And I think that over a number of months and getting some of the other members of the Fox Sports locker room to recruit him, he finally signed on.

15:29And he has just been a tremendous teammate and brings probably the world's most unique personality into the studio to entertain America every day. And what did you, when you put him on, what did you tell him to do? What did you tell him his role was? Oh, his role was to be Zlatan. And the really amazing thing is when he called and said, look, I've decided that I'll work for you. So where should I send the offer? Like, do you have an agent? And he said, Zlatan is my agent. And so Zlatan was the agent. Zlatan is the personality. And even when he WhatsApp with you, he speaks about Zlatan in the third person, even texting, which is absolutely incredible.

16:20Like there is no there is no on air and there is no off air. There is just Zlatan. And so we've definitely played into that. And hopefully America has fallen in love with somebody that they had a lot of them had no idea existed. and to really kind of, I think, one of the things we did to help the audience get to know him earlier was that one-hour sit-down that we did with him and Tom Brady online, which has gotten incredible traction, too. So really kind of peers, one in soccer, one in American football, and putting them on the same level was, I thought, a really creative idea. I have to tell you, Eric, John O 'Ran loves that story.

17:00John O 'Ran thinks that's a great story about Zlatan. Good. We'll tell John O 'Ran next time we see him. I am a casual soccer fan. I do love the big events like the World Cup. I love the big events like the U.S. men's national team whenever they play. I don't hate these hydration breaks that all of the international players seem to hate. Two-part question. How do you view the hydration breaks, and is it something that's going to stick around? Well, first, I don't know if it's going to stick around. I would say hydration breaks are nothing new in soccer. I think it's just the consistency that FIFA was planning is probably something new to even hardcore soccer fans.

17:49So hydration breaks have been around for a long time. But FIFA had planned these. I mean, it's for a very long time. And so we've been kind of hand in glove with with how to produce, how to address them in every match. and so you know i agree with you there have been coaches that have come out and there have been pundits that have come out and there have been you know talk show hosts that have come out and said look these actually have some pretty incredible benefits right sure it is a break in the action and i think the consistency of them especially when you're playing indoors in dallas the hardcore fans um definitely view them a certain way but i think there is an argument to be made and colin Coward, I thought in a show the other day, said it really well, which is you've got players that we all want to see do well that are in their late thirties, early forties.

18:48And these breaks, you could argue have something to do with them being able to be fresh and to be able to perform on top of coaches for the first time ever being able to address strategy and game plan at certain points. And I think that also, Colin said, you could argue that these breaks and what happens right after the breaks are, could be credited with why you're seeing such high scoring. It's the highest scoring World Cup ever. And you're seeing these, you know, 16 countries that were added to the tournament be super competitive. So I know that there's a lot of naysayers out there, And I know that there's also arguments that these breaks are part of the reason why the action is so good, especially from players like Messi and Ronaldo.

19:40So, you know, you know, soccer so well. You've produced these World Cups. You knew these breaks were going to be controversial. How did you, moving in, what was your sort of strategy in terms of cruising around these breaks? Yeah, so we knew that they were going to be three minutes in length. Like that was from the beginning. And so, you know, what can you do in those three minutes? And so we decided, along with FIFA, to take a hybrid approach. So, you know, you don't jam them full of commercials. You give yourself time to go to break, show replays, make comments. Then you run a pod of breaks.

20:18And, you know, I would say at least half, if not more, of all of our pods now are double boxed so that, you know, just like we do in NASCAR, just like you do in NFL, you can still see the action that's going on on the field. And it's guys getting water, right, and pouring water on top of themselves. And so there's not a ton going on that we could actually show during that time because they've got their tablets out and their whiteboards out that we can't go in and show. So you run a pod, a lot of times double boxed, and then you have a lot of time on the backside to do editorial content as well.

20:58So we think the hybrid approach has worked well. And, you know, when you're sitting at home getting ready for the hydration break to end, it goes pretty fast. It's a pretty short break. Is there any truth to the rumor that Mark Evans, your ad sales chief, just bought a new house on Nantucket? Eric? Well, no. He had to pick out the color of his Porsche first before he gets a new house in Nantucket. So the Porsche gets, and then he drives the Porsche to Nantucket, I think, later. You have had the World Cup since, I should have looked this up, 2014. When was the first one that you did? I think it was 20.

21:412015 women's world cup in vancouver was the first tournament that we actually did yeah and so we've had from 2015 through yeah this is our sixth world cup men's and women's um of course the the the rights for the 2030 world cup which is going to be in spain morocco portugal uh are are open uh you're obviously interested uh in it because you i mean why wouldn't you be um what when does that negotiation start like take me through where you are with it and and when and how you expect that to to play out from your perspective yeah i mean um obviously it's in it's in fifa's control um and it's uniquely it's well historically it's a pretty unique process um and you know it'll kick off when they say it kicks off um you know historically uh you know you would think that it's probably sometime you know in the next six months uh six to eight months and you know they'll kick off their usual process and they'll be i think based on based on this world cup i would think that there'd be a pretty good market for it.

22:58But obviously, I think we have grown very fond of international soccer here with the Gold Cup, the Euros, Copa America, Nations League. Now that we have in CONCACAF, we just announced the extension of that great partnership. And so, yeah, I mean, based on the success of this, I think that it'll get a lot of people's attention. the um uh with regards to the the the knockout stages coming up and the finals take me through what can what can viewers expect from fox for for the for the rest of the world cup that's going to be unique to this one that's because again world cup viewers watched it in qatar watched it in russia we we know what the what the tournament's like but from fox in america what's this going to be like yeah so i think this country does something that doesn't happen anywhere else in the world that uh at least i've been around or produced television in in that when uh american studio shows go on the road we try to make it a spectacle and a big party and a lot of it did start with game day uh you know and then we've been doing big noon kickoff for five years when we go on the road with the the world series like outside of finway and having thousands of people around chanting it at a-rod um we did something with this world cup that we think nobody else in the world is doing clearly not doing it inside the the fan zone you know area inside of security where we're setting up big stages outside of these World Cup stadiums to get really large crowds.

