Former longtime PokerNews content creator Pamela Maldonado’s life has gone “full circle” after signing a contract to cover college football for ESPN, the largest sports media outlet in the world.
The sports betting analyst accepted a position with the worldwide leader in sports after having worked in the past few years with Yahoo! Sports and the VSIN sports betting network. Before that, she spent nearly seven years in the poker industry, starting out in 2012 as an intern for PokerNews before becoming our social media manager, a role she left in 2019.
Maldonado expressed her excitement for landing such a prominent role in a tweet. She explained that she moved to Las Vegas in 2012 to get into poker media, and when she left the industry, she “had no clue what was next.”
The newest member of ESPN’s college football staff credited her relationship with poker reporters such as Andrew Feldman, the former editor of ESPN poker, for her sports betting career taking off.
Maldonado, who resides in Austin and graduated from the University of Texas in 2007, was a prominent poker media member in the 2010s before leaving the industry. Her last article for PokerNews was in May 2019, a report on Daniel Negreanu tying the knot with Amanda Leatherman.
“Pamela has established herself as a respected voice in the sports betting space, and will provide great insight and depth to our overall sports betting coverage,” said Scott Clark, Vice President, Fantasy & Betting Content of ESPN in a press release. “Pamela has extensive betting experience across many sports, including football, and the timing is perfect as we gear up for the college football and NFL season.”
The press release explains the former poker content creator’s upcoming role at ESPN. She’ll become a “key addition” to ESPN’s sports betting coverage during the college football season, which kicks off later this month. Maldonado will also provide insights and betting analysis around other sports, including the NFL, primarily for ESPN.com’s betting editorial coverage.
