They say that when you’re a reporter, you never want to make the news. For WESH Channel 2 multimedia journalist Zach Maskavich, this remains a struggle in ways he certainly could not have predicted.
The Super Bowl LV takes place in Tampa on Sunday and reporters from around the country are looking for unique angles in their coverage of the big game. Since he works near Orlando, Maskavich found his niche outside Raymond James Stadium on Friday, recording some of the sounds from inside. That’s how he ended up posting a video of Jazmine Sullivan and the practice of Eric Church’s national anthem performed on his Twitterfeed, scoring two minutes and sixteen seconds.
All right, players. Here is the timer on the practice of the National Anthem. 2:16 #SuperBowl #GoBucs #ChiefsKingdom pic.twitter.com/CpJC4gHUPp
– Zach Maskavich (@ZachMaskavich) February 5, 2021
Given that the length of the anthem is a special bet for Super Bowl players each year, this is very valuable information. And in terms of this year’s anthem, over / under was up for about two minutes, depending on the odds, at the time Maskavich posted his video.
However, as soon as the video started to circulate, those numbers started to change, by ESPN. With this useful information now available, bettors have endeavored to place bets with bookmakers such as Australia’s PointsBet, which had to stop betting due to overwhelming demand. Meanwhile, Pinnacle Sports of Curaçao initially had the over / under set at 1:58, with -110 odds to bet on both sides. Within hours of posting the video, the price went up to -1,500 before they had to stop betting too. This seemed to be the case for many other international oddsmakers, as such bets are not legal in the USA
Maskavich, as you can imagine, started hearing about it from players on Twitter.
“I thought it was really funny,” Maskavich told ESPN. “Some of the responses were hilarious; some people are really crazy.
“I had the feeling that I was going to gain a little strength, leading to the Super Bowl and people enjoying side bets. But I didn’t think it was going to explode like it did. People are looking for me, wondering if Vegas paid me to do this, and all these other crazy antics. “
Ariel is one of my best friends, she knows a lot more about the gaming industry than I do. But also, if for some reason my tweet CHANGED THE BETTING LANDSCAPE … I am totally in favor https://t.co/GhCwEyfje5
– Zach Maskavich (@ZachMaskavich) February 6, 2021
Obviously, a practical race is a practical race, so that does not mean that the royal anthem will arrive at that time on Sunday. But if you’re making some friendly bets (for fun, of course) and someone who doesn’t know the video is trying to incite you with about two minutes (Demi Lovato scored a minute and 49 seconds last year), you can simply having the advantage you were looking for.
Meanwhile, as we mentioned, national (or international) attention is not entirely new to Maskavich. You can remember him thanks to an unhappy moment during a 2018 high school football game that put him (and his groin) in SportsCenter Not Top 10.
Never in my life would I have thought that @KeithOlbermann I would be narrating how I was hit in the groin on national TV. But here we are # NotTop10 pic.twitter.com/zXyDK7c6AC
– Zach Maskavich (@ZachMaskavich) October 26, 2018
We hope to see Zach go viral again around 2024/2025. We’ll keep an eye out.
[ESPN]