24:46If you saw the crowd in Seattle, thousands of fans coming out and just having a great time. And then fans from all around the world singing Sweet Caroline or Country Roads. It's been absolutely fantastic. And the logistics and the production and the planning that's gone into getting that set up inside of security for the last two or three years is an effort that I really think only Fox Sports is doing. So you're going to see more of that starting July 4th. We'll be on the road in Philadelphia and then really on the road the rest of the time doing that kind of big noon kickoff vibe everywhere that we go.

25:26And so you'll have a smaller footprint here in the studio in LA and a much bigger footprint out at the biggest matches every day. And, you know, the logistics of moving people around the country has been by far the largest thing that, you know, we've ever done here. And so far, it's all worked according to plan. Hey, Eric, let me take a quick break and come back to, I want to ask about a couple of the other sports and sports rights that are out there. Is this the hydration break or what are we doing here?

26:08All right. The hydration break worked. Eric, thank you for sticking around. Yeah, no problem. Marchand is pissed. He did not want to. He had to get up and leave. He's not finishing the podcast. Marchand is still like a millennial. You know, he doesn't sit through the commercial breaks like we do. So you have a big event coming up this summer in D.C. with IndyCar. You, of course, just took a stake in IndyCar, and now it's – this is probably outside of the Indianapolis 500. This is probably like the biggest event on IndyCar's calendar. Walk us through what to expect on that one. Yeah, you're right.

26:57It's a big swing by IndyCar. Nobody's ever done anything like this in Washington, D.C. I mean, Dana White kind of set the mold. There's no better promoter. There's no better producer than Dana. And so following in his shoes, they're big ones to follow. But we're going to take a swing at it with IndyCar. Shutting down streets, shutting down Pennsylvania Avenue, Constitution, and, you know, racing around the Capitol Mall, which you know really well, is going to be a spectacle with hundreds of thousands of people that, you know, nobody's ever seen and potentially nobody will see again. So doing that to celebrate America 250 with with the president there waving the green flag and how we're going to celebrate America that day is you're right.

27:52It's a it's a spectacle that really will probably rival the 500 as far as pomp and circumstance goes. And I think it's it's it's going to be something that people are going to talk about for generations just to say that they were there. and they've already gotten over 200 ,000 ticket requests. They had to shut the requests down and start distributing the tickets and it's going to be an incredible two-day show there in Washington, D.C. And what do you have planned for it beyond just showing the race? Are you going to follow? I always love the Netflix eventizing Because every time I mention that Netflix eventizes things, I hear from broadcast executives saying, we've been eventizing for 50 years.

28:43Are you doing the big noon kickoff World Cup, sending a desk on site? How are you going to handle that at Fox? Yeah, there'll be obviously a big, big setup. up. And there'll be coverage around that area that people haven't seen before, because the executive order that the president signed allowed us to have drones in that area. So working with security to be able to cover the race with those and still adhere to all the security protocols. You know, there'll be a lot of dignitaries there. I think that the, the, the scene that we have for our desk right on pit road has the capital right in the background um there's also going to be a parade you know similar to what we have you know at thend 500 um we're going to pay tribute to every branch uh of the military you may even see multiple flyovers um during the uh during the lead up to the race um and there's we're going to pay tribute to the country you know past present and future and all those who served and then put on a great race.

30:03And, you know, this is probably going to be one of one. So whoever wins that, you know, winner's trophy is going to have one of one that they're going to cherish for a really long time. Can I ask you a quick question about the actual racing itself? Like going down, like you said, Pennsylvania, Indianapolis. I can't imagine that. I know those streets well, as you said. There can't be a lot of passing in that. Is it set up? Those streets are really wide. Right. And Bud Denker, who is really running that race, is taking out some medians to make some of the corners even more high speed. I mean, you know how big Constitution and Pennsylvania are.

30:51They're really super wide for a race. So I think there's going to be a tremendous amount of passing, you know, and you're going uphill towards the capital and then back downhill. I think I think you're going to hit speeds of like 180, 190 on the track. And I think there's going to be some fantastic racing based on how those cars are going to fan out and go three, maybe four wide up Pennsylvania Avenue. So the aspect, and the main reason I wanted to bring up IndyCar is that you own a piece of IndyCar. And this has been, since I've been covering this stuff, like ESPN launched X Games because it wanted to own the IP.

31:34and then there have been so many other things. This has been part of your strategy, you know, with UFL, you own a piece of UFL. IndyCar, you own a piece of IndyCar. Why is it important for you to own these, to further this strategy, I guess? Yeah, I would say there was a sport that, you know, I was really fond of. I still am fond of it, But I love being in business with the UFC. And we put everything into the seven years that we had with the UFC. And, you know, I think the result of that was that it was so popular that we couldn't afford the rights, you know, at the end of it. And so one of the strategies that we took was if we're going to put a lot of effort strategically and using all the levers that this company can pull into making something go from here to here to here.

32:40Is there a way for us to benefit from that investment, that sweat equity? and really it was to take some of these, to partner with some of these properties and say, look, if we're going to put everything into it, at the end, somebody might find it actually more valuable than Fox. So if somebody wants to pay a higher rights fee than Fox, if we own a third of it or 40 % of it, then we won't feel like we put everything into it and then got nothing out of it. And so, look, ideally we keep IndyCar forever, but there's another scenario where we make IndyCar so popular that somebody is going to want to rationalize way more than us.