Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard
Link copied to clipboard

Fox 29 launching sports betting show hosted by Garry Cobb, Todd Fuhrman

Despite hosting a sports betting show, Fox 29 host Garry Cobb has little interest in gambling: "My money is too hard-earned, I’m not giving it up.”

Scott Grayson (left) and Garry Cobb rehearse ahead of the premier of “Props & Locks," a new Fox 29 show focused on sport gambling that will air Thursday nights before "Thursday Night Football."
Scott Grayson (left) and Garry Cobb rehearse ahead of the premier of “Props & Locks," a new Fox 29 show focused on sport gambling that will air Thursday nights before "Thursday Night Football."Read moreFox 29
    by Rob Tornoe
    Published 

Fox has already backed a radio station in Philly devoted in part to sports gambling. Now it’s getting behind a new local TV show.

Prior to this week’s Eagles-Packers game on Thursday Night Football, Fox 29 will debut Props and Locks, a weekly sports gambling show hosted by former Eagles linebacker Garry Cobb, Fox 29 sports anchor Scott Grayson, and FOX Bet gambling expert Todd Fuhrman. The show will air for 12 straight weeks, through the end of the current NFL season.

The new show will just run 15 minutes, which Fox 29 senior executive producer Tom Louden said would force hosts to keep their opinions tight and informative.

“We may hit five or six headlines or topics for everybody to talk about on our panel,” Louden said. "Two or three of them will be on the game that night, then we’ll obviously hit something Eagles and something league related.”

Props and Locks will be preceded by the network’s locally produced Thursday night pre-game show, Fox 29 Game Night Live, hosted by Cobb and Kristen Rodgers. So the Thursday night schedule on Fox 29 throughout football season will look like this:

  1. 7 p.m.: Fox 29 Game Night Live

  2. 7:15 p.m.: Props and Locks

  3. 7:30 p.m.: Thursday Night Football national pregame show

  4. 8:00 p.m.: Thursday Night Football

Cobb, who held rehearsals for the new show alongside Grayson last week, told the Inquirer he doesn’t bet money on football. So he’s going to leave the gambling advice to Fuhrman, and focus instead on talking about the game itself.

“I’m talking about football from my perspective from having played for 11 years,” Cobb said. “I have no interest in getting in it from a gambling standpoint, even thought it is very fascinating … My money is too hard-earned, I’m not giving it up.”

Since sports gambling was made legal in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, the amount of programming devoted to placing bets on games has exploded, both nationally and here in the Philadelphia area.

Last month, former 97.5 The Fanatic host Sean Braced launched a new Fox Sports Radio station called 102.5 The Gambler, where he hosts a gambling-focused afternoon sports show called The Daily Ticket. NBC Sports Philadelphia has experimented with studio shows and alternative broadcasts during live games featuring wagering information. And Crossing Broad’s Kyle Scott has also pivoted to offer more content geared towards sports betting.

As my colleague Andrew Maykuth reported last week, Pennsylvania bettors wagered a record $109 million on sports in August, up 84% from July, according to data from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board.

“It’s just everywhere,” Cobb said. “I can’t go anywhere without hearing fans talking about betting on a game.